You gotta wonder about anyone who can feel threatened by a yellow animated sponge who talks in a funny voice

"Let me ask you, who would you rather go bowling with, SpongeBob and his friends or the Rev. James Dobson?"

That's a quote from Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants. He continued: "Probably the only common ground I have with the Rev. James Dobson is that I haven't seen the video and I bet he hasn't either."

The video, produced by the "We Are Family" Foundation, is designed to encourage tolerance and respect. Here is the text from the tolerance pledge that got James Dobson all upset:

"I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own."

Horrifying isn't it? The thought of my kids getting the message that they should treat other people with respect just terrifies me.

What kills me is Dobson's assertion that his kind of narrow-minded intolerance is Christian.

I've read the New Testament several times, studied it in theology courses and literature courses. I am wondering how Dobson could possible read the New Testament and miss the whole point about loving your neighbor. Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus say that it is okay to treat someone like shit because they are different. Whenever I hear someone like James Dobson going on and on about the message of the Bible, I always think that he's just like the loudmouth I sometimes get in class who jumps in to argue a point and several sentences into the argument, he looks like a fool, because it's clear to everyone in the room that he hasn't read the book.