The United Church of Christ, the mainline protestant denomination whose TV ads welcoming all to its doors were rejected last month by NBC and CBS as “too controversial,” has entered a new arena of non-controversy. The church today issued a statement in response to Christian Right culture warrior, James Dobson’s claim that the child cartoon figure SpongeBob SquarePants is gay and somehow a moral threat.

The UCC stated “Jesus’ message of extravagant welcome extends to all, including SpongeBob Squarepants — the cartoon character that has come under fire for allegedly holding hands with a starfish.

“Absolutely, the UCC extends an unequivocal welcome to SpongeBob,” the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC’s general minister and president, said, only partly in jest. “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.”

Dobson’s attack on SpongeBob and other well-known cartoon characters as crossing “a moral line” by stressing tolerance, came in response to a national We Are Family Foundation-sponsored video that will be distributed to U.S. schools on March 11, 2005. The attack by Dr. Dobson head of Focus on the Family, child psychologist, radio broadcaster and Christian conservative political figure, was heard round the world. But the UCC is the first Christian church to stand up for SpongeBob.

The UCC calls Dobson’s accusations “laughable.”

A photo of UCC President Rev. John Thomas welcoming Mr. Squarepants in his office, is currently posted on the UCC web site.

Dobson has been joined in the attack by the Tupelo, Mississippi based American Family Association.

Thomas says that if given the opportunity, would warmly receive Barney, Big Bird, Tinky-Winky, Clifford the Big Red Dog or, for that matter, any who have experienced the Christian message as a harsh word of judgment rather than Jesus’ offering of grace.

The UCC’s good-humored message about the nature of inclusion amidst the natural diversity of human society, also pointedly criticizes the radio personality stating that it is not SpongeBob, but “Dobson who is crossing the moral line for sending the mistaken message that Christians do not value tolerance and diversity as important religious values.”

“While Dobson’s silly accusation makes headlines, it’s also one more concrete example of how religion is misused over and over to promote intolerance over inclusion,” Thomas said. “This is why we believe it is so important that the UCC speak the Gospel in an accent not often heard in our culture, because far too many experience the cross only as judgment, never as embrace.”

“Resistance to our message is formidable,” Thomas says, “because we’re cutting against the prevailing grain of a society that is afraid of the stranger, suspicious of difference and easily seduced by narrowly defined theological boundaries.”

The 1.3-million-member United Church of Christ, headquartered in Cleveland, has almost 6,000 churches in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It was formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.

It is at once refreshing and heartening for a Christian leader, and a national denomination to stand up for a warm hearted message, utterly mainstream, of love and inclusion, against the dark speculations, and meanspirited politics of James Dobson and his cohort