I think the owners of the Sponge Bob franchise are being extremely foolish to let their character be used for proselytizing kids into the homosexual lifestyle, which is what this amounts to. (Yes, I know, they call it "tolerance," which would be OK, but it goes far beyond that.)
But I agree that stirring up the issue probably will only make matters worse. Now more kids will just giggle a little differently when they see Sponge Bob.
It is the NYT and the headline writer's intention to imply that Dobson is characterizing Bob as homosexual, but I see no evidence of this. Only that Bob is about to be misused.