The issue existed before I put in the Help Me check. Based on your suggestion I returned that output of $line->source_str into a scalar and tested everything from there: 
$tmp = $line->source_str;
if ($tmp =~ /^\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}/) {
  push @sources, $tmp;
} else { 
  # print "Help Me\t" . $line->source_str . "\n";
  my @sources = $configs{$fw}->obj($tmp);
}

[download]

With these changes in my unsanitized script, I got the same results.

Edit:

I re-read your post. When I don't use my @sources = I seem to get the entire firewall object (i.e. the object referenced in $configs{$fw}), rather than the array of the address that should be held in $configs{$fw}->obj($tmp). That's why I put the my in in the first place. Is there a better way to deal with that issue?

In reply to Re^2: Objectionable reference by vectorvillain
in thread Objectionable reference by vectorvillain

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