Comments  10

• Anonymous 10 Dec, 05:47 PM

  I have a question:
  Are the offensive apps you listed available from the Apple Store?
  Don't think I'm supporting Apple's decision, but for the sake of honesty I must point this out--if they aren't in the Apple Store, your argument is meaningless.

• Editor's note 11 Dec, 10:32 AM

  An anonymous reader asked a good question about whether these apps are available in the Apple store. The answer is yes - each of the apps mentioned in this article were available for purchase or free download in Apples iTunes store. Thanks for the excellent question seeking clarification.

• Alessandra 11 Dec, 04:04 PM

  Click on my name for an excellent article about this in SFGate (surprisingly!)
  
  Activism, political, and legal action are the only ways to fight back.
  
  The complaints were orchestrated by a non-profit called Change.org. Apple reportedly has received approximately 7000 complaints against the Declaration and 40,000 requests for the Declaration to be made available again.
  
  Yet, it hasn't, even though the Declaration has been rewritten.
  
  Deplorable ideological censorship by a corporation.
  

• Alessandra 11 Dec, 04:12 PM

  Apple's shameful actions tie in very nicely with what homosexual activist Jonathan Rauch’s allegedly said was an ‘exaggerated narrative‘ dreamed up by conservatives. (Hah! welcome to reality). According to Rauch, conservatives are wrongly saying that:
  
  Gay rights advocates don’t just want legal equality. They want to brand anyone who disagrees with them, on marriage or anything else, as the equivalent of a modern-day segregationist. If you think homosexuality is immoral or changeable, they want to send you to be reeducated, take away your license to practice counseling, or kick your evangelical student group off campus. If you object to facilitating same-sex weddings or placing adoptees with same-sex couples, they’ll slap you with a fine for discrimination, take away your nonprofit status, or force you to choose between your job and your conscience. If you so much as disagree with them, they call you a bigot and a hater.
  
  They won’t stop until they stigmatize your core religious teachings as bigoted, ban your religious practices as discriminatory, and drive millions of religious Americans right out of the public square. But their target is broader than just religion. Their policy is one of zero tolerance for those who disagree with them, and they will use the law to enforce it.
  
  At bottom, they are not interested in sharing the country. They want to wipe us out.
  ==============
  
  See, that’s why Apple pulled the Manhattan Declaration app, because conservatives are "delusional" about liberals engaging in oppressive actions to destroy our most important rights: freedom of conscience, religion, and speech.
  
  This is not about not offending a group of people, it's about shoving homosexuality as normal and unproblematic to the rest of society, without the right to debate or alternative viewpoints.
  
  Since they don't have a leg to stand on, morally and intellectually-speaking, censorship is the only measure homosexuality zealots have left.
  
  And of course, these same people will never complain about pornography, strip clubs, or an alcoholic culture. These are all harmful lifestyles, but which are completely compatible with homosexuality and a destructive liberal paradigm for society.
  

• Christine Kooi 13 Dec, 10:36 AM

  This strikes me as more of an instance of the free market at work than censorship. If enough customers want the Manhattan Declaration app to return, Apple will no doubt be happy to oblige.

• Bryan 13 Dec, 10:40 AM

  I personally am not a signator of the Manhattan Declaration, and as a liberal Christian, I find much in it disagreeable. Having said that, I will send a letter to Apple asking them to reinstate the Manhattan Declaration app, because I believe that silencing voices with which I disagree is contrary to what our nation is about and is not something that Jesus would have me do. Thanks for lifting this up.

• Christine Kooi 13 Dec, 01:18 PM

  I find it more than a little appalling that right-wing Christians such as Chuck Colson cry "persecution" over something as frivolous as an iPhone app. Please see the front-page article in today's (12/13/10) New York times for an account of actual persecution, that of Iraqi Christians under the (alas) U.S.-installed current regime.
  
  We American Christians tend to forget how extraordinarily privileged we are.

• Deborah Milam Berkley 13 Dec, 05:53 PM

  Of course it's not anywhere near as bad as the persecution Christians are experiencing in Iraq or places like North Korea or India. But it is a symptom of the eroding of free speech in this country, and the beginning of the denial of it to a certain "large group of people", namely, conservative Christians. That's why it has to be responded to. Any rights which are not watched out for are soon lost.
  
  If it were an isolated incident it would be frivolous. Unfortunately, it's not.

• Christine Kooi 14 Dec, 03:22 PM

  It's not anywhere near as bad because it's not persecution, it's a business decision by a corporation. Conservative Christian customers have every right to pressure Apple to change its decision in the same way the other side did. They have the right to protest and boycott Apple if they so choose. All conservative Christian customers have to do is out-organize and out-petition their ideological opponents. And Apple may well restore the app if it decides that is in its best financial interest to do so. This is question of commerce, not speech. In the end Apple will probably come up with a compromise that satisfies customers on both sides of the debate, or at least that affords it the maximum number of customers.
  
  If it had been a government authority telling Apple to remove the app, then this would indeed be a case of censorship and of persecution. No one's freedom is being abrogated here; there no right to an iPhone app.
  
  If anything, the dirty tricks Mr. Colson perpetrated during his time as Special Counsel to President Nixon were far more damaging to American liberty than a corporation's decision about a cell-phone application. Yes, he has converted and repented, but please, let us all exercise a better sense of proportion about what actually constitutes a threat to our rights.

• Sarah 20 Dec, 01:13 PM

  What an utter waste of time. Really? Banning iPhone apps and burning books. What a legacy. And Alessandra's assertions that those who would oppose the discrimination and bigotry against our gay brothers and sisters amounts to a holocaust of conservative Christians is exemplary of why Christian denominations are losing members and money at an astounding rate. How embarrassing. Will we always be on the wrong side of history?