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Apple's App Store Accepts 'Gay Cure' App
parallel_prankster writes "Apple is under fire for approving a controversial app created by a religious organization — Exodus International. The app seeks to help gay individuals become heterosexual. It received a '4' rating from Apple, which indicates the company considered the app to contain 'no objectionable material.' The new smartphone app was released last week and is now available through iTunes. Exodus International claims to be 'the world's largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality.' A petition has been launched by Truth Wins Out, which describes itself as a non-profit organisation that fights anti-gay religious extremism on the change.org website, asking Steve Jobs to intervene to remove the app."
How nice for them.
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Apple accepts this app and they're attacked for being anti-gay, supporting homophobia, etc... If Apple rejects this app, they'll be attacked for infringing on free speech, supporting a particular political agenda, etc... Either way, you're pissing customers off.
But all I feel is schadenfreude. They got themselves into this mess by imposing editorial control over the iPhone in the first place. They made their bed, now they get to lie in it.
"Stop using Apple products."
So... an app designed to turn black people white and de-black-ify their speech and appearance would just be good natured fun too? Just curious.
Homosexuality is not a choice and is not a disease. It can no more be 'cured' than heterosexuality, or race, or eye color (you can put in colored contacts -- just like you can go into the closet -- but it doesn't change the underlying reality of your eye color -- or sexuality).
The app is ignorant and bigoted and offensive, as well as pushing an agenda based on hatered and lies. That honestly sounds like 'good natured fun' to you? Really?
I agree with you that the app is absurd. But I don't find it particularly hilarious, especially knowing the number of people damaged and even driven to suicide by anti-gay "ex-gay" programs. There's a real human cost here, and I just can't laugh at that.
It was wrong to censor the Mark Fiore app, it is wrong to deny porn apps, but since that's the path Apple have chosen to take, I'd also expect them to censor an app which implies someone's sexuality is a thing which can or should be 'cured'.
Apple should be supporting free speech, and if that were the case I would say that while I find the opinions of the app developer extremely unpleasant, I support their right to speak. But Apple aren't supporting free speech in general - if the conservative groups get censorship of content they find offensive, then the gay right groups damn well deserve the same treatment. By far the preferable option is to defend that which I despise just as strongly as that which I support, but the horse already bolted there.
Yep:
Atheist Pocket Debater:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/atheist-pocket-debater/id356411065?mt=8
BibleThumper:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/biblethumper/id334558214?mt=
I guess her username " Gaygirlie" wasn't a big enough clue?
Required reading for internet skeptics
Sometimes there's a fine line between "bashing" and "detracting" but it's there. An app that encourages gay people to not be gay is hardly bashing, even if you don't approve of the underlying assumptions.
You mean an app based on the idea that homosexuality is immoral, and that such people need to be "fixed" is not gay bashing??
I'll also quote the summary prior to my response:
What you and Truth Wins Out seem to desire is censorship. I really don't understand that, at all.
It's really simple. If a homosexual person does not feel that homosexuality is wrong and does not view it as a problem that needs to be fixed, his or her option is ridiculously easy and requires zero effort: don't purchase/download this app.
If a homosexual person does believe, for religious reasons, that homosexuality is wrong, why would you stop them from downloading this app by having it censored and removed from the App Store? Is this not a personal decision for that person to make? Do they not have the right to practice the religion of their choice? Or must they obtain your approval first?
How does the presence of this app prevent someone from living the lifestyle of their choice? Simple answer: it doesn't. The effort to censor this app is far worse than anything the censors would find wrong with it. It's also an insult to the homosexual people you purport to protect. You're basically suggesting that their sexual orientation is so flimsy and non-genuine that it would be threatened by the mere option of downloading this app.
Sadly, to many people "freedom" means "the freedom to do what I would approve of". I reject this notion. So long as we are talking about consenting adults, I believe people should be free to do whatever they like. It doesn't matter whether I would do the same, whether I approve of the practice, whether I endorse and support it. Anything else is just a thinly-veiled desire to control other people and force them to be like yourself. What a cowardly and pathetic desire.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
If you're going to quote Romans at least put it in context. Paul says that the wages of sin is death. In other words, no one who has sinned can ever be worthy of a perfectly just god. That's the entire reason for sacrificial atonement in the old testament. That's the entire reason Jesus was sent to earth to die, so that the law of the old testament could be fulfilled once and for all. Paul is listing out sins in those verses. Let me list a few others: lying, sloth, lust, anger. God doesn't see any of these as any worse than another. Each and every one carries a sentence of death. But Jesus was crucified as the perfect sacrifice. Perfect in life, he is the only one who doesn't deserve to die for his sins. Since he was killed as a sacrifice for us, we can be forgiven for our sins and are no longer sentenced to death. This is hardly a call to kill people who sin.
There are some other verses you should consider (oddly enough, also from Romans) "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord." Romans 12:19, NIV
If you want to bash Christianity, it's your right, but you should at least learn what mainstream Christian's believe (hint: the majority of /.ers seem to have a very poor caricature of Christianity in their heads, and seldom if ever actually know what Christians are saying or doing)
I've met a few vegetarians that thought I could be cured of liking steaks if only I tried a little harder.
The bible we have now is the result of an app developed by a startup in Rome in about 300 AD.
That startup got venture funding from Emperor Constantine's capital funds firm
Constantine funding of the Bible app was a strategic investment. It was not for profit, but for consolidation of power.
You see, religion at this time was like a bunch of little computers that were not interconnected. They each had their own autonimous power and rule.
Constantine knew that if he created a single mainframe religion, he can exert power over the people because their bunch of little computers would no longer be relevant.
Of course, slashdot was not invented at that time, therefore there was no story
Now, with our internet and bunch of interconnected little computers, the mainframe is no longer relevant. It's pieces are now found on Ebay and many ham radio flea markets.
Luv and Peace
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
Exactly, and if you have ever been around someone who was gay you would know its not a "choice" or else people wouldn't choose it to escape horseshit like this from bigots like in TFA. It would be like saying some would "choose" to be born Jewish in pre WWII Europe, or "choose" to be born black in 1920s America. What horseshit and I've seen with my own two eyes it is horseshit.
My youngest nephew (whom with his brother I consider my sons, as my sister developed a terminal illness after the second and wasn't able to raise them so I stepped up) is gay and frankly it was obvious almost from the time he could walk. His mannerisms, his voice, hell everything about him screamed "gay!" and he and his brother (which is as straight as straight can be) were raised side by side with NO differences in rearing. Nobody in my family said anything because we believe who you choose to love is YOUR business and it is OUR job to give the child a loving home, NOT to beat any one way of living into them.
Well sure enough at 14 he said he "had a big announcement" and called a family meeting where he said "I'm gay" and I nearly died laughing at the reaction,as everyone was like "aaaand?" Even my 94 year old grandmom was like "Son, that news isn't exactly shocking, heck I'm nearly blind and even I could see that!". I'll always remember the way my friend Dale, who is ex USAF and can bench press some serious weight, put it when some punk overheard me talking about the youngest (and apparently didn't know Dale's little sister is a lesbian and likewise they knew almost since birth) when the punk said "I'd beat that boy straight!" Dale said 'Really, so if me and my buddy here take you out back and beat the living shit out of you for a couple of hours we can just turn you gay? I bet after we knocked them teeth out you'd be a good little cocksucker".
And that is why TFA is total horseshit, it would be like someone expecting they could change me to where I'd look at some hairy guy the way I look at my little Cherokee princess sleeping in the bed down the hall. It ain't gonna happen, not in a million years and for all the tea in China. I'm just glad I found a wonderful woman with a wonderful old country family that only care about how you treat people and not who you love, because after my sis passed away they really went above and beyond to make my boys feel like family.
Of course I'll never forget what my princess said after I took them to meet the boys and told her afterward the youngest was gay to see what her reaction would be and whether we had a future (because if it came down to a girl or the boys the girl would have to go, I don't abandon family) and she said "Hon, my glasses aren't THAT thick, and it doesn't change the fact he is a sweetie and my daughter (who loves having someone who has taste and loves shopping like she does) just adores him, does it?"
Instead of trying to make everyone fit into your myopic world view, why not just treat them like people? And if it is family then you should damned well treat them like family and love and stick up for them instead of being a horse's ass like the group from TFA. If your God is so petty and spiteful that they would condemn a decent person to some eternal suffering because of who they love and nothing else? Well that isn't a God I want anything to do with, just keep him to yourself, thanks.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
(This is in no way an ad hominem.)
Even if it were , it's irrelevant. A person (and that includes faux persons like corporations) has no more right to discriminate against you because of your choice of bedmate(s) as they do because of your choice of cheese, or beer.
Whether or not sexuality is choice is utterly irrelevant to anything. It has no meaningful impact on someone's ability to live their life, unless their purpose is discriminatory to start with.