Apple has come under fire for approving an “app” that offers guidance on how homosexual people can be “cured” and convert to heterosexuality. The “gay cure” application, designed to be used on Apple’s hand-held devices, was created by and named after Exodus International, a religious organisation which believes in teaching “freedom from homosexuality through prayer and practicing conversion therapy”.
The app is offered free on Apple’s iTunes online shop and was given a “4+” rating by the company, meaning it is not considered to contain objectionable content. A description of the app on the online shop said: “With over 35 years of ministry experience, Exodus is committed to encouraging, educating and equipping the Body of Christ to address the issue of homosexuality with grace and truth.”
Gay activists quickly gathered more than 37,000 signatures for an online petition persuading Apple to drop the software. The petition on the website change.org said the Christian group was using “scare tactics, misinformation, stereotypes and distortions” of gay life, and promoting “the use of so-called ‘reparative therapy’ to ‘change’ the sexual orientation of their clients, despite the fact that this form of ‘therapy’ has been rejected by every major professional medical organisation”.
Insulting the bulk of your customer base would appear to be a bad idea. OK, that was a joke…
This post is so idiotic. Apple is trying to push as many apps out the door as possible and a bad one slips through the cracks. If you guys don’t b*tch about this, then it’s all about Apple taking too long to approve an app or that they accidentally stopped a good one from going out. Give me a freaking break! Get off the hater bandwagon.
Is there an app to convert Catholics to Protestants? Or Anglicans to Catholics? Or Southern Baptists to Reformed Southern Baptists?
How about a simple app which explains the differences?
It would work like this: you meet someone. Your iPhone identifies your religion (or lack thereof) and the other person’s iPhone identifies their religion. The app tells you whether you should kill the other person or not.
#37 – you don’t really need an app for that, just a number.
Simply make a bitfield of the important parts of your religion, 0x01=Monotheistic, 0x02=messiah, 0x04=eat pork, 0x08=like gays, 0x0A=transubstiation etc
Then you could just read out a 8bit number (or 32bit if you are fussy about the difference between branches of southern baptist) and decide if you are compatible.
You could also have a bitmask for things you are prepared to accept.
The real question is how many gay protestants that want to be “cured” actually have iphones?
There is a demographic I want to see numbers on.
I’m guessing maybe 110 at most. And I may be overstating.
Cursor_
I don’t have a problem with Apple letting this on the iPhone seems like a free speach thing. The rating 4+? should be 17+ it clearly seems to contain content many would find objectionable my self included. I can only hope soon their will be an “app” that offers guidance on how get over you’re baseless fears of people who are different then you but in noway are harming you. And an “app” that offers guidance on how get out of cults like the Christian Right that created this ignorant app.
“unnatural” Alfie believing there is an all knowing god or that your (scriptures) are the infallible WORD and must be followed to the letter not only is unnatural but only shows you to be a hypocrite with almost every post. You so often go a stray in your thoughts, words and said deeds on this forum, lucky you their is no hell and your divine heros and villains are just imaginary or you would be toast.
Nice Cursor_ 😀
What no one is locking onto here is that the Apple model of approval is a disaster no matter how you look at it.
Why is this passion over what is or what is not on a devices app store only on the iPhone??? I meas seriously… There are FAR FAR FAR more Android devices out there now and insane #s added every day and yet we only see this foolish fight on the iECOsystem.
To borrow from Bobbo, silly hoomans…
Someone wants an app for conversion of anything to anything, let them. Cause here is the deal. You block the convert the gays app and you effectively block the convert the straights app…
wonders why the pc/mac photo was altered to another character for mac…
“In my opinion, the Christian Taliban should have the opportunity to sell their voodoo shit on iPhone if Steve Jobs approves.”
Well, Steve Jobs has tried to cure his pancreatic cancer by going vegan, which sounds like voodoo stuff to me as much as Christianity does.
If you don’t like the app don’t buy it. Simple. If gay people wish to continue being gay, then the app is not for them. No one is forcing them to download it. If heterosexual people don’t need the app because they are already heterosexual, then they don’t have to buy it either. If, however, a gay person who wants to be straight wants to download the app, they should have the freedom to do so.
This is such a stupid issue. If a conservative hates something, like public funding for NPR, they are told that its censorship and they are evil, but if a liberal hates something, like this app, then they want to ban it.
iPhone users have to choose to download the app and put it on their phone. It is not preloaded. This is not like Android where Sprint makes them preload a NASCAR and NFL app on it. Worse yet, the NASCAR and NFL apps can’t be removed without rooting. iPhone users don’t have preloaded garbage apps that are undeletable. An iPhone user could delete the gay cure app or not install it in the first place.
In short, if you don’t like the app, don’t put it on your iPhone. Let people who want the app put it on their own iPhones. How come it is so hard to get people to see a simple solution like this?
46 Ben that was so well put and logical. Is this your first time here?
#48. Not my first time here.
#6
“AND yes, homosexuality is “unnatural” as it does not result in propagation, the obvious goal of the design.”
Do you know what unbridled propagation is called? On a micro-level, it’s called CANCER. On a macro-level it’s called OVERPOPULATION. So the question isn’t at all whether or not gays can reproduce, the question is whether enough non-gays can reproduce. Whether or not 2% of the population is popping out crotch fruit is a rather lame way to demonstrate one’s concern over a population fast approaching 7 billion.
The earliest oracles, whom we all know had authentic mind links to the Creator of the Universe, prescribed death for the “choice” of being gay and acting on that choice, as commanded by their wonderful and loving god. I have a hunch that some of the members of Exodus International long for a return to those good old days, and secretly find the leniency of modern Christianity to be far too progressive.
Yes, there was a time when a constant barrage of rocks thrown at someone until their body lay bloody and lifeless was God’s idea of “tough love.” This form of torture was sometimes also given to Sabbath-breakers. I’ve noticed that Sabbath-breakers today seem to be emboldened by the apparent lack of consequences to their actions and the practice seems to be spreading, so perhaps we should create an iPhone App that helps them to break their unholy Sabbath-breaking habit, assuming they really desire to be free of it out of respect for the Lord.
“Sabbath-4-Me”…… Look for it soon in Apple’s online store if you truly want to be cured of your desire to perform work on holy days.
#51 Gary
iphone apps in general help people not perform work, sabbath or not. =)
I’ve got it! Approval for an app that cures heterosexuality!
Fair and balanced.
By the way, Apple approval of an app means that it conforms to the programming standards and specific platform use requirements, nothing else.
Editor, #54 is obviously SPAM.
Non-story. However, Taxed Enough’s gaydar seems to be working well.
Benji==that was an excellent post and you have been visiting less. Your progress is admirable.
#46. Valid point for stocking tomatoes and lettuce. Not so much for this scenario. Same goes for recipes apps in bomb making, artistic child porn photography.
Even so, while my choice to be Gay is up for renewal in December ( in for another year), Steve Jobs has a brand to manage as does say, Disney. In this case, he does need to choose wisely! For Android, Google may or may not go down this path. An app store is entirely different then an open Internet which is a point you have missed as an amateur.
As long as we can get an app that gets all these nutjobs that believes in an invisible sky zombie to actually use their brain I am all for that. Tooth fairy, Santa Claus, god. It’s all the same This is the 21st century. Get with it and out of the Bronze age.
Dallas==your argument is that the “cure gay” app does injury to other innocent parties who need protection from the app or the application of that app.
Please name the harm to innocents that you see.
Pedro
http://tinyurl.com/yazo73s
#61 Yes, I see a preponderance of stores telling young, impressionable gay kids they have something to “fix” by brainwashing contributes to teenage suicides – whether they’re gay or not.
Dallas–I think that is “fair.” More “tenuous” than the other two categories, but still fair. I would be accused of blathering if I delineated the types of kiddie porn I think should and should not be illegal. bomb making?–fair enough to make people go to an actually library for that info.
Gee, if we follow the kiddie porn examle far enough, the Catholic Church should be under indictment for fostering the injurious material. In theory, I’m not against that. Hateful BS no matter how much incense you burn.
put this app in the same pile as “A Note to God”
#64 I argue the Apple branded store is no place for Taliban voodoo apps harmful to young kids. Not in Apple’s better judgement.
The Internet? No problem.
Vatican.com store or their brick and mortar stores? No problem.
“Conversion Therapy” as developed by DR MENGLE ??? Electric Shocks to the genitals and injections of vomit-inducing poison ??? Some “Therapy” !!!
By the way, I recognize the PC Guy, but why is the Religious NUTTER on the right showing us what he wears under his “Ecclesiastical Robes” ???
You might cure them but they’ll be back on their knees in no time.
The gays really screwed this up. They should have gone the “accept me I’m disabled” route but instead went with “accept me I’m normal”. Guys in wheel chairs figured it out. Even alcoholics figured that one out. It must have something to do with why gays decide to be gay in the first place. See what I did there? No ADA violation in what I just did there. Unbelievable!