∞ Organizers of 'anti-gay' iPhone app want it back on App Store

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The people behind the Manhattan Declaration iPhone app — recently called anti-gay by critics — faxed a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs urging him to reinstate the app to the App Store.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]“That Apple would deem the Manhattan Declaration as ‘offensive’ is alarming and distressing,” the group said in an online petition. “Some who are ‘offended’ by the Manhattan Declaration can only be offended by the positions the Manhattan Declaration takes — positions based on biblical Christianity and affirmed by nearly half a million Christians representing dozens of denominations.”

Organizers for the Manhattan Declaration said the app “promotes the sanctity of every human life, traditional marriage, and religious freedom.”

The Manhattan Declaration currently has 922 signatures on its petition.

A petition that asked Apple to remove the app had 7,728 signatures. Apple removed the app saying that “it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.”

CNET describes the Manhattan Declaration as “a movement launched last year by a number of Christian leaders espousing their condemnation of both gay marriage and abortion rights.”

The Manhattan Declaration said in its petition that it doesn’t promote hate or homophobia. “It is not anti-gay. Rather, it proclaims that all human beings are loved by God and are worthy of respect.”


  • Anonymous

    They give Christians a bad name. They ignore the prohibition to hate. So they’re not really Christians.

  • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com Anonymous

    Some day our descendants will look back on the laws banning same-sex marriage with the same loathing and incredulity that we have for the anti-miscegenation laws that lingered until the twentieth century.

  • gay simply doesn’t matter

    What is alarming and distressing is that bigots and homophobes feel that expressing hate and fear in the midst of ignorance, think that their behavior and voice should be allowed full sway. It has been theorized that those who are most vocally against gays are likely to be unsure of their own sexuality. Christ hung around with poor, prostitutes, gays, criminals, etc, and preached against hate at every turn.

  • http://www.newser.com/user/52007115/1/chas-m.html chas_m

    “All human beings are loved by god and worthy of respect … except those that disagree with our particular views and way of life (and skin colour, let’s be honest).”

  • Dot

    It’s just sad, really. But every disenfranchised group, such as women or people of color, have had to fight this sort of bible based thinking. The bible unfortunately can be used to support any type of ugly behavior toward other people. It was used by ministers in the South to show that God supported slavery prior to the Civil War.

  • stokessd

    This crap should stay banned. If they want to spread their mythology and bigoted views, then they are free to make a web app. Problem solv-ed

    Sheldon

  • http://www.facebook.com/scamper Scamper Robinson

    Not to get off-topic, but I truly believe that our descendants will find the bigoted positions of today just as nonsensical as our religions.

  • Gjgustav

    This issue doesn’t have to be politicized. Apple has the right to not sell what they want. It’s that simple.

  • shadow_man

    To those christians whining about censorship. Your church censors gay marriage and articles pertaining to gays and lesbians within your newspapers and church. What you’re saying is that censorship is ok when christians do it, but not ok when everyone else does it. See the hypocrisy once again? Stop pushing your views on everyone else and mind your own business.

  • rob

    apple has the right to decide what they do or don’t sell .

  • rob

    apple has the right to decide what they do or don’t sell .

  • Anonymous

    As I’ve always said, Apple’s store is private. They choose what they want they will sell.
    Don’t like it? Tough luck. Move to another platform or deal with it.

  • One who believes

    Interesting. I greatly admire Apple as a company. Their products are first rate, stylish and incredibly easy to use. I applaud them for keeping porn out of the App Store. Now, Apple has made the decision about the Manhattan Declaration.org app, for right or wrong. That’s not for me to say. I know nothing of the Manhattan Declaration.org, but I do see that most of the bigotry and intolerance I read here is not by but against Christians.

    However, this I do know: The Bible says that one day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2: 10,11, quoted from the NIV AcroBible, purchased on the App Store, by the way.)

    For those of us who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, this confession will be a sign of humble gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus made at the cross. And for those too proud, too selfish or too sophisticated to accept the simple gift of salvation through Jesus, it will be a forced submission and compelled confession before judgement is carried out.

    Jesus’ gift of salvation is the only thing that will allow anyone to stand before our holy God. No matter what our sin is, because God is holy, he cannot tolerate it. But because Jesus paid the price for our sins, through Jesus, God will look upon us as sinless, as Jesus himself was sinless.

    God’s truth is real, judgement will be real and not believing it, ignoring it or dismissing it as fantasy or myth does not make it any less true.

  • Anonymous

    Aside from the detail that Apple has all rights to reject whatever they wish, this app had no actual purpose. It was basically text, which could be put on a website

    Apple is known for being very open to the LGBT population, even extending employees benefits to same sex partners. So if it was a political decision, guess their politics