Conservatives are expressing shock and frustration after Apple pulled an iPhone/iPad “app” from its online store that contained basic Christian beliefs on homosexuality and abortion.
Although the move impacts only owners of iPhones and iPads, conservatives fear it is another indicator of where society is headed when it comes to critiquing core Christian values.
The app — one of more than 200,000 applications, or software programs, in the app store — included the complete text of the Manhattan Declaration, a 4,700-word statement on the culture that about 150 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox leaders signed last year and that more than 475,000 other people have since signed.
By downloading the free app, a person could easily read and sign the declaration. More than 35,000 people have signed a petition at ManhattanDeclaration.org asking Apple to reinstate it.
The application was pulled after 7,700 members of the liberal website Change.org e-mailed Apple and asked the company to remove it, which Apple did in late November. Apple has since told ABC News, “We removed the Manhattan Declaration app from the App Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.” The Change.org webpage had argued that “supporters of equal rights and the right of women to control their own bodies” must stand together.
The Manhattan Declaration, though, contains beliefs conservatives say can be heard in numerous evangelical pulpits — and even on the floors of some legislatures — throughout the year. It cites Scripture and spotlights the issues of life, marriage and religious liberty. Conservatives also note that there are dozens if not hundreds of apps containing the word “gay” in the iPhone/iPad app store, covering everything from same-sex dating to “gay travel” to “gay news.”
Apple has a history of helping liberal causes, and in 2008 donated $100,000 to opponents of California Prop 8, the constitutional amendment that protected the traditional definition of marriage. (Baptist Press)
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