Apple now calls Christian belief "objectionable and potentially harmful"

It’s a process of systematic marginalization of Christian belief, and it doesn’t stop unless people speak up and say its wrong.

If that's truly the case then why, over the past few years, has Apple approved over 1,000 Bible-related apps? Why have they approved over 1,000 Christian-related apps?

Do you want to do business with a corporation that systematically abuses its employees? That’s unchristian too, isn’t it? Or are you saying that no company could ever do anything that would make you uncomfortable with them?

Are you typing this on a computer? Chances are it was either assembled in, or contains components made in a Chinese factory under conditions that a lot of us would consider just barely above slave labor, made by people that are not Christians. The internet runs on machines and components built under such conditions.

If we are going to go down that road, then the only truly ethical and Christian thing would be to stop using the internet and stop using computers. Is anybody here prepared to do that? No, of course not.

Heck, if we went down that road, we might as well stop buying all Chinese-made goods, and tell Wal-Mart to take a hike.

How does Apple find harm in a short statement affirming a few basic Christian values, yet finds no harm in an entire Bible that says the same thing, or hundreds of perhaps more devotional Christian apps?

On my iPhone and iPad are four Bible study apps and I think six translations.

I'm not familiar with the app in question, but to intimate that Apple blocks Christian material from its App Store is plain false.

There are indeed Qu'ran apps, and Torah apps, and I've seen other religions represented too. But I am unaware of (for example) an app which spotlights all the kill-the-Jews stuff from the Qu'ran for an anti-Semitic audience. I'd trust Apple not to approve such a thing. I'd disagree with drawing a parallel to the Manhattan Declaration (which I have read) but would imagine some uninformed folks might.

I'm not familiar with the app in question, but to intimate that Apple blocks Christian material from its App Store is plain false.
No its not plain false. You should do your homework before taking sides in this dispute. Apparently, the Manhattan app was singled out by a contingent of pro-gay marriage advocates accusing the app of fostering homophobia and hate. See here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2654218/posts

The fact that there are many other apps with Christian content only proves Apple is inconsistent in applying its standards. The Bible is the undisputed basis for everything in the Manhattan Declaration, and therefore as a matter of equal treatment under Apple policy all Bible apps should be banned. Otherwise, there is no rational basis for the Manhattan ban. None.

Um, forgot to run "Preview." For clarity, here's what I meant:

I'm not familiar with the app in question, but to intimate that Apple blocks Christian material from its App Store is plain false.

No its not plain false. You should do your homework before taking sides in this dispute. Apparently, the Manhattan app was singled out by a contingent of pro-gay marriage advocates accusing the app of fostering homophobia and hate. See here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2654218/posts

The fact that there are many other apps with Christian content only proves Apple is inconsistent in applying its standards. The Bible is the undisputed basis for everything in the Manhattan Declaration, and therefore as a matter of equal treatment under Apple policy all Bible apps should be banned. Otherwise, there is no rational basis for the Manhattan ban. None.

There is further information demonstrating this is definitely part of the marginalization war. See here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2654218/posts

The fact they singled out the Manhattan app only means they see it as either a bigger threat or an easier target than the Bible as a whole, or apps that are more devotional than political. You’re sharp with the iPhone apps library. Can you point to any other “Bible app” that directly calls on modern Christians and other people of faith to resist the left’s push for gay normalization? I wait with bated breath ....

So “Crony” just means friend? No innuendo of invidious cronyism lurking in the background? Really? So Hallmark should put out greeting card saying “Thank you for being my Best Crony Forever?” Um, that no work, FRiend (or should I say CRony?)

If you seriously believe that a dictionary can explore the full range of linguistic nuances in a politically charged word like “cronyism,” then perhaps we should draw this conversation to a close, because we are definitely not working from the same page.

BTW, I do use dictionaries. I love dictionaries, and I’ve been using encyclopedias since I was about three. But dictionaries are not holy writ. You are aware, are you not, that the dictionary is not the originator of definitions, but merely an effort, and an imperfect one, to record common usage. I can understand that not everyone would share an understanding of the impact of political cronyism as inherently oppressive, as a means that tyrannical regimes routinely employ to control and marginalize opposition voices, but that does not mean that no such connotation exists for any given context. It does, and in my circle, and in places beyond my circle, the use of cronyism to depict a key behavior of oppressive regimes would not raise any eyebrows.

I am sorry, however, that it so distracted you that we could no longer carry forward with the heart of the conversation, which was that Apple is indeed an ideological friend/crony of the broader leftist insurgency, and as such it has an interest in silencing those who are clearly in conflict with the narrative of the left, especially when pressured to do so by a vocal minority.

However, I suspect you will find a way to keep us on your merry-go-round of trivial pursuits, and I don’t have time for that, so I’m bowing out. You may have the last word if you wish.

Been nice chatting with you.

Peace,

SR

If you seriously believe that a dictionary can explore the full range of linguistic nuances in a politically charged word like “cronyism,” then perhaps we should draw this conversation to a close, because we are definitely not working from the same page.

If you want nuance, you might want to try writing poetry. If you want to engage in a well-reasoned argument, then use the well-received meanings of words. And leave the logical fallacies aside because they don't make for a credible argument.

I am sorry, however, that it so distracted you that we could no longer carry forward with the heart of the conversation, which was that Apple is indeed an ideological friend/crony of the broader leftist insurgency, and as such it has an interest in silencing those who are clearly in conflict with the narrative of the left, especially when pressured to do so by a vocal minority.

I disagree with your premise that Apple is some kind of ideological political entity of the left. All of have done is engage in one logical fallacy after the other. Apple is a computer company. They sell computers.

However, I suspect you will find a way to keep us on your merry-go-round of trivial pursuits, and I don’t have time for that, so I’m bowing out. You may have the last word if you wish.

Very well, good bye.

The fact they singled out the Manhattan app only means they see it as either a bigger threat or an easier target than the Bible as a whole, or apps that are more devotional than political.

Or, you know, it could just mean that it failed the process in some manner, which dozens of apps fail every single week.

This is Apple under Steve Jobs. If they had something against Christian-related Apps, they would just purge them or stop accepting them in the App Store. Apple doesn't mess around and draw this kind of stuff out.

You’re sharp with the iPhone apps library.

There is nothing sharp about it - go look at AppShopper.com and do a search on 'Christian' or 'Bible' and you'll see. Unfortunately AppShopper limits the results to the first 1,000 apps so I'm not sure how many there actually are of either. Using some Google tools, it looks like there are 5,000 plus in regards to 'Bible' which wouldn't surprise me, since a lot of developers are just taking free texts of the Bibles and slapping them within a framework and throwing them up on the App Store.

Can you point to any other “Bible app” that directly calls on modern Christians and other people of faith to resist the left’s push for gay normalization? I wait with bated breath

I'm sure you are a nice guy, but I'm not going to waste my time sorting through thousands of apps just to find one that meets your needs. I have a half a dozen or so Bible and Christian-related apps, but they are for studying the Bible. If I want to talk to people or read about resisting gay normalization, I'll hop on FR. FR displays really well on Safari on my iPhone, and I'm glad that Jim Robinson has kept such a streamlined format for FR. I don't see a point in such an app because the content of said app would be constantly changing every day, and you're better off browsing FR.

If you think that Apple is anti-Christian, then great, but as I said, if you go down that road of not using products because they are made by companies you disagree with, then you might as well stop using computers in general, because at some point either the computers or their components that you come into contact with are assembled by Godless atheists, and some of the money you pay for computers or their components end up in the pockets or governments of said Godless atheists.

I'm not trying to trivialize your views either, it's just that if you go down the road of avoiding products from one company because you don't think they are Christian enough, then you might as well stop using all computers as well as the internet. You'd have to go back to the 1980s to find a computer that was completely assembled in the US with US-made components, and it still wouldn't be 100% Christian-made and Christian-supported.

Don't even get me started on software. You won't find an OS or browser that is programmed by 100% Christians here in the US. Plenty of atheists, Indians, Chinese, and others contribute to development of any major software project these days.

lol. I think we’re more on the same page than you know. I have two careers, one legal, one software-related, so I know whereof you speak. I am not asking for a perfect world, only one in which Christians do not have go to the back of the data bus.

As for boycotts, I won’t ask you to do this, but if you were to look through all my posts in this thread, you’d notice I’m not actually advocating a boycott per se. Nor am I ruling it out. The fact is, I’m skeptical of whether they’re effective, and I’d like to find some alternate route for solving the problem, and I said as much in my very first post.

As for why the app was rejected, we don’t have to guess why. Apple told the Manhattan people directly. It’s not because the app failed in some technical sense. It is because Apple regarded the Manhattan Declaration, its textual content, not the software, as violating its policy regarding threatening or being dangerous to a segment of the population. I’m sure you’re a nice person too, but please avoid the temptation to rationalize Apple’s misbehavior. It was a political decision, not a technical one, and misbehavior it truly is.