Apple's App Store Accepts 'Gay Cure' App 794
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."
Re:No objectionable material? (Score:5, Informative)
Yep:
Atheist Pocket Debater:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/atheist-pocket-debater/id356411065?mt=8 [apple.com]
BibleThumper:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/biblethumper/id334558214?mt= [apple.com]
Re:There really is an app for everything :P (Score:5, Informative)
From the website [exodusinternational.org] it just seems like an app that shows the organization's events and explains their points of view. You may not like their points of view but it's pretty harmless. And given the rating it received it's highly unlikely it discusses sexuality at all.
Re:The beginning of the end? (Score:3, Informative)
OR you could read RTFA and find out this has happened before :
"However, when faced with a similar issue last November, after an app was created around the Manhattan Declaration which is hostile to gay marriage, Apple came down on the side of gay rights and removed the app."
OR you could have a look at the website [exodusinternational.org] and see that the app looks like pretty much just an app-version of their website, with a calendar and twitter feed and so on ... real scary stuff (!)
Nah, let's just all stay ill-informed proceed with the hysterics.
Re:Oh come on. (Score:2, Informative)
There are genetic predispositions for violence, alcoholism and all sorts of destructive behavior. Just because someone is genetically predisposed to act a certain way doesn't automatically make that behavior "normal" and ok. Religions have been in the business of persuading (or coercing) people to regulate their behavior for thousands of years, for better or for worse. I don't have enough information to judge this app in particular, but as a general rule it's certainly the right of religious institutions (or other well-meaning institutions in general) to help those who desire to take control over their impulses. You wouldn't call a dieting app bigoted because it suggests that there's something "wrong" with fat people (many times obesity is just a genetic condition, right?)
Re:There really is an app for everything :P (Score:2, Informative)
the Bible also has nothing against lesbians, only gay males...
Paul disagrees in Romans:
1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature : 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 1:30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection , implacable, unmerciful: 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death , not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Religion is evil.
Re:There really is an app for everything :P (Score:4, Informative)
So, there's no need for such an app, since on all these iDevices, people can get that info right from their website? In addition, regardless of it being an app that just does that, would YOU want to support an organization/cult that has harmed so many people? Dig deep and research them. I for one, regardless of what their app does, would be vehemently against doing anything supportive.
Correct, I've since downloaded the app and it's just a front-end to their website, all it does is download the same pages and display them in the app. It's made with a lame automatic app creation tool [methodapps.com] to make cookie cutter apps. Shouldn't be in the AppStore in the first place. I guess they were counting on the Streisand Effect from some cheap publicity.
I don't support anything about this group. I once read an article [alternet.org] about a guy that went under cover in one of those "gay cure" places they have and it seriously disturbed me. That said everybody has rights, even bigots. It's up to us sane ones to make sure there are rules that protect everyone, not to join the patients in the asylum.
So says the all-knowing oracle (Score:5, Informative)
"You don't know any 'ex-gays' either. Because there is no such thing. There are only gay people who have gone back in the closet."
That would be a surprise to those I know. I was wrong on one point. I thought you were going to say they weren't gay in the first place, just experimenting.
Either way, the fact that it is a choice doesn't fit into your pro-homosexual agenda, so it can't be an option.
Re:No objectionable material? (Score:4, Informative)
You should remember that just because some trait does not lend itself well to reproduction does not meant that trait is unnatural. If it was truly "unnatural" then it wouldn't occur in nature at all. However, it does occur in nature, and not only among humans.
Additionally, the human race is slowly evolving into something more than the primitive beings you seem to think we should be. Sooner or later it will become easy for gay couples to reproduce. Whether or not you consider it "natural" is of no consequence. After all, modern people enjoy so many things that are not natural and we would be loathe to suddenly have to do without them. In fact, most everything you come into contact with on a daily basis is not "natural."
Re:There really is an app for everything :P (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a vegetarian, and I can't agree with them. Humans are naturally omnivores, and we've been cooking meat over fire for several hundred thousand years (rather long than I'd have expected), and, well, cooked meat is tasty. I don't eat it because of the ethical issues with killing animals for food, but that doesn't make them stop tasting good.
Now, they might be able to cure you of disliking vegetables, if they've got any cooking skills, but that's really a separate problem.
Re:No objectionable material? (Score:4, Informative)
The network gets a 0.3 rating in its best time slot. Less than 1% of the population is watching it.
That is a far cry from a majority/40% you claim.
Vocal minorities can easily seem like the majority because they extreme and vocal. That doesn't actually make them a majority.