A little more than percieved….Chriastian apps are being banned and they are adding moslem apps, 20 at least…Apple has made a choice and their preference is clear….
THINK MOSLEM
It is rare when a multi-national corporation chooses to make a political or religious statement that affects a large group of consumers, but recent actions by the Apple corporation in regards to the removal of an iPhone application have placed them squarely in the sights of the Christian community.
The issue isn’t necessarily whether Apple did anything wrong, but with most business scandals, it is about perception more than substance.
And perception carries just as much weight for the bottom line as reality does.
The issue stems from an iPhone application titled the Manhatten Declaration, and provided iPhone owners the chance to signup for the program.
Apple, fearing this application would be intrusive to other customers not accepting of the authors beliefs, chose on more than one occasion to decline admittance of the application into their online store.
Had Apple simply chose to refuse acceptance, and given a generic response as reason for the refusal, not much could have been done by the authors, or those who accept the declarations beliefs. Unfortunately, Apple decided to submit a bigoted response in its refusal, and this is where the outrage is starting to grow in the Christian community.
In an article from Chip Hanlon’s Red County, details of Apple’s response to the application’s rejection are given to readers.
Apple rejected the app, saying in a letter on December 22, 2010 that the app contains “references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected. We have evaluated the content of this application and consider its contents to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others.” [My emphasis]
What this means is that the teachings of the Bible itself are offensive, even dangerous.
Apple has apps for numerous Bible publishers, they even have apps for publishers of the Qur’an. They have apps for political parties and many other purveyors of ideological movements.
The Manhatten Declaration is about understanding the intent and historical roots the Founding Fathers used in creating the Constitution. Those historical records, and the writings of the founders were very strongly based on Christian principals.
Again, Apple has proven that it has not singled out one religious denomination over another, in the fact they have applications that cover a whole spectrum of religious beliefs. The problem now goes to perception, and what can be taken from their response letter.
By labeling something to do with the founding fathers, the Constitution, and biblical principals as defamatory, offense, and mean-spirited, when in fact the information in the application itself is 100% true and valid, suddenly places Apple into a position no longer as one of business provider, but rather one of gatekeeper and arbiter of what is considered profane to others.
Apple certainly has the right to reject submitted applications for any reason, but the perception of the company has taken a big blow, and as this story goes more viral across the web, the potential for a large number of consumers to join in on the boycott is growing.
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