From Christianity Today.

Excerpt:

Apple removed Exodus International’s app after critics released a position calling the organization “hateful and bigoted.” Exodus promotes “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”

[…]Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told CNET that Apple pulled the app because “it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.”

[…]About 147,000 people have signed a petition addressed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs that stated: “Apple doesn’t allow racist or anti-Semitic apps in its app store, yet it gives the green light to an app targeting vulnerable LGBT youth with the message that their sexual orientation is a ‘sin that will make your heart sick’ and a ‘counterfeit’. This is a double standard that has the potential for devastating consequences.”

[…]Other organizations and companies have been targeted because of issues related to sexuality. Equality Matters has targeted Chick-Fil-A for being connected to other ministries. “In fact, the company has strong, deep ties to anti-gay organizations like Focus on the Family and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and its charitable division has provided more than $1.1 million to organizations that deliver anti-LGBT messages and promote egregious practices like reparative therapy that seek to ‘free’ people of being gay.”

Lady Gaga ended a deal with Target for exclusively selling a version of her new album, saying the corporation supported anti-gay rights groups.

Apple made a similar decision last year when it removed an app from the Manhattan Declaration. After a petition with about 7,000 signatures, Change.org, Apple removed it from the app store.

Applications that suggest that people might be able to leave the gay lifestyle should be banned, according to some gay activists. They don’t like traditional views of sex, and they are prepared to force their views onto others who merely disagree with them. They call that “tolerance”.

But some apps are OK for Apple and gay activists – like Grindr.

Excerpt:

Alex Cohen is on a date – sort of. He’s having Thai food in the Castro with his new friend Sean, whom he met through his iPhone, all the while texting nine other guys whom he might hook up with later.

Not that Sean is offended. Between bites of fried calamari, he’s texting a handful of other men who might become his Mr. Right for the night.

They are “grinding,” the latest verb in the gay lexicon, which refers to the new gay dating app for the iPhone called Grindr. A revolutionary way to meet gay men, Grindr has eliminated the need for “gay-dar”; it uses GPS technology to download hundreds of pictures of available men within walking distance.

Alex and Sean can click on a man’s picture to start a text conversation, send pictures and, if they so desire, make arrangements for a rendezvous. There’s a number on each man’s photo, indicating how many feet away they are at that instant.

Apple thinks that Grindr is just fine. Apple thinks that anonymous sex is just fine. But Apple doesn’t think that free speech is just fine.

If you like free speech, then don’t buy Apple products. I like free speech, so I don’t buy Apple products.

More here at the Reformed Pastor’s blog.

To learn more about reparative therapy from actual doctors who do it, check out NARTH.