Conservatives push Apple to restore manifesto app

WASHINGTON (RNS) Conservative Christians are biting mad that an app
for their manifesto opposing gay marriage and abortion has been plucked
from Apple's popular online store.


"With 300,000+ available apps, it is surprising to us that there
couldn't continue to be an app focused on ... views that millions of
Americans have in common," said Charles Colson, an evangelical leader
and co-drafter of the manifesto, known as the Manhattan Declaration.


The app took users to the 4,000-word statement released last year
that urges Christians to safeguard human life from conception to natural
death, and to defend traditional marriage and religious liberty.


The declaration, which vows civil disobedience when those positions
are threatened, has been signed by 478,000 Christians, according to its
drafters, including a number of prominent Catholic bishops and
evangelicals.


Apple posted the Manhattan Declaration app in its iTunes and iPhones
stores in October, saying it had "no objectionable content," according
to publicists for the manifesto.


But liberal groups criticized Apple for approving the app, which
they call "anti-gay." More than 7,700 people signed a petition asking
the company to remove it. They particularly disliked the app's quiz,
which scored users on the "correct" answers to hot-button questions
about gay marriage and abortion.


An Apple spokeswoman confirmed to CNN on Wednesday (Dec. 1) that the
company removed the app from its iTunes and iPhone stores last week. "It
violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of
people," Natalie Kerris told CNN, adding Apple had heard from "large
groups of people," who complained about the app.


Three of the Manhattan Declaration's drafters -- Colson, Princeton
University scholar Robert George, and Beeson Divinity School professor
Timothy George -- have written a public protest letter to Apple CEO
Steve Jobs.


"We hope that you will see how wrong it would be to let one side
shut down the opposing side in a debate by slandering their opponents
with prejudicial labels such as `bigot' or `homophobe,"' the letter
says.


Nearly 25,000 people have signed a petition asking Apple to restore
the app, according to the Manhattan Declaration's website.