How Apple Killed the App

The Stewardship Foundations’ credo is defined in the Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience first written in 2009. It was a popular movement among Christians of all faiths. There was even an app on iTunes so people could sign their agreement to its principles.

So here we are, ten years later, living in a society where our young people consider same-sex marriage and abortion as simply individual “choices without consequences” even while they continue to believe in God, attend Church with their family, and pin “prayer hands” emoticons on chat apps and Facebook.

The Declaration itself always suffered the expected criticism from left-leaning media pundits and non-believers, but no one would have thought that the giants in technology would suppress its message of hope, faith, and charity. 

To allow its message to be heard and to gain more signatures, the Manhattan Declaration designed and placed an app on Apple’s iTunes store.

Shortly thereafter, in November 2010, Apple received 7,000 signatures arguing that the app was homophobic and offensive. Apple removed the app, saying that it “violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.” Within a month, more than 45,000 had signed a counter-petition to have the app reinstated. Regardless, it remains invisible on the web.

Has political correctness gone too far? Is it stifling our rights to express our faith and beliefs? It appears so. But not at the Stewardship Foundation.