A Christian conservative group on
Thursday announced it had resubmitted to the iTunes store a modified
app declared “offensive” by Apple.
The Manhattan Declaration app is a
mobile version of the
manifesto unveiled last year in New York by religious leaders opposed
to gay marriage.
Apple removed the app from its iTunes
store because “it violates our developer guidelines by being
offensive to large groups of people.”
The free app included the 4,700 word
document, which users were asked to electronically sign, and a
four-question survey. One question asked, “Do you support same-sex
relationships?” Users who answered “yes” were told that they
had replied incorrectly.
The group's new version deletes the
quiz.
“In reading some of the blogs and
press on the Manhattan Declaration app, we understand that one
element of the app, the poll, seemed particularly offensive to those
who asked for the app's removal,” the group's Chuck Colson said in
a statement.
“As a sign of goodwill, we have
removed the poll and have resubmitted the app without it,” Colson
added.
The app was deleted from the digital
store after more than 7,000 people signed a Change.org petition
urging Apple to remove it.
But the Christian group behind the app
responded with its own online petition. More than 43,000 people
signed onto the petition asking Apple to restore the Manhattan
Declaration app, the group said.
“Despite the claims of some, the
Declaration does not promote hate or homophobia. It is not anti-gay.
Rather, it proclaims that all human beings are loved by God and are
worthy of respect,” the petition reads.
Supporters of the document include Tony
Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), a
group recently labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC), James
Dobson, founder of the anti-gay Christian-based Focus on the Family,
and Bishop
Harry R. Jackson, Jr., the District of Columbia's most visible
opponent of its gay marriage law.