yes, there is an app for that

8181 Posts: 58,276
edited March 2011 in All Encompassing Trip
"There's an app for that."

The catchphrase coined by Apple and their advertising gurus to sell iPhones and iPads has become so ubiquitous that it's even been parodied on Sesame Street. Still, few would have ever thought that the tech giant—which, like many other Silicon Valley concerns, boasts a progressive profile on many cultural issues, and extends domestic-partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees—would condone an app that purports to "cure" homosexuality. It would seem an even greater stretch for Apple and company founder and CEO Steve Jobs to make such an application available through its iTunes store.

Yet the app—by a ministry group called Exodus International—is right there, along the thousands of other iPhone apps available to plugged in Apple users. And this appears to be the point at which many of Apple's cultish fans—including plenty of gay activists—are drawing the line. No, they say: There's not actually an app for that.

The Exodus ministry seeks to promote the "ex-gay" movement—promulgating the testimony of people who claim to have been cured of homosexuality through Christ. The target audience for the smart-phone app, its makers say, are "homosexual strugglers." The idea is to teach gay people that they have a choice when it comes to their sexuality, a choice to choose "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus."

Of course, providing a tech platform for a particular spiritual or ideological movement doesn't signify an endorsement of its point of view. At the same time, however, as Gawker's Ryan Tate noted during an earlier controversy over a gay-themed app, "every time Apple approves an app, it implies moral endorsement of the content of that app."

And since average Apple user is younger and more culturally tolerant of homosexuality, word of the Exodus app has sparked a fast-growing protest As of this writing, more than 100,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling on Apple to abolish it. What's more, some who've purchased it are somewhat baffled by it.

Writes the Atlantic's Nicholas Jackson:


So I downloaded the (free) app, which was launched on March 8. A giant resource bank, the app contains lists of events, videos and news stories that are carefully curated to reflect the mission of Exodus International, which states that individuals can "grow into heterosexuality." Nothing available on the app would lead me to question my homosexuality, but maybe I'm not fictile enough.

Perhaps the time is ripe for a market solution. Surely, engineers for a competing smart phone, like the Droid, are hard at work preparing to launch a more effective and intuitive app curing people of their straightness?
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  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    and it's android, not droid, unless you are speciffically discussing verizon android phones, which happen to be branded droid.
    :roll:
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  • RKCNDYRKCNDY Posts: 31,013
    is there an app to 'protect one from bible thumping worshippers'? One that promotes the freedom of Atheism? I want that app...
    The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

    - Christopher McCandless
  • dunkmandunkman Posts: 19,646
    RKCNDY wrote:
    is there an app to 'protect one from bible thumping worshippers'? One that promotes the freedom of Atheism? I want that app...

    one that promotes freedom of Atheism??? oh i hope to god there is.
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • DissidentmanDissidentman Posts: 15,378
    dunkman wrote:
    RKCNDY wrote:
    is there an app to 'protect one from bible thumping worshippers'? One that promotes the freedom of Atheism? I want that app...

    one that promotes freedom of Atheism??? oh i hope to god there is.

    Oh I see what you've done there... that's funny shit...
  • LizardLizard Posts: 12,091
    Bubbles....you look HOT, HOT, HOT !!!!

    Damn.
    So I'll just lie down and wait for the dream
    Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
  • DissidentmanDissidentman Posts: 15,378
    Lizard wrote:
    Bubbles....you look HOT, HOT, HOT !!!!

    Damn.

    Please don't encourage this...
  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    Lizard wrote:
    Bubbles....you look HOT, HOT, HOT !!!!

    Damn.


    :P
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  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    Lizard wrote:
    Bubbles....you look HOT, HOT, HOT !!!!

    Damn.

    Please don't encourage this...

    there is a revolution brewing...you can't stop it, it's to far along. it's going to engulf the forum. ya know what i'm saying


    if you see Randy, tell him to leave my burger alone
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  • 12345AGNST112345AGNST1 Posts: 4,906
    I think the real problem here is that there is an app trying to prevent homosexuality. Not that Apple approved it. :roll:
    5/28/06, 6/27/08, 10/28/09, 5/18/10, 5/21/10
    8/7/08, 6/9/09
  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    hmm...i wonder if the church is saying, since they put the effort into an iphone app vs. an android app, that iphone users are more likely to be gay????

    hmmm

    not that there is anything wrong with that
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  • mickeyratmickeyrat Posts: 37,983
    what I wanna know is , is there a "bitch slap" app?
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  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    mickeyrat wrote:
    what I wanna know is , is there a "bitch slap" app?


    there are a couple of them in the android market :P
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  • mickeyratmickeyrat Posts: 37,983
    Bubbles wrote:
    mickeyrat wrote:
    what I wanna know is , is there a "bitch slap" app?


    there are a couple of them in the android market :P
    but only for Evo, is that right? ;)
    _____________________________________SIGNATURE________________________________________________

    Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
    you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
    memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
    another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    mickeyrat wrote:
    Bubbles wrote:
    mickeyrat wrote:
    what I wanna know is , is there a "bitch slap" app?


    there are a couple of them in the android market :P
    but only for Evo, is that right? ;)


    most android apps work across all the android phones. very few are phone/carrier specific. however, there some that won't work on specific android phones.
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  • Man! I thought this thread was going to be about available apps. Fuck!

    I was hoping there would be one to decifer attractive female friend requests.... Cause really, it MUST mean something more.

    And also one that will choose between your current SO and a soulmate that loves football, like a coin flip or something.

    One that calculates the amount of hours some people spend here over the course of their lifetime.

    One that informs you of the 'proper' price of an edved ticket.


    Can I have my money back please? Bullshit!!


    ;)
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