PETITION: Tell Amazon not to ban books dealing with unwanted same-sex attraction Sign the petition here.
July 11, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Ex-gays, who launched a petition earlier this week after Amazon banned books aimed at helping those with unwanted same-sex attraction, are continuing to pressure the retail giant to reverse its decision, calling out Amazon’s blatant hypcrisy.
“Hey! Amazon and LGBTQ activists, it is disingenuous to use the suicide argument as a reason to remove the exLGBTQ Christian’s testimony and Christian discipleship books,” wrote Daren Mehl, founder of Voice of the Voiceless, an organization that seeks to defend the rights of former homosexuals and those with unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA). “That lie doesn’t work.”
“First, seeking Jesus leads to LIFE, not death,” continued Mehl. “We declare the goodness of God through Jesus Christ to rescue everyone, including people who identify as LGBTQ, from death.”
“Many of us were suicidal or depressed before Christ was revealed to us. It was Christ that healed the depression and suicidal thoughts, and gave us a new living identity and lifestyle in HIM,” said Mehl. “We were born again!”
Mehl called out Amazon’s hypocrisy, asserting that if the online giant truly cared “about suicide and preventing books from contributing to suicides, as you claim your motivation for the actions of removing our books,” the many books that Amazon now sells on how to commit suicide would have banned a long time ago.
At the moment, Amazon is promoting at least ten books that facilitate suicide. Here’s a sampling:
Mehl also pointed out that by removing books whose purpose is to deal with unwanted SSA, Amazon is hindering men and women searching for important resources pertinent to their Christian faith journey. “Many of us have read these and other books and have been helped and discipled in our faith. Don’t discriminate against our religious materials.”
Amazon is “overtly discriminating against the message of Christ, against our books because of our religious conclusions and messages,” said Mehl. “Jesus does great works in our lives and can even reform a person from the LGBTQ identity and lifestyle.”
“You are lying in justifying censorship of our messages by using the strawman of ‘conversion therapy,’ and then lie that change in sexual orientation isn't possible,” said Mehl.
“Change is possible, Jesus does this work for anyone who calls him Lord and believes and confesses it,” he added.
Amazon: ‘Ex-gay and transgender testimonies are out, but Satan is AOK’
“Isn’t it great that Amazon took my audiobooks down from every platform so they don’t risk offending anyone?” asked Jeremy Schwab, a former homosexual and founder of Joel 2:25, a ministry whose mission is to help men and women who experience same-sex attraction, encouraging relational healing, sexual sobriety, and spiritual growth.
“Let’s see what highly-rated items they are selling right now,” continued Schwab on Facebook. “‘With Prime, if you order in the next 20 minutes, you can have this delivered to your front door tomorrow.’ What a deal!”
Schwab then posted a screenshot of some of the satanic products Amazon sells, including a shirt with a large pentagram, emblazoned with the words “Not today Jesus,” and a 10-inch “Baphomet Horned Sabbatic Goat Solve et Coagula Statue.”
Amazon also peddles a “Drag Queen Prayer Candle Set,” picturing four drag queens from RuPaul’s “Drag Race” TV show portrayed with halos beneath a cross.
Drag Queen Prayer Candle Set / Amazon Screen Shot
Schwab told LifeSiteNews that the audio and Kindle versions of the books banned by Amazon are now no longer available anywhere.
“That’s the main problem,” said Schwab, “they have a virtual monopoly.”
He explained that this presents a real problem: “In my ministry, Joel 2:25, we have members spread across many cities and countries and cannot afford to have books printed and shipped everywhere, so the audible and kindle format was the only way for many to access them.”
“Also, we had been translating these books into Spanish and other languages which were then sold through the Amazon Kindle app,” added Schwab. “Those are all gone now as well.”
Schwab said that since the books — an important part of his organization’s ministry — have been blocked from every platform, he hopes to file a complaint with the FTC today.
“Every time we create our own app, the gay activists force Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. to remove us,” Schwab said. “They are trying to cut us off on every side and they have never even read our material. They have no idea what they are even opposing.”
Regarding assertions from activists and echoed by online retailers such as Amazon that therapies and personal choices to reject SSA can lead to suicide, Schwab said, “There may be some people who grew up in extreme cults or abusive families or churches, but none of that is what is practiced or advocated by Reparative Therapy or any of the books and resources that [Amazon] removed. Anything abusive or unethical is already illegal and has been for decades, thankfully.”
Amazon made the decision to remove the helpful books in response to a Change.org petition that mislabeled all materials dealing with leaving the practice of active homosexuality as destructive “conversion therapy.”
Those who have left homosexuality and now live chaste single lives or who have gone on to marry and form families with members of the opposite sex see a different motive behind Amazon’s action. It is an attempt to silence all the voices of those who have found new life and freedom not through “conversion therapy,” but through conversion to Jesus Christ, a distinction that seems lost on LGBT activists.
The petition demanding that Amazon reverse its decision to ban books aiming to help those with unwanted same-sex attraction has already garnered more than 9,000 signatures and can be found here.
Check out Changed/Once Gay Stories and Two Prisms for testimonies by people who were once gay or transgender but now find their identities in Christ.