Amazon is taking a stand against conversion therapy and Christian extremists are not happy about it.
As of late last week, the online retailer has yanked all titles by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi (a.k.a. the “father of conversion therapy”) after determining his books violated the its guidelines.
The move came after a Change.org petition gathered over 80,000 signatures calling on the site to cease sales of Nicolosi’s books, which promoted bogus gay conversion therapy practices and which have been described by some as “ex-gay torture manuals.”
“Amazon is the nation’s largest seller of online books,” says Sam Brinton, head of advocacy and government affairs for The Trevor Project, in a statement. “It is significant that they are taking the threat of conversion therapy seriously by refusing to be a party to the exploitation of concerned parents and other customers who deserve accurate information, not DIY conversion therapy manuals that should clearly be labeled as ‘fiction.’”
Nicolosi, who died in 2017 and authored such books as “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality” and “Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy,” spent his career touting the false notion that homosexuality is a symptom of childhood sexual trauma that can be “cured” through torture, er, therapy.
Naturally, other Christian extremists are outraged that Amazon will no longer carry Nicolosi’s books.
Dr. Michael Brown over at the blog Charisma is gravely concerned Amazon will come after the Bible next, writing: “There is no hyperbole here. After all, it is the Bible that condemns same-sex relationships, and the Bible that speaks of those who once practiced homosexuality but do so no more.”
Brown says Amazon is playing “a very dangerous game of censoring that which is not politically correct,” saying the company has “crossed a very dangerous, precarious line” and that it must “make an immediate about-face, admitting its error and making Dr. Nicolosi’s books available again.”
We’re sure Jeff Bezos is gonna get right on that.
Meanwhile, Allum Bokhari over at Breitbart accused “anti-Trump” Amazon of “political censorship” and “digital book-burning,” writing that “there doesn’t seem to be any clearly defined principle behind the company’s piecemeal acts of censorship.”
Others have taken to Twitter to voice their mounting concern over this egregious act of censorship.
You can buy books buy Hitler, Mao, Lenin, Marx, Goebbels, and David Duke on https://t.co/XSuO5cwNUA — but not by Catholic shrink Joseph Nicolosi, who offends gay activists. Ominous sign for free speech, debate, and inquiry in age of #wokecapitalism. https://t.co/t7RMjP3vZy
— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) July 3, 2019
Joseph Nicolosi’s books are more dangerous than Nazi propaganda apparently.
— Stefano Gennarini (@prolifeadvocate) July 8, 2019
The purge continues. https://t.co/4a8MerApOs has removed books on treatment of homosexuality by the late Dr. Joseph Nicolosi. Rest In Peace Joseph. Far better to be one of the purged than to live with the cowardly shame of being one of the insecure, power hungry purgers.
— Joe Dallas (@JoeDallasTGP) July 4, 2019
Related: Behind The Scenes At “Journey Into Manhood,” One Of America’s Many Ex-Gay Treatment Centers
Jared MacBride
Conversion therapy is a way charlatans prey on ignorant christian parents who want to torment their possibly gay children. Real “christians” should be thanking Amazon for saving them from helping save them from being scammed.
Thad
You can probably buy Nicolosi’s “books” at Hobby Lobby.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I personally don’t understand why Modern day Christians are so adamant on following the Torah, its not their holy text; I understand the historical reasoning why the early church fathers included the Torah in their cannon, but im not sure I understand why are they still doing that today.
Its as if a Muslim follows the Gospel or the Torah, even though they are not Islamic scriptures.
Kangol2
I think it depends on the Christian denomination; most prioritize the New Testament, particularly the Four Gospels, which detail Christ’s life, and the texts that follow the history of the Church immediately after his life forward into early Christianity (from Acts through Revelation, etc.), but the evangelicals seem to prioritize specific parts of the Old Testament (Torah, plus the additional texts), maybe perhaps because it’s more older and severe in its laws, and a good deal of what they fixate on never comes up in the Four Gospels, though Christ demonstrated more than once that He was deeply familiar with the older teachings. Then you have sects like the Roman Catholic Church or some of the other mainstream Christian sects like Evangelical Lutheranism, Methodism, etc. that basically follow their historical interpretations of the two Testaments, and some like the Latter Day Saints who also espouse non-Blblical religious texts, like the Book of Mormon. I have asked some devout Christian friends about the prioritization of the Old Testament over the New Testament, and I usually get bafflement that someone is even asking that question. But I think it should be raised a bit more.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Thank you Kangol, I appreciate the response.
When I ask my Christian friends, the majority are Roman Catholic, they say they don’t follow or even know anything about the Torah (other than generic information), which kind of makes me wonder why is the Catholic Church even following Leviticus when it comes to homosexuality, even though the Torah doesn’t seem to be a text they focus on in their churches.
I have a Jewish friend who’s semi-religious, and he’s hilarious when it comes to this topic; he doesn’t under it either as to why many Christians claim the Torah as a “Christian text”, in particular their fixation with Leviticus.
Juanjo
My experience with Christians when to comes to the Torah is that they view it somewhat as one would view the menu in one of those old-time Chinese restaurants where you would select one item from column A and another from column B. Their translations, as in the King James Bible, is based on the Greek translation done for Ptolemy which is full of poorly or incorrectly translated words. They strip all context from the parts they adopt and blithely ignore anything that does not fit into their preconceived notions. This means whatever they quote is re-interpreted in a manner to support their own position rather than its original purpose.
radiooutmike
Because many modern-day Christians love that old-time, Old Testament vengeful God.
It’s hard to be angry at anything, if you just stick to the Four Gospels and what Jesus (supposedly) actually said in them. Love each other. Be nice to each other. Rich people probably won’t get to heaven. Beware the hypocrites and thieves. Even the books afterwards were just warnings to the church plantings in the area, that have nothing to do with Christ himself.
jcoberkrom
Oh give me a break. Those poor “christian” “martyrs”. Actually these people are neither though they’d like you to think otherwise.
Cam
Christians now allow themselves to lie, steal, cheat, commit adultery, etc…
All they have left is bigotry and attacking others.