Books banned from Amazon are still available from your Pastor!
One of the organizations I admire for their deep love of
people who are struggling with same sex attraction and confusion is Restored
Hope Network (RHN). I recently went to their website and found the following
articles. In short, Amazon has banned 2 books I own, have read and given to
people! These are excellent books for men and women who are seeking freedom
from homosexuality-but Amazon won’t sell them. This just blew my mind-all the
junk they do sell and these books are dropped?
What follows is excerpts from an article and letter that was
under the press section of the RHN website. I believe we need to know when
cultural shifts are happening and this retail giant just revealed a major one.
The idea of homosexuality being a sin that people can be forgiven and freed
from is a threat to some in our culture. It is the Gospel to me.
If you want to learn more, I would invite you to go to the RHN
website:
Check out what God is doing in the lives of people who are on
the front lines of the battle for sexual integrity and are fighting it with
love, joy and hope the Spirit supplies.
Aug. 23, 2019 Restored
Hope Network Decries Amazon for Banning Books Offering Hope for Unwanted
Same-Sex Attraction While Still Selling Those Celebrating Pedophilia and Incest
You may have heard Amazon has stopped selling books by authors
who describe their personal journeys out of homosexuality – and offer a
faith-based approach to helping others do the same. What you may not have heard
is that while the works of Anne Paulk, executive director of Restored Hope
Network, and pastoral counselor and author Joe Dallas have been forbidden by
the online retail giant, shocking titles advocating sexual abuse of children
are still available for purchase with just a few mouse clicks.
“It’s disappointing but
not surprising that in today’s gay-affirming culture books like mine and Joe’s
have been banned by Amazon,” explains Anne Paulk, author of Restoring Sexual
Identity: Hope for Women Who Struggle with Same-Sex Attraction. “But it is
literally criminal what the site still offers for sale.” Among the books that
remain available for purchase at Amazon more than a month after the works of
Paulk and Dallas were jettisoned is Pedophilia and Adult-Child Sex: A
Philosophical Analysis, by Stephen Kushnar, which makes a case for normalizing
the sexual abuse of children. “This book provides a philosophical analysis of
adult–child sex and pedophilia,” the Amazon description reads. “This sex
intuitively strikes many people as sick, disgusting, and wrong. The problem is
that it is not clear whether these judgments are justified and whether they are
aesthetic or moral.”
“It is appalling that
Amazon has banned books detailing how one struggling with unwanted same-sex
attraction can overcome those feelings and steward his or her sexuality in a
biblical fashion, while thinking nothing of selling books that celebrate the
kind of deviancy Jeffrey Epstein was accused of,” Paulk says. “Gay activists
seem less concerned about children being abused than they are about us sharing
our stories of sexual and relational wholeness.”
How far can we be from
the government telling pastors what they can or cannot say on this subject?
“These are perilous times for free speech and religious expression in America,”
Paulk adds. “But Restored Hope Network remains committed to speaking the truth
in love to the culture about God’s design for our sexuality.” To learn more
about Anne Paulk and Restored Hope Network, visit the organization’s website.
Dear Amazon: July
17, 2019
As the publisher and authors of two books recently pulled from
Amazon.com, we want to express our great disappointment with Amazon’s decision
and are asking that the books be made available again:
• Desires in Conflict—Joe
Dallas (published 1991, total sales of 61,700 copies)
• Restoring Sexual Identity—Anne Paulk (published 2003, total
sales of 22,800 copies)
Both books have been on Amazon 15+ years, received generally
positive reviews, and been favorably endorsed by numerous high-profile
Christian leaders and organizations. They were written with great care and
compassion, and do not promote intolerance or hatred, nor are they coercive.
They are intended for those who seek to understand same-sex desires in the context
of a biblical, Christian worldview—a worldview found in many other
psychological and theological resources readily available.
In fact, by removing our books, Amazon is contradicting its
policies, as evidenced by quotes from its own website:
1. Amazon’s Offensive Products policies “apply to all products
except books,” music, video and DVD (see https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200164670).
2. “As a bookseller, we provide our customers with access to a
variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find
objectionable” (see at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=15015801&language=en_US&
ref=efph_home_cont_200164670).
Amazon states their offensive products policies apply to “all
products except books.”
On this basis alone, our books should not be removed.
Amazon states “we provide our customers with access to a variety of
viewpoints.” Our two books appropriately fit that definition—they provide a
widely recognized religious viewpoint and do so in a gracious, thoughtful
manner, and thus merit a place in the exchange of ideas on the topic.
Amazon’s selection of books has historically represented a
broad and diverse view of sexual morality, mores, and behaviors. Surely, Amazon
has not decided to censor orthodox biblical views of sexual morality from that
broad view. While some may disagree with our books, there are also many who do
agree with them. Their long-term existence, acceptance, and sales numbers show
they comprise a significant, legitimate part of the marketplace of
viewpoints—even if some “may find [them] objectionable,” per Amazon’s website.
Those who object to our books can freely decide to disagree
with them, but they cannot claim the books promote intolerance. Rather, they
provide loving, compassionate help for people who, of their own choice,
genuinely seek to apply the biblical, Christian worldview to issues relating to
same-sex desires. To deny such assistance to those who freely choose to pursue
it is a form of intolerance.
In light of the compassionate nature of these books and to
enable consistent application of Amazon’s policies, we ask that you reconsider
your decision and resume carrying these two resources that—as confirmed by the
positive testimonies on Amazon itself—have helped and encouraged many readers.
Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
Joe Dallas and Anne Paulk, authors
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