We run a Christian ministry to homosexuals. Vimeo just removed all of our videos
 |
| Deutsch: Logo des Videoportals Vimeo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Since the earliest centuries A.D. Christians have been speculating about the coming one-world government of the anti-Christ. But what if the precursor to that government isn’t a government at all? What if it is agenda-driven, multi-national corporations whose size, wealth and domination of a market gives them the same power to coerce as a governmental power?
These days, it’s hard to know who is taking their cues from whom – the NSA or Amazon, the CIA or Facebook, the Defense Intelligence Agency or Vimeo?
The stripping of 1st Amendment freedoms of speech, religion and privacy have all been broached in our generation by both corporate and government entities in the name of national security and/or under the guise of protecting people from “hate speech”. As an example, Target Department Stores flung open its bathroom doors to pedophiles, sex criminals, would-be transgenders and others in an arrogant and callous disregard for the safety of women and children.
Our former president spent a great deal of time, effort and taxpayer dollars trying to force nuns at the “Little Sisters of the Poor” to pay for abortions (via insurance premiums), and to strip florists and bakers of their religious freedoms (with egregious fines) so as to drive them out of business for not complying with “big brother’s” wishes. He also set out to rob school districts everywhere of federal income if they refused to allow men into women’s bath and shower rooms. Never mind that his order would allow any man to enter such private areas. “Big Brother” had declared it to be so, or else!
Our former president spent a great deal of time, effort and taxpayer dollars trying to force nuns at the “Little Sisters of the Poor” to pay for abortions (via insurance premiums), and to strip florists and bakers of their religious freedoms (with egregious fines) so as to drive them out of business for not complying with “big brother’s” wishes. He also set out to rob school districts everywhere of federal income if they refused to allow men into women’s bath and shower rooms. Never mind that his order would allow any man to enter such private areas. “Big Brother” had declared it to be so, or else!
In 1949, George Orwell wrote the classic novel, 1984, where a totalitarian government takes control of its population and programs the minds of its people to accept their enslavement.
Here are some chilling quotes from this prophetic book:
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.”
“Reality exists …… only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.”
“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
“I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.”
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.”
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“Power is not a means; it is an end..…..The object of power is power”
“No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
“What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter.”
“Big Brother is Watching You.”
Then there was the 1931 dystopian novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley…..
“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”
“On no account brood over your wrongdoing.”
“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.”
“...most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”
“...reality, however utopian, is something from which people feel the need of taking pretty frequent holidays....”
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”
“Science is dangerous, we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.”
The most recent example of corporate “big brother” is Vimeo.com, which is the single largest platform for high-end videos on the Internet. They essentially have no competition for that market and have become a monopoly. If you want your video to be seen worldwide by the market that expects high-end, quality videos, they are the only place to go.
In the past few years, they began dictating new “political correctness” rules for the many nonprofits, churches, ministries and corporate entities, some of whom had spent tens of thousands of dollars establishing their presence during almost a decade on the site. Vimeo’s new rules imposed restrictions on what they could post on their own well-established pages.
You’d expect such rules to revolve around eliminating pro-pedophile videos or rape videos or pornographic vides, or videos about terrorism, jihad or other violent acts. No - those were okay.
Just put "jihad" in Vimeo’s search bar and you get 2,233 selections. Put "lust" + Vimeo in a Google search and one option is a porn filmmaker site, among 288 other sites containing 2,872 videos. Search on Google for "rape" + Vimeo and you get 2,817 videos. Google "teen rape" + Vimeo and you get at least one rape video.
Vimeo offers "sugar daddy" dating sites for the enrichment of children and teens everywhere who are looking for some extra cash, plus all kinds of gay porn videos. You can even watch some of Allen Ginsberg's speech glorifying NAMBLA (a society that promotes the molestation of children) on Vimeo. I was expecting some concern for the millions of children who can easily access such predator sites, (some of whom will no doubt end up being sex trafficked as a result), but found just the opposite.
Some months ago, Vimeo removed all of the videos from the Christian network of ministries to homosexuals, Restored Hope Network – an outstanding ministry that helps those who come to them for healing from wounds that have led to sexual brokenness. Homosexuals have proven and significant levels of brokenness, such as histories of childhood sexual abuse, depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, domestic violence, etc. Research abounds at CDC and APA websites. Entire books have been written on the brokenness, not only by ministries like ours, but by secular and gay authors as well.
But the “thought police” at Vimeo don’t want it known that homosexuals have sexual brokenness. They have declared that such an idea is “demeaning”. They also consider the idea that Jesus Christ can bring healing to sexual brokenness both offensive and demeaning.
Recently, Vimeo removed all 850 of our award-winning videos – videos that feature many of the world’s top experts in helping sexually broken people, as well as testimonies of individuals whose lives have been rescued from destruction as a direct result of the help found in the videos.
Though little more than half deal with healing sexual brokenness among homosexuals, Vimeo wanted them all gone. Censored! No more help for victims of sex trafficking or other forms of childhood sexual abuse. No help for the massive population of sex addicts, some of whom get their porn fix from Vimeo. Many have testified to us that our videos kept them from committing suicide, spurred them to give their lives to Jesus Christ, saved their marriage and much more. But Vimeo wanted them all gone – displaying the very kind of selfish, self-centeredness that (ironically enough) typifies sexually broken people.
Vimeo claims that our videos “harass, incite hatred or depict excessive violence” – a claim that is patently false and without a shred of merit. Our approach to ministry has always been based on the scriptural teaching that it is love that compels us (Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 5:14) and that it is grace that teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-14). We have always been respectful, kind and grace-filled in showing people that Jesus Christ can heal their brokenness, no matter whether they are heterosexual or homosexual.
Vimeo claims that our videos display a “demeaning attitude” toward homosexuals – again, patently false. When I asked them why our help for sexually broken heterosexuals wasn’t also considered demeaning, they refused to answer.
By their own words, it is clear that Vimeo’s opposition to our ministry is grounded in unadulterated religious bigotry. Here are some of the statements on our website that offended them:
• “God can transform the life of anyone caught in homosexual confusion”
• “Overcoming homosexuality is achievable through the power provided by the blood of Jesus Christ”
• and to the idea that the Word of God can be a “tool that empowers the overcoming of homosexuality”.
The homosexuals who have been featured in our videos have all testified to multiple levels of sexual brokenness, (including childhood sexual abuse, porn/sex addiction, etc.), as have many that have been featured in articles and appearances on pro-gay venues such as the Huffington Post, The Advocate, The Dr. Phil Show, and Oprah.
I personally was a victim of bullying in childhood, so am all too familiar with this kind of intimidation. Bullies always go after the small, the weak and the poor. They know that we are small and do not have the funds to defend ourselves in court. But I know that if you do not fight back with what you do have, they will continue to intimidate and bully to their heart’s content.
In one final attempt to reason with them, I wrote…….
“You are misrepresenting our ministry and outreach to sexually broken people. We are kind, respectful and helpful to everyone who comes to us for help. We are not demeaning to anyone in any way, nor is the gospel of Jesus Christ demeaning to homosexuals.
As a former homosexual and in ministry to them for 30 years, I am well versed in the profound brokenness of those who come to us for help. They are often suicidal, dangerously addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, bound in the trap of domestic violence, riddled with STDs, victims of childhood sexual abuse and/or sex trafficking, abandoned by parents, kicked out of their churches, sex/porn addicted and more.
Multiple gay studies, the CDC, the APAs and every other secular organization that gathers statistics on the gay lifestyle repeatedly publish proof that there is an abnormally high incidence of brokenness among the gay community. If it is so "demeaning" to address such brokenness, why aren't you threatening to remove the videos of such organizations?
The "T" in LGBT are also in crisis health-wise, with astronomical rates of major depression and suicide. Why do you consider it a crime to try to help those who are seeking help? And why would you remove help for those affected by the very conditions that drive them to suicide at such abnormally high levels?
The numbers of people who have indeed been healed by Jesus Christ from these underlying conditions belies your claim that it is impossible.
These are the people who come to us for help and who are indeed "set free" from these life-threatening situations in many cases. A better way to word it is they find healing in relationship with Christ for the wounds that have led to their dysfunctional activities.
Not only (are your actions in removing our videos) an abridgment of free speech and religious freedom, I find it unconscionable that you would remove anyone from your site who is trying to rescue broken people who are seeking help for their brokenness, no matter what their sexual orientation.
We have never focused on sexual orientation change, but have always and only addressed the brokenness that underlies those coming to us for help. And indeed, they are often gloriously helped, even to the degree of deciding not to take their lives, to get off alcohol, drugs, etc.
Therefore, there is no reason for us to remove any of our videos. With the thousands of testimonies of lives rescued in one way or another, it would an unforgivable act for us to do so.
Your admission of ignorance of the findings of the APAs, the CDC and dozens of gay studies is to make my point. Your policy is misinformed. For your righteous cause, you think you are helping homosexuals by shutting down any information about there being any brokenness among them (under the guise of it being “demeaning” to suggest such a thing) and in the process leaving the broken ones strewn on the battlefield with no one left to help.
This is akin to how HIV was handled in the early years. Up ‘till then, everyone with an STD was supposed to report those they had had sexual contact with, so that they could receive testing and treatment in order to halt the progression of the disease and save lives. But activists, afraid of what people might think, forced a removal of that policy. The result was greater and greater proliferation of the deadly disease. In other words, for the sake of some righteous cause and the fear of what people might think, people were left to get infected and die in far greater numbers than was necessary. So the concern was not for the individual homosexual, but a selfish and ill-informed reaction born out of fear.
Censorship and the withholding of help for those who seek it is never the answer to brokenness.
It’s very much like the situation found in many families of alcoholics. For fear of what people might think, the entire family system is forced to deny that there is anything wrong. They think that they are protecting the reputation of the family, but in the process, the alcoholic dies from his/her brokenness and the wife and children grow up with an unhealthy fear of disclosing their own areas of brokenness. It’s a dysfunctional model that selfishly ignores the wounded among them.
For the life of me, I can’t see how it is demeaning to address brokenness among homosexuals and NOT demeaning to address it among heterosexuals. Our ministry has always addressed both populations and without prejudice.
And for the sake of your political cause, you seem ready to censor anyone who wants to help the broken among you. That’s crazy! Even gay activists like Camille Paglia regularly point out in their columns the insanity of such an approach.
Our approach to ministry has always been to let people speak the truth about the healing they’ve received for their brokenness, whether heterosexual or homosexual. The problem does not lie in the heterosexuality or homosexuality, but in those traumas and experiences in their lives that have wounded them and left them wounded and out of control. To censor such help is, again, unconscionable.
I see that you post videos praising pedophilia, jihad and that depict “demeaning” pornography that is destroying people’s lives. Did you know that a significant part of the population of porn actors are victims of sex trafficking and/or childhood sexual abuse? Did you know that they are regularly sexually abused on the set and beaten if they do not do what is demanded of them? Many are forced into prostitution and drug addiction. Did you know that an abnormally high percentage of them commit suicide because of their abuse? Did you know that your video of Allen Ginsberg glorifies the molestation of children by adult men?
In other words, I’m failing to see any moral standard represented by the videos found on Vimeo that provides a leg for you to stand on to justify censoring people who are trying to help the broken people who are the casualties of many of the videos that you host.
After hosting our videos for almost 9 years, (most of them under no such policy as you now claim), after our spending tens of thousands of dollars creating Vimeo-quality versions, uploading them, linking them to websites, smart devices and channels, advertising and promoting their presence - all resulting in the rescue, healing and even saving of hundreds of lives, and without any complaint from Vimeo until now, you suddenly want to trash all of our hard work and throw away our entire investment in time and money on a policy that doesn’t even help homosexuals, but rather robs them of help. And in order to justify your actions, you have decided to slander us by inventing a fiction that we are acting in ways that are demeaning to homosexuals.
People can see through all of that. They hate the spin doctors who would rather destroy people for their pet cause than help them. They hate "thought police" and other Orwellian actions that censor free speech and freedom of religion, even when they disagree with them. You’re headed toward a legacy of promoting things that hurt people and censoring those that are trying to help them in ways that evoke memories of the cruelties of the Soviet Union during the reigns of Lenin, Stalin and others in the Cold War.
As I've said before, we will not remove videos that are saving lives. It would be a sin against God and against those who desperately want hope and the kind of help that will bring healing to whatever brokenness they may have. We have the track record to prove that for 30 years, what we have been doing has been healing and NOT demeaning or hateful or whatever other spin you want to put on it.”
Vimeo’s response………
“Your account has been removed by the Vimeo staff for violating our guidelines. Vimeo does not allow videos that harass, incite hatred, or include discriminatory or defamatory speech.”
You see, Vimeo knows that if you say something often enough, people will assume it’s true. They are the big bully, er brother, on the block and are exacting their revenge, it seems, against anyone who gets in their way, the Constitution notwithstanding. It is the same spirit of antichrist that will eventually culminate in the Great Tribulation.
It’s the spirit of 1984 come to life in corporate America. As George Orwell warned……..
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.”
“Reality exists …… only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.”
“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
“Big Brother is Watching You!”
If you’d like to express your opinion about Vimeo’s decision to censor the message of healing for sexually broken people through Jesus Christ, visit the following American Family Association page to sign their petition: https://www.afa.net/activism/action...
The good news is that there are still a number of sites that have not yet caved to the bullying of corporate America where you can still watch some or most of our ministry videos, including.......
- Cross.tv also feeds videos to our main websites….... www.PurePassion.uswww.MasteringLife.org
........as well as to our “Pure Passion” iPhone & Android apps and our “Pure Passion” streaming channels on Amazon TV, AppleTV, Google TV, Roku (U.S.), Roku (U.K.) & iTunes.
Find more at our ministry FB page: https://www.facebook.com/purepassio...
And sign up for our monthly e-newsletter. The April edition just went out but can be read at: http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/813927/9...
*******
Dr. David Kyle Foster is the founder and director of Mastering Life Ministries, and producer of the documentaries, “Such Were Some of You”.
This article was originally posted on the Pure Passion website and Facebook page and is re-published with permission of the author.
This article was originally posted on the Pure Passion website and Facebook page and is re-published with permission of the author.
