Which authority is final: my interpretation of my personal gay experience, or the revelation of God in Scripture
If Jesus has changed your life and set
you free from homosexual practice, your testimony is not welcome on Vimeo—not
now, not ever. And if you see homosexuality as another aspect of sexual
brokenness, something for which Jesus died and something from which you can be
healed, your opinion is not welcome on Vimeo. Case closed, door shut, end of
subject. In the words of Dr. David Kyle Foster, director of Pure Passion
Ministries and himself a former homosexual, "This is pure religious
bigotry and censorship."
Last December, Vimeo contacted Foster to
inform him that some of Pure Passion's videos had been marked by a moderator
since "Vimeo does not allow videos that harass, incite hatred or depict
excessive violence."
They instructed him to "remove any and
all videos of this sort from" from his account—he had 850 videos on
Vimeo—and let him know that his account would be reviewed in 48 hours. If his
ministry failed to remove the allegedly offensive videos, then "your
videos and/or your account may be removed by a Vimeo moderator."
But Foster's ministry is not the first to be
unfairly censured. In 2015, Vimeo unpublished an announcement for an upcoming
"Hope Conference," with featured speakers including Janet Mefferd and
Joe Dallas, both respected Christian leaders, with Dallas especially well-known
for his ex-gay testimony.
The conference was sponsored by Restored Hope
Network, which is an association of ministries that help people deal with
unwanted same-sex attractions – Note to the world: Not everyone enjoys being
attracted to the same sex—yet this Hope Conference was deemed offensive and
inappropriate since it proclaimed that, in Jesus, there was hope for change and
transformation.
Then, to add insult to injury, early last
year, Vimeo shut down Restored Hope's entire account. Every single video. Gone.
Vimeo also shut down the account of NARTH, the
National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, which is an
association of psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and therapists who have
had the temerity to stand up to the PC establishment and who refuse to
celebrate LGBT activism. For such a horrific ideological crime, their Vimeo
account is no more.
Foster was quite aware of Vimeo's history, but
he was not about to do so without a hearty protest, and on Dec. 12, the same
day he received the initial warning from Vimeo, he wrote back:
You must have
the wrong account. We are an award-winning Christian ministry that only posts
content that helps people, not hurts them. We never defame anyone. We never
incite hatred or depict violence of any kind. Our message has been one of love
from start to finish.
Our videos help
sexual abuse victims, people who have been sex-trafficked, those who are
addicted or in any other condition that causes them distress. We are constantly
receiving professional awards and commendations from people who have been
helped by the world-class experts who populate our videos.
Please cite any video that does otherwise and we will
have a second look. It would be a shame to remove the hundreds of videos that
help people in very desperate circumstances - some of whom have even claimed to
have been prevented from suicide by the messages of hope that we produce.
The next day, Melissa B., a "Trust and
Safety Coordinator," responded:
It seems that a
number of your videos go against the Vimeo Guidelines of:
"We also forbid content that displays a demeaning
attitude toward specific groups, including: Videos that promote Sexual
Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE)."
By this logic, Alcoholics Anonymous would not
be welcome on Vimeo, since their videos would be demeaning towards alcoholics;
or weight-loss videos would not be welcome, because they shame the overweight;
or testimonies of effective debt reduction strategies would not be welcome,
because they shame those in debt; or testimonies of Christian converts from
Islam would not be welcome, because they shame Muslims—just to give a few
examples out of thousands.
In reality, all these videos are welcome on
Vimeo, because none of them cross the forbidden line of saying: If you're not
happy being gay (or bisexual or transgender), God has a better way.
This is absolutely forbidden! (Do you
understand why I've been saying for more than a dozen years that those who came
out of the closet want to put us in the closet?)
Foster wrote back again:
Again—you have
the wrong account.
We help people,
and we are not a promoter of reparative therapy. Nor do we support or recommend
forced or coerced healing of any kind. Our videos simply allow people who are
struggling with sexual brokenness of any kind a place to tell their story.
These are often people who have been sexually abused or otherwise traumatized
and giving them a voice can sometimes rescue them from self-harm.
There is
nothing in the videos you cited that encourages reparative therapy or that
demeans anyone. We do not allow people in our videos who speak demeaningly or
disparagingly of anyone. In fact, we provide life transforming hope for people
who are at risk of harming themselves because of people who have mistreated
them or cast doubts on their personal journey.
The testimonies of people who have been significantly
helped by our videos is practically endless. Why would anyone want to censor
such a voice for the broken and helpless?
In response Melissa wrote:
Thank you for
the further explanation. You will not need to remove your videos at this time.
Please do keep our Guidelines in mind for any future
uploads.
Unfortunately, on March 16, the cycle started
again, with Vimeo giving Foster one week to remove offending videos, and when
he wrote back to them, explaining that the matter had been resolved, he
received an email from Sean M. who explained:
Your statement
equating homosexuality to "sexual brokenness" betrays the underlying
stance of your organization. To put it plainly, we don't believe that
homosexuality requires a cure, and we don't allow videos on our platform that
espouse this point of view.
Please remove any and all videos that discuss
homosexuality as a condition requiring healing. We also consider this basic
viewpoint to display a demeaning attitude toward a specific group, which is
something that we do not allow.
You can see why Foster described this as
"pure religious bigotry and censorship."
Vimeo is forbidding you from agreeing with the
Bible when it comes to human sin and brokenness.
Vimeo is forbidding you from preaching the
gospel of transformation when it comes to homosexuality.
Vimeo is engaging in blatant, unapologetic,
aggressive anti-Christian censorship.
Foster wrote to me privately, pointing out
that Vimeo allows "videos of terrorists and pornographers." He added:
Put "jihad" in their 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.
Google "rape" + Vimeo and you get
2,817 videos.
Google "teen rape" + Vimeo and you
get at least one rape video
They have "sugar daddy" dating sites
(one a gay video), plus all kinds of gay porn videos. You can watch some of
Allen Ginsberg's speech glorifying NAMBLA on Vimeo, all kinds of "sex on
Vimeo" and "porn on Vimeo" videos that, from the thumbnails, are
completely pornographic. Where is their concern for the girls and boys who have
been sex-trafficked for such videos?
So, Foster protested once more to Vimeo:
I don't
understand this. We have always been highly respectful of every group that is
mentioned in our videos, and by no means do we demean anyone.
The homosexuals whose personal testimonies we have
featured have all testified to multiple levels of sexual brokenness, as do many
that you'll find featured in articles on Huffington Post, The Advocate, The
Dr. Phil Show, Oprah,
and many other gay-affirming venues, including childhood sexual abuse, porn
addiction, etc. I'm not sure why you feel that homosexuals talking about what
has happened to them is in any way threatening or demeaning of others.
Vimeo responded by further explaining that,
"Referring to homosexuality as a 'dysfunction of sexual brokenness' or
'sexual distortion' is not OK, nor is reference to 'the fact that God can
transform the life of anyone caught in homosexual confusion'."
To repeat: This is forbidden on Vimeo!
The Vimeo rep even said that, "I
understand the desire to not be lumped in with the more vocally hateful
anti-gay activists, and I can see nothing based on the videos I have reviewed
that suggest an overtly vitriolic approach. However, even respectful advocacy
of SOCE is something that we do not allow on our platform."
To paraphrase: "Dr. Foster, we know
you're not hateful, but don't you dare proclaim your testimony of
transformation in Jesus, and don't you dare imply that there is anything wrong
with being gay. Not a word!"
Foster wrote back once more to Sean at Vimeo,
writing from a personal, pastoral and professional level, arguing his case with
clarity and conviction, also exposing all kinds of inconsistencies in the Vimeo
policies. And while Sean did engage the email (to an extent), his bottom line
was this: "I've never suggested you were less than kind at an individual
level to specific homosexuals. That said, Vimeo disagrees wholeheartedly with
the notion that homosexuality is a form of brokenness, or something that
requires healing, or something that people need to seek freedom from."
Then, on March 24, all 850 videos—every single
one of them—were removed, and the Pure Passion account was shut down.
This is an outrage, and it needs to be
addressed. Here's what you can do today:
1. Write to
Vimeo and ask them to restore immediately the
account of Dr. David Kyle Foster and Pure Passion, stating politely that this
is tantamount to religious censorship and bigotry. If you can say something
positive about the ministry through your own experience, do that as well
2. Subscribe to Pure Passion's YouTube
channel, which, at least for now, has not been shut
down. There you'll find videos from speakers like Kay Arthur and John Bevere
addressing issues of sexual addiction and pornography, videos exposing the
horrors of sex-trafficking and videos of ex-gays.
3. Consider getting a copy of Foster's
powerful Such Were Some of You DVD.
4. Share this article with a friend.
5. Pray that the message of freedom and
liberty in Jesus—from all brokenness and sin—would be proclaimed even more
loudly and powerfully in the days ahead. May Vimeo's efforts to silence a
powerful ministry (along with other excellent ministries and organizations)
result in the amplifying of this ministry's message.
Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the
host of the nationally syndicated Line of
Fire radio program.
This article was originally posted on Charisma News and is republished with permission of the author.