A formal investigation of several Christian sites and organizations has been launched by PayPal, the huge money-transfer company, because of an online campaign of “hate” against them by homosexuals, according to one of the targets.
The notices of the investigation were sent to Julio Severo’s Last Days Watchman blog and Peter LaBarbera’s “Americans for Truth,” among others.
Both websites are unabashedly Christian, and both advocate the biblical perspective of homosexuality.
The demands from PayPal came in the form of a questionnaire that required the Christian site operators to explain the PayPal button on their site and “the purpose … of collecting these donations.”
Severo explained to PayPal that his Christian site and ministry aims to “inform people about controversial issues, including euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality, etc.”
“I noticed that your message came to me after a hate campaign against me and other Christian ministries,” he told PayPal. That online campaign criticizes “anti-LGBT extremists” who are using PayPal to raise money for “their dangerous cause.”
Some LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) groups allege that some Christian groups promote “hate.”
But Severo insisted exactly the opposite is true.
“I want you to know that we Christians love homosexuals, but we disagree with their immoral lifestyles,” he told PayPal. “Differently from gay activists that receive huge government grants, I receive no government money,” Severo said.
According to LaBarbera, the issue is that homosexual activists no longer are willing merely to pursue their own lifestyle; they now are demanding that people with biblical perspectives with which they disagree be shut down.
“They want dominance even if it means smearing pro-family people as ‘haters’ and destroying our cherished religious freedoms.
In the recent past, a similar series of attacks was generated against online ministries and groups that discuss the danger of Islam.
PayPal reportedly cut off several accounts because of concerns about their message of truth about Islam, then restored them a short time later.
The site Atlas Shrugs had reported getting intimidating letters from PayPal that claimed the website “promote hate” and “racial intolerance.”
PayPal sent letters explaining the website had violated the company’s policy, which bans use of PayPal for items that “promote hate, violence, racial intolerance or the financial exploitation of a crime.”
The site was required to remove PayPal as a payment option from the website, as well as all references to the company, its logo and shopping-cart features.
It was later reported that an executive with PayPal called and explained the decision was in error and that financial services to the websites could resume.
The truth is that God and Christians do not hate homosexuals. Christians do not hate the sinners, we embrace them. We hate the sin of homosexuality that is condemned in Holy Scripture. Tolerance of sin is not a virtue and tolerance in our laws and practices is not acceptable.
