DeoOmnisGloria.com

Google goes Left

Google has decided to ban certain ads from a Christian group. Why? Google has decided that their stance against homosexuality is “hate” speech. The group, Stand to Reason, has a web page of articles explaining their views on homosexuality.

Personally, I haven’t read through all of the articles on the site, but I did read some and read through the full listing of articles. Frankly, the group seems to be simply pointing out homosexuality is immoral; and they seem to be doing it in a Christian way. I’m not sure what Google is upset about.

There are actually two issues here: (a) the power of search engines, and (b) a terrible misunderstanding of the word “hate”. Since this site doesn’t really deal with the first issue, I’ll simply say that the search engines have the power to almost make any website invisible online. If a site like Google decided to censor all sites they deemed “hate”, they would be able to seriously inflict harm among these webmasters. I think this will be a big issue moving forward, so watch as the general public starts realizing the power of these engines.

The second issue is rampantly destroying any ability to reason among Americans. Offending someone with the Truth is not “hate”. Telling someone what they don’t want to hear, but should hear is not “hate”. Hate would be allowing someone to simply wallow in misery even though you could help. It always annoys me when the word “hate” is used in this manner to censor acts that might offend someone. And note that we are in real danger of this being taken to a new level. In Ireland, Catholic priests have been told that they risk imprisonment for handing out the Pope’s recent encyclical letter that explains why homosexuality is immoral. Why? Because it’s “hate” speech. Words and their meanings have the ability to shape political discourse, so we must be aware of how things are being defined. This is the essence of why “pro-abortion” groups call themselves “pro-choice” (pro-choice sounds so much more positive). And this is why religious truth is being branded “hate” more and more often in our country.

I’m disappointed with Google and a little surprised. They previously seemed very laissez faire in their business dealings (they are among the few search engines which don’t ban ads using another business’ trademark), but now they have taken an interesting step. Let’s hope this type of activity doesn’t shape the future of the web.

Hat tip: The Curt Jester.

God bless,
Jay

PS - Interestingly enough, Google probably gave them ten times the number of visitors and publicity through banning them that the site could have gotten through Adwords! Irony.