by Catherine Snow
September 15, 2011

In an era of growing intolerance to Christian beliefs and corporate skittishness to pressure from gay activists, the world’s largest global electronic payments service provider says its clients’ religious freedoms trump homosexual activists’ preferences.

AllOut.org — a gay activist petition site — recently targeted PayPal, taking umbrage at the fact that nearly a dozen ministries and charities that don’t endorse homosexuality use PayPal in their fundraising efforts.  “We won’t stop speaking up until they drop [the] 10 sites and ban all anti-LGBT extremist groups,” All.Out.org writes in its petition. The accounts in question are predominately U.S.-based nonprofits.

The petition states that it’s “PayPal’s responsibility to make sure this technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

A PayPal spokeswoman said the company prohibits the use of its services to promote acts of hate and violence. “However, we also take into account the rights of free speech and freedom of religion,” she said. “Balancing these conflicting rights is often difficult, and so we assess possible infringements objectively against our Acceptable Use Policy.”

Rod D. Martin, a member of the Internet legend’s pre-IPO startup team and former special counsel to the company’s founder Peter Thiel, said that from the very beginning, PayPal has tried to accommodate all views while remaining family-friendly.

“One of the first ‘tough’ calls Peter made was to ban porn and gambling sites from the service,” Martin said. “It’s good to see the company still honoring our early standards, while refusing to sacrifice the rights of the vast majority of Americans.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Take two minutes to thank PayPal for standing up for free speech and religious freedom.

PayPal customer service: 1-888-221-1161.

 

— Editor’s Note: This article by Catherine Snow first appeared in CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family affiliate. We encourage you to visit the original.