X-rated Christian store's troubles traced to Amazon

The troubles that allowed customers at an online Christian bookstore to call up X-rated books and movies have been traced back to Amazon.com, the Internet behemoth that has in the past implemented a series of distinctly anti-Christian policies.

The latest issue arose when NewsWithViews.com writer Paul Proctor noted that a company maintaining the Christian Heritage Bookstore website, was selling 14-karat gold cross earrings along with the X-rated "Playboy: X Mates, Vol. 1 – BMX/Wakeboards," and an adult 4-pack of "classics" titled "Debbie Does Dallas," "Deep Throat," "Behind the Green Door," and "The Devil in Miss Jones."

A page snapshot showing "Behind the Green Door, Rated X – A Journey Through Porn and a package of classics before Christian Heritage Bookstore worked to eliminate X-rated materials being provided by Amazon.com

Marty Svare, the owner of the site, based in Bemidji, Minn., told WND that the Christian bookstore was a goal he'd had for a long time, and it was set up through another company that used Amazon-originated software to run searches.

He said he'd spent hours returning e-mails from concerned customers, and explained that if the website search engine found the customer's desired product within his defined domain, it displayed that product. If it didn't find the product, he said, the Amazon search engine would take over, bringing up virtually anything on the web.

"I was absolutely mortified," Svare told WND. "We've been working on trying to get that cleared up. This has been a nightmare."

He said if a permanent solution isn't available, he'll shut down the site. The website, in fact, was unavailable hours after he talked with WND.

"As Christians it's our responsibility to protect people from that sort of thing," he told WND.

His site was built using a service called www.ChristianBookNet.com, which bills itself as an "online Christian bookstore solution provider for churches, ministries and Christian individuals."

Officials there did not return WND requests for comment, but their online pages confirm that their system is based "upon Amazon.com's Web Services API (Application Programming Interface)."

"Whether you are a local church, Christian fellowship or ministry organization who want (sic) to enhance your current website by offering high-quality Christian products through your own custom-built online bookstore, or an individual who desire (sic) to create a solid home based Christian online business for recurring residential (sic) income, our solution is just for you! With our online shop, you can offer a huge stock of high-quality Christian products from Amazon.com (as well as Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk), the largest online-retailer in the world, and earn up to 8.5% referral fees on every sold product," that site advertises.

However, the explanation didn't include that the search engines set up for those Christian sites would allow customers to pull up anything available on Amazon. And that brought a warning from Svare, who said undoubtedly his site would not be the only site affected by the problems.

In fact, a WND reader submitted another website, GraceUnlimited.ChristianBookNet.com, with a similar setup.

Svare said he started Christian Heritage Bookstore because he had wanted to do something in line with his beliefs.

"I always wanted to have a Christian bookstore, and here's a Christian book network. I thought this might be a great opportunity," he said. "I wasn't aware that these sorts of things were possible."

He said when he set up the site, there were various options to include or exclude products and categories. For example, he chose to exclude horror stories from his product list.

However, it wasn't offered as an option to exclude X-rated material, and, he said, "It never dawned on me to ask."

Amazon, however, would know about such situations. As WND reported several months ago, the company's newly-announced Unbox feature, which allows customers to download entertainment programming, promoted the "Gay and Lesbian" genre.

A customer, Fred Luffman, told WND he's been a longtime Amazon customer and he saw the announcement about the feature, but was surprised when he saw the short list of promoted genres including "Gay & Lesbian." Even more surprised, too, when he clicked and opened up the long list to find other genres with much larger selections, and therefore sales potential, left unpromoted.

"Nestled nicely between 'Educational & Learning' and 'Kids & Family' is 'Gay and Lesbian,'" Luffman told WND. "They allow you to expand on this section of selections to include many more genres but curiously 'Gay & Lesbian' is among the smallest of offerings in the long list. Given this, why the effort to promote G&L in the short list?"

Earlier, Amazon.com was found recommending "Brokeback Mountain" to a customer who had referenced "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Lady and the Tramp."

Just a week before Luffman's experience, a woman had been shopping, and after listing the "Chronicles" and "Lady and the Tramp" as interests, Amazon recommended "Brokeback," which tells a story of homosexual cowboys.

"I don't know if there's an agenda at the corporate level but I don't doubt there is an agenda among some lower level personnel tasked with web page content," Luffman said. "These kinds of offerings are especially troubling to me as a parent since downloads of this kind can easily bypass most if not all web filtering software."

Another father contacted WND to report a similar situation with Google: "I was assisting my 11-year-old son with a report he needed to do on Lord Bacon," he said. "I Googled Lord Bacon and received a list of several sites (including Wikipedia)." He noted two links with Bacon's article discussed his alleged homosexuality, "neither of which I considered appropriate for my 11-year-old son."

And, he said, when he was searching for the Middle Georgia Radio Association (MGRA), he instead was referred to the "Missouri Gay Rodeo Association."

"Based on my experience Google will get you to the GAY websites first," he said.

The woman who was recommended "Brokeback," a WND reader and longtime Amazon customer, said she had submitted information that she had purchased "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," she said she already owned "The Chronicles of Narnia" and she rated "Lady and the Tramp."

"I can't see any reason for these movies to bring up a recommendation for a movie about homosexual lovers unless someone in Amazon has an agenda (especially in the IT dept)," she wrote.

Several messages left with Amazon generated only an e-mail response, in which the company repeated its published policies.

WND also has reported that Google was hosting "Paiderastia: The Boy Love Revival" site on its weblog.

And Amazon.com earlier was reported to have been selling subscriptions to the North American Man/Boy Love Association's official magazine.

A spokeswoman for one of the largest organizations of Christian publishers and retailers said her group members would be "horrified" to learn a retailer was selling X-rated products under the name of a "Christian" store, but there is a solution.

The 2,055 members of the Christian Booksellers Association, have strict written guidelines to: "Use our position to serve others, as modeled by Jesus Christ," "Value and use good judgment, innovation and personal strengths," and "Take initiative, solve problems, take risks, and make decisions that result in the growth of CBA, the good of our members, and the glory of God," according to the group's website.

And a spokeswoman, Nancy Guthrie, told WND the stores consider their "business" also a "ministry," and have provided www.ChristianStores.org as a web resource where consumers can hunt for a list of Christian retailers in their area.

Virtually all of the major Christian publishing houses list their statement of beliefs on their websites, similar to those listed by Christian Book Net.

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