By Tim Spiess
December 16th, 2016
A very grave wrongness is happening in the United States and worse, it is being accepted by a majority of the people. The wrongness is happening in perhaps the most important area of human relations – clear and truthful communication. Or, stated another way, the wrongness is happening in the realm of people processing information either accurately or inaccurately.
This wrongness’ root is a world view called relativism – the belief that there are no absolute truths but rather that all things are relative, including right and wrong human behavior. In other words, no one can say what is right or wrong human beliefs or behavior because there is no absolute standard on which right or wrong is based. For people who are both captured by this erroneous world view as well as who are pushing a belief that is wrong - contradictions and hypocrisy are the only outcomes. For an insightful article on relativism, please see http://www.thepeacefulrevolution.info/relativism.html This article will not deal with the larger problem and wrongness of relativism, but rather one of its ‘children’ and its causing Amazon.com to be part of the wrongness.
The popular belief called “toleration” as held by the vast majority of people in the U.S. is actually a belief that is self-contradictory and thus is false, and yet it is being used to discriminate against people. For a brief and illuminating read about tolerance, please see the article here - http://www.thepeacefulrevolution.info/tolerance.html
In short, as soon a one person accuses another of being “intolerant”, they themselves are being intolerant in that judgment and thus are contradicting themselves and proving themselves as wrong. Another belief closely associated with the concept of “tolerance” is the belief of “inclusiveness”. Many are preaching that everybody needs to be “inclusive”, and by that, they mean that no one should be excluded from various privileges or rights. But just like “tolerance”, inclusiveness is a self-defeating concept. This can be easily seen by those who preach “inclusiveness” the loudest, and yet THEY are the ones saying that people with beliefs THEY disagree with should be excluded from government office or positions of power or even from exercising the right to free speech!
Closely related to the tolerance and inclusive doctrines is the concept of “discrimination”. Many accuse others of discriminating against other kinds of people. Here is the dictionary definition of discrimination: “Make an unjust or prejudicial distinction in the treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, sex, or age.”
As has been the case for at least one hundred years in the U.S., the basis for discrimination has always been based on aspects of a person that they cannot change and NOT behavior. For example, I cannot change the color of my skin, my age, my sex (although this is being destroyed), where I was born, the language I speak, my ‘religion’, etc. For the ramifications of changing the definition of discrimination from one based on unchangeable personal facts to one based on behavior or beliefs, please see http://www.thepeacefulrevolution.info/relativism.html .
Enter Amazon.com and its subsidiary, Kindle Direct Publishing. After several failed attempts at trying to place an advertisement for my book, “The Light of the world: The Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth”, on their web site, I received the following final response from Amazon:
“Hello,
I'm following up with you regarding your recent inquiry about the ad.
I continued checking with the Technical Team and appealed to know why the ad is rejected once again.
They confirmed they don't see any changes in the book which is rejected recently, moreover I believe changes in content of the book is not possible. Reason we can't allow this book is because it talks about Jesus/Christianity and their teaching which is not aligned with our policy hence this is the reason the book cannot be approved.”
In a prior email, I received this response from my attempts to place an Ad for my book:
“I understand your concerns regarding the Ad Rejection for "The Light of the World" Kindle book.
However as per Ad Policy, our Ad's team is unable to approve the Ad if the book content falls under the below criteria:
• Books glorifying or promoting the use of illicit drugs, drug paraphernalia or products to beat drug tests;
• Books with content that is obscene, defamatory, libelous, illegal, invasive of another’s privacy, or contains hate speech;
• Books with content that is threatening, abusive, harassing, or that discriminate or advocate against a protected group, whether based on race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other category.
Upon checking your account I see that, the mentioned book is contained religious or spiritual content.”
So, to be perfectly clear, Amazon is denying me the opportunity to advertise my book because “it talks about Jesus/Christianity and their teaching which is not aligned with our policy” and that it contains "religious or spiritual content".
Are there any rational people out there still trying to order their lives by reason and the truth that it reveals, that can demonstrate why Amazon is NOT intolerant against “my religion”, exclusive against “my religion”, and thus discriminating against “my religion”?
So, again, let’s get this straight…Amazon’s policy is to reject Ads for books that “discriminate or advocate against a protected group, whether based on race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other category”. So, my book promotes the historical Jesus of Nazareth as revealed in the four gospel books, and that is now “discriminatory” or "advocating against a protected group"?
The only thing my book advocates against is ignorance, fear, self-pride and selfishness.
By rejecting my Ad on that basis, Amazon is clearly discriminating against me based on my "religion" which their own policy says they should not do! This is the insanity of relativism and the associated doctrines of “tolerance”, “inclusiveness” and the new definition of “discrimination”.
On the basis of their policy, then ANY book which has primary content that promotes what Amazon considers “religion” should not be advertised because by definition, any given “religion” discriminates against another “religion”.
For that matter, any book that has content about race should not be allowed to advertise on Amazon. For example, a book describing the struggle of African Americans in the U.S. to overcome racism should not be allowed because it shows ‘white people’ as racist, and by Amazon’s definition, that is defamatory or hateful against white people.
And any book that has content about national origin or disability or sex or sexual orientation or age SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO ADVERTISE because they will be de facto discriminating against the other groups in each category! So, for example, a book about feminism should certainly not be allowed to be advertised on Amazon because according to Amazon’s ‘logic’, they are discriminating against men! Or, as another example, a 70 year old author who writes a book on extoling the virtues of the ‘golden years’ should not be allowed to advertise on Amazon since they are de facto discriminating against younger people!
Get the picture?
In like manner, and according to Amazon’s policy, since my book is about Jesus of Nazareth (what they wrongfully judge as “religion”), they judge that the book must discriminate against non-Christian people, and thus it must be discriminated against?! In fact, my book about Jesus of Nazareth is ‘so bad’ in Amazon’s eyes, that it is listed with other evils like, “books glorifying or promoting the use of illicit drugs, drug paraphernalia or products to beat drug tests; books with content that is obscene, defamatory, libelous, illegal, invasive of another’s privacy, or contains hate speech; books with content that is threatening, abusive, harassing…”
Let’s get this straight once again. My book advocating for Jesus of Nazareth is just as bad as books that “glorify illicit drugs”; as books that are “obscene, defamatory, libelous, illegal, invasive of another’s privacy, or contains hate speech”; are as bad as books that “threaten, abuse or harass”.
Is anybody listening???
Does anybody care that people are turning into unreasoning zombies whose judgments about what is right and wrong is based solely on how they are feeling at the moment? Worse, does anybody care that relativism is taking over people’s minds and that those people have no problem contradicting themselves; have no problem calling other people “hateful” even while in the very act of doing so, they demonstrate their hatred; have no problem using the law to silence, bully and persecute people based on the very things they claim should be protected???
YOU, dear reader, might think that YOU are not affected ‘by this issue’, but you are horribly wrong. This affects everybody. Certain people in this U.S. society have set themselves up as the law/basis/standard for what is right and what is wrong. They sincerely believe they alone are right and those who oppose them are wrong, even when they are proved wrong by just a little reasoned analysis like in this brief article. These people are FAR MORE DANGEROUS than the people they rail against. Certainly most religious people believe their beliefs about God are correct, but if they are listening even a little bit to Jesus of Nazareth, then they are not going to force their view on others. For example, if they sell shoes and a person comes into their store who does not believe their religious beliefs as comes out in a conversation, they are NOT going to say, "please leave, I am not going to sell you those shoes". Yet, this is exactly what Amazon has done here. They have said, "You want to advertise your book about Jesus of Nazareth but we will not due to its 'religious' content".
They are the new politically correct Gestapo come to silence dissent, and while they are not coming for you today, the time is coming when they will UNLESS you capitulate to their world view and believe what THEY say you ought to believe. That is the furthest thing from a pluralistic society that can be imagined and an end to the freedom’s the citizens of this nation have enjoyed.
Please, be part of the solution instead of part of the problem...join the peaceful revolution!
Book available on Amazon - The Light of the World: The Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
Or free on this website in PDF here