| From Porn to Purity Rings: There’s an App for That Posted: 20 Jul 2009 11:02 AM PDT Another take on Apple and its headline making apps After the removal of the pornographic application known as “Hottest Girls” (designed by app developer Allen Leung) for the increasingly popular Apple iPhone, it seems the multinational consumer electronics giant is seeking to clear its name of any connection to sexually explicit material. In a bold, albeit somewhat of a shallow and pedantic move, Apple has implemented Christian iPhone app developer Island Wall Entertainment’s Purity Ring Application, “in an attempt to engage with today’s youth using new mediums,” according to Christian Today. And why not? After considering the ferocious uproar of countless Christian and non-Christian iPhone users alike over the sleezy photos found in Leung’s program, this would essentially serve to clear Apple’s name. Or will it? For readers who are completely unfamiliar with the purity ring concept, allow me to fill you in. Back in the mid-nineties, the idea of sexual abstinence was being highly promoted by certain Christian-affiliated sexual abstinence groups. The purity rings, also sometimes referred to as chastity rings, promise rings, or abstinence rings, were developed in an effort to encourage the “true love waits” mindset among teens and twenty-somethings still in the their prime dating years. Interestingly enough, the Bush administration of the 90’s had a lot to do with the cultural explosion of the purity ring phenomenon, considering they threw millions of dollars worth of government money into funding advertisement campaigns for the rings. The goal was to educate teenagers about the dangers of STI/STDs and promote safe sex (a rather ironic message, considering the purity rings promote no sex at all until marriage). And now it seems that the former scantily-clad-and-nude-model-approving Apple Inc. is attempting to throw the Christian iPhone users demographic a bone. Any iPhone or even iPod Touch owner now has the option of taking a “purity pledge” via their specific device, one which will result in a three-dimensional purity ring display “spinning on the screen….in an infinite loop.” Talk about desperation! Am I the only one out there who thinks Apple could really care less about the moral and spiritual issues behind pornography? Or the only one who thinks this money-hungry electronics giant is just endeavoring to keep their “religious” iPhone users for fear of losing subscriptions and loads of cash? Pathetic. Why not promote the real message and ideals behind sexual abstinence and purity all together; the message that Island Wall Entertainment is no doubt seeking to encourage? After all, Company Director Henry E. Bennett remarked, “This is an exciting opportunity to reach a whole new generation of people, on a platform that has never been used to spread this important message.” “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” Job 31:1 (New American Standard¬-updated edition) “I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl with my eyes.” Job 31:1 (The Message Translation) Of the aforementioned passages, seventeenth century English clergyman Matthew Henry says, “The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are the two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard…From the beginning it was so, that a man should have but one wife and cleave to her only; and Job kept closely to that institution and abhorred the thought of transgressing it; for, though his greatness might tempt him to it, his goodness kept him from it.” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Old Testament). And remember: the first sin in the world began in the eye (Genesis 3:6). It seems to me Apple is just looking out for their own public image. May God bless the efforts and message of Island Wall’s software, despite the senseless antics of a money-hungry corporation. -Josh Givens, The Underground staff writer |
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