The American Family Association's phony news source, One News Now is taking up the cause of a West Virginia pastor who claims he was unfairly blocked on Facebook:
A West Virginia pastor is finding his ministry's Facebook page continually disabled by the social media giant and he wants to know why – and for one of the first times, Facebook has agreed to explain its action.
Facebook claims to have two billion users, meaning that at any given time roughly a third of all humanity is using the social media platform. Neil Potts, who is among the team that sets policy for Facebook, agreed to talk with OneNewsNow about Pastor Rich Penkoski's "Warriors for Christ" page, which has been taken down several times for what Facebook calls "hate speech."
"In this case," says Potts, "we felt that the attacks upon the people were actually doing more harm by silencing people within the larger Facebook community – and we removed the page."
In an earlier report, Penkoski told OneNewsNow that he "get[s] banned all the time .... If I post anything with the acronym LGBT in it, regardless of what it's about, it gets reported and I get banned for 30 days." He also said he personally knows what constitutes "hate speech" because he receives it constantly.
So what finally got Penkoski blocked? Allegedly the following:
Potts says it was a post claiming that "all" homosexuals are pedophiles and are pursuing children. He confirmed his accusation that Penkoski used the word "all." Penkoski disputes that.
"That's a lie," the pastor tells OneNewsNow. "I said that you are more likely to be a pedophile if you are a homosexual – I didn't say they 'all' were.
"As a matter of fact, I said the opposite," he continues. "[I said] that I understand that not all are; however, if you are a homosexual, statistically speaking, you are more likely to be a pedophile."
I am so glad Penkoski clarified. Whoop te do.
All attempts at humor aside, it sounds like to me that One News Now is playing a ridiculous game of phraseology and semantics. Penkoski's claim is inaccurate. Many major medical groups, including the American Psychological Association have said that gay men are not more likely to be pedophiles.
I don't blame Facebook for taking the action it did. Seems to me that the Penkoski and One News Now should stop harping on what God supposedly says about homosexuality and focus on what He actually says about bearing false witness.
Penkoski's "clarification" also happens to be a lie. Box Turtle Bulletin published a series of posts a number of years ago examining the research on this issue, which have been consolidated into this article: http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,002.htm
ReplyDeleteI recall from the original posts that Dr. Groth's research and that of other investigators was remarkably consistent in finding that, of known child molesters with an adult orientation (Groth's "regressed" population), slightly over 98% identified as heterosexual.
Statistically, your children are safer with me than they are with Penkoski.