Vimeo removes videos of Christian ministry that preaches against homosexuality

Vimeo, one of the leading video sharing platforms on the internet, has removed a Christian ministry's entire catalog of 850 videos after the company deemed its content to be demeaning towards homosexuals.

In December, Vimeo sent an email notification to Pure Passion Ministries Executive Director David Foster, warning him that some of the videos featured on the ministry's channel violated the platform's content standards.

The ministry has hosted its videos on Vimeo since 2009, according to World. Some of the materials featured testimonies of redemption and healing from people who suffered from issues related to sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and homosexuality.

At Foster's request, Vimeo sent the list of four videos in question, which were enough to indict all the ministry's content.

"Your statement equating homosexuality to 'sexual brokenness' betrays the underlying stance of your organization," Vimeo stated in an email to Foster.

"To put it plainly, we don't believe that homosexuality requires a cure and we don't allow videos on our platform that espouse this point of view. We also consider this basic viewpoint to display a demeaning attitude toward a specific group, which is something that we do not allow," it continued.

Vimeo's website indicated that it forbids content that promotes "sexual orientation change efforts" as well as "coded or veiled" language attacking ethnic or religious minorities.

Foster, a former homosexual, clarified that it was not reparative therapy that changed his life, and he noted that Pure Passion does not promote the practice. He maintained that the healing comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

He accused Vimeo's management of being selective, and he pointed out that some of the videos hosted on the website contain sexual and violent images.

Foster asserted that Vimeo's objection to the material on the ministry's channel was just an excuse to remove the entire message of Pure Passion from its website. He wrote back to Vimeo in an attempt to save the channel, but he maintained that the ministry would not remove any of its videos.

"We have the track record to prove that for 30 years, what we have been doing has been healing and NOT demeaning or hateful or whatever other spin you want to put on it," Foster stated in the email.

Michael Brown, the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program, noted in an op-ed article that Vimeo had also censored other organizations that refused to embrace or celebrate homosexuality.

Last year, Vimeo shut down the channel of Restored Hope Network, an association of ministries helping people deal with unwanted sex attractions, according to Brown. The video sharing platform also removed the account of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), a group of psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and therapists who refused to celebrate LGBT activism.