Amazon.com Offers "Understanding Loved Boys and Boy Lovers"

Amazon.com Offers "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers" 

We received an email from John in Virginia. He included Dr. Jerry Falwell's press release in his email. The following is Flip's response to John, the email from Amazon.com, and the actual press release.

Hey Mr. Benham,
I thought you might be interested in this email, I remember hearing about Barnes & Noble on the Liberty campus also having this same kind of material. Take care and I've been keeping you guys in my prayers.
John - Lynchburg, VA

Great to hear from you Jonathan,

I am as shocked as you are that this kind of book, "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers," would be advertised over Amazon.com. My son sent an e-mail to Amazon and it responded with the typical "politically correct" jargon that, although they did not agree with the author, they could not possibly censor this material.

This non-judgmental hogwash doesn't fly when applied to other books. Would Amazon.com censor a book advocating the various ways to lure a homosexual into a car to kill him? Would it censor of a book entitled "The 99 Ways to Lynch a Black Man?" Would it censor a book demonstrating the best way to blow-up an abortion mill or shoot an abortionist?

You bet your life it would! Rightfully so. These kinds of things should be censored. But Amazon.com won't censor a book that believes and states that it is a good thing for adults to have sex with children? Is there more than a little hypocrisy here? It won't censor "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers" because, no matter what it says by e-mail, it is in agreement with pederasty *.

You must express outrage, pure Christian outrage, that such a book, that pours gasoline on the flames of pedophilic lust, would be sold on Amazon.com. A book like this must be banned and burned! That's right! I said, "banned and burned!" We must never allow our children to be looked upon as sexual toys to be sacrificed on the altar of some pedophile's lust.

Fight the good fight Jonathan. You will have some great hands on material for writing your term reports!

Here is the response that Flip's son received from Amazon.com

Hello again from Amazon.com.

First, I would like to thank you for your heart-felt e-mails. I understand that you feel very strongly about this issue. Let me assure you that Amazon.com does not support or promote perverse or criminal acts; we do support the right of every individual to choose his or her own reading material.

As a company that supports the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, Amazon.com continues to provide a wide variety of books and does not engage in censorship, regardless of our own individual
tastes and beliefs.

Please know that we do respect your opinions and value your feedback.Thank you again for letting us know how you feel about this issue.

Best regards,

Becky Koehn

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL

DATE: September 26, 2002
FROM: Jerry Falwell
WHAT'S GOING ON AT AMAZON.COM?

I could hardly believe what I was reading on the WorldNetDaily Web site: Amazon.com is accused of "contributing to the potential rape and molestation of children" by offering a book on adult-on-child sexual relationships. But upon visiting the Amazon.com site to investigate for myself, I found that the book is indeed there. It is titled, "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers."

In fact, on the Amazon.com site, self-described boy lovers and pedophiles offer positive reviews of the book, saying it "attempt[s] to shed the positive aspects of a healthy boy/male relationship." Yeah, it's creepy, all right. But there's more.

"By explaining what 'pedophiles' really are," writes one pedophile, "it may help parents to understand that there may actually be benefits to such relationships." This is absolutely shameful. These fiends are attempting to convince parents that there is no harm if they should target their children to satisfy their sinister urges.

Amazon.com should immediately ban this dangerous book (and any similar books) from its Web site and apologize for allowing such material to be there in the first place.

Thankfully, the organization that uncovered the book's availability at Amazon.com - the Escondido, Calif.-based United States Justice Foundation - has written a letter to Amazon.com President Jeffrey Bezos, saying that offering the book amounts to "an unfair and unethical business practice." The USJF has given Amazon 30 days to withdraw the book or face "protracted litigation."

As reported by WorldNetDaily, the book states: "Men who sexually pursue young boys are not monsters, but sincere, concerned, loving human beings who simply have a sexual orientation that is neither understood nor accepted by most others."

As a veteran pastor, I can report that I have worked with families that have been shattered because an adult has sexually abused a child. One need look no further than the recent Catholic Church fiasco to see the emotional anguish that is brought on by the abuse by an adult of a child. Years later, the deep scars of the abuse remain. And yet Amazon's initial response to this controversy has been to defend the sale of the dreadful book, unbelievably saying freedom of expression must be protected.

My good friend, Bedford, Virginia Sheriff Mike Brown, who spearheads an undercover operation to apprehend child molesters, has recounted to me how destructive these individuals are. Many pedophiles (called "travelers") will voyage across the country in hopes of meeting up with a youngster they have befriended on the Internet. Upon their meeting, these gullible and often lonely children, thinking they have discovered a friend, eventually realize they have been duped by an individual who is fixated on sexually misusing them.

Thankfully, Sheriff Brown's team routinely poses as teenagers in Internet chat rooms in order to meet these pedophiles. These undercover agents, after convincing the pedophiles that they are forlorn teens or pre-teens, frequently set up meetings with these pedophiles who are subsequently arrested and prosecuted.

These are the types of individuals Amazon.com is promoting and protecting by offering this dangerous book.

I am encouraging people to send an e-mail to Amazon.com (feedback@amazon.com) in order to complain about the availability of this book.

After telling a couple of friends about this outrage today, these friends told me they were going to immediately send e-mails to Amazon to say they would not order again from the company until it ceased offering the book. This is the type of action Amazon.com (and any other retail company) will understand.

Please write to Amazon.com today (feedback@amazon.com) to considerately request that they immediately drop the book "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers."

---------- Webmaster NOTE:

The American Family Association gives more information on this evil book as well as additional action addresses to contact Amazon.com on stopping this.

ACTION ADDRESS:
Mr. Jeffery Bezos AMAZON.COM
1516 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101-1543
PHONE: (206) 622-2335
FAX: (206) 622-2405
E-MAIL: feedback@amazon.com

There is no reason that any Christian should not be able to contact this book retailer. You've got a street address, a phone number, fax and email address. The AFA article is at: http://www.afa.net/othersp/amazon.asp

* Pederastry, Pederast: derived from the Greek, literally lover of boys; is defined as: "one that practices anal intercourse especially with a boy" - Mirriam-Webster's Dictionary. Different from Pedophilia in the respect that it is sexual perversion targeting a specific group of children - boys about to or have just reached puberty.