Jerry Bowyer: Standing up to Apple

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday January 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: Religious bias in big tech.

WORLD Opinions commentator Jerry Bowyer says it’s past time for investors with a stake in corporations like Apple to demand protections for religious freedom.

JERRY BOWYER, COMMENTATOR: Being a shareholder of a company is a bit like being a citizen of a country. For example, shareholders have a right to vote at annual meetings. They can elect representatives to the board of directors. In addition, shareholders can put their own questions on the ballot. Instead of just responding to management’s agenda, investors set the agenda.

For roughly four decades, that authority has been used almost exclusively by the cultural left. The center and right simply did not know how to do it, nor even that it was an option.

That is now changing. For example, the American Family Association or AFA is an investor in Apple stock. They recently submitted a proposal that would require Apple to investigate and report on its policies that limit free speech. Apple responded by asking the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC for permission to ban shareholders from seeing that proposal on their upcoming ballots. Apple claimed that it was already substantially being transparent about its banning criteria.

It’s no wonder the SEC rejected that argument. The reasoning was thoroughly rebutted by Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented AFA before the SEC. The only thing transparent about Apple’s terms of service is that they transparently block pretty much whatever they don’t like, or at least whatever enrages the interest groups to which Apple has given veto power.

For instance, Apple removed an app created for the Manhattan Declaration, which affirmed in a sober and scholarly tone the traditional Christian teaching on same sex-marriage and abortion. Later, Apple temporarily banned LifeSiteNews, another Christian group. At the demand of the Chinese government, Apple removed both a Bible and a Quran app. I have yet to find a single example of similar banning of groups on the left.

The company’s terms of service are shockingly vague. Although the terms of service document claims, “We strongly support all points of view being represented on the App Store,” it goes on to warn that it “will reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court justice once said about pornography, ‘I’ll know it when I see it’.” In other words, Apple gives itself an utterly subjective blank check when it comes to banning.

The AFA’s proposal has created a tremendous opportunity for Christians and others of goodwill who are concerned about “cancel culture” in big tech. Their proposal will be voted on in a meeting scheduled for February 28th at noon Eastern, and if you own any Apple shares at all, you can log in with your control number, which comes with your proxy card. Once the meeting starts you can not only vote, but you can ask questions in the portal. Asking questions there is like asking questions at a town hall meeting; it gets noticed.

Many Christian ministries own stocks. They are commonly gifted by donors. Let this be a challenge to other Christian ministries as well. Corporate America is perhaps the largest unreached people group for Christian cultural engagement. AFA is using its shares to win a hearing for religious freedom. Where are the rest of you?

I’m Jerry Bowyer.

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