Patheos Bought By Beliefnet, Possibly Censoring non-Christian Content

[Cleopatra7]

Because I'm a religion nerd, I like to lurk on blogs and websites that relate to a variety of belief systems so I can get a handle on what the discourse is about in that community. Today I was on Gods and Radicals, a pagan-anarchist site, and found a post about a blogger who used to write for Patheos Pagan, and his comments were chilling:

https://godsandradicals.org/2017/01/31/repost-read-this-before-patheos-deletes-it/

https://godsandradicals.org/2017/02/03/standard-in-the-industry-patheos-and-normalizing-corporate-abuse/

The TL;DR version is that Patheos has been bought out by Beliefnet, the latter of which has substantial ties to the religious . Under the new Patheos contract, writers are forbidden from writing "offensive" content, using excessive profanity (however that's defined), and "disparaging" Patheos and its "related companies." This last provision is the most disturbing part, because:

Quote

other writers here brought to my attention that the American Centre for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a group founded by the televangelist Pat Robertson, is a partner with Affinity4, which is itself listed alongside Beliefnet and Patheos on the BN Media page. The ACLJ lobbies for the death penalty for gays in other countries. Under the new contract, ACLJ could be considered a “related company” that we’re not permitted to disparage. (And that’s just one related company that we’ve discovered in less than 24 hours.)

...Here’s a list of some of the groups that may be considered “related” to Patheos and whom we cannot “disparage” under the new contract: National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Focus on the Family, Promise Keepers, Concerned Women for America, American Family Association.

(quote is from first link)

This potentially has effects that go far beyond the Pagan portal. In particular, I'm thinking of Libby Anne, who criticizes many aspects of mainstream evangelical and fundamentalist culture and many of the writers on Patheos Progressive Christians like Fred Clark who do the same from a religious perspective. Like some of the commenters on G&R, I'm wondering if this isn't the beginning of a purge or restriction on non-conservative Christian content on Patheos.

[Jasmar]

Oh. Em. Gee. This is sickeningly bad news. Although it does seem to fit right in with the "US government bought out by Republics party, possibly censoring non-Republican (fascist, heading towards totalitarian) content" era.

[Tangy Bee]

A blog called, "Love, Joy, and Feminism" is a Patheos site. I wonder will this will affect her site

[bertnee]

That's unfortunate, I always found interesting articles on Patheos, especially the critiques of the evangelical movement.

[Black Aliss]

I've always enjoyed reading the Friendly Atheist on patheos.com. Bristol Palin, not so much.

[Inky]

Well that sucks. I'm sure that if Libby Anne went to another place? platform? I'm not sure exactly what to call it, but I'm sure that she wouldn't lose many or any readers. However, it is nice the way Patheos is set up with all the different writers and topics in one place. 

She's the one I read the most often, but  I do check out the others as well.

[Howl]

Warren Throckmorton blogs at Patheos as well.  It is was a very large umbrella sheltering an astounding variety of beliefs.  

patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/

[Inky]

9 minutes ago, Howl said:

Warren Throckmorton blogs at Patheos as well.  It is was a very large umbrella sheltering an astounding variety of beliefs.  

patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/

Thanks for that link! There's some excellent reading there!

[smittykins]

I like the Progressive Christian channel.

[Howl]

10 hours ago, Inky said:

Thanks for that link! There's some excellent reading there!

He did great coverage of the Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill meltdown as well. 

[Palimpsest]

12 hours ago, Tangy Bee said:

A blog called, "Love, Joy, and Feminism" is a Patheos site. I wonder will this will affect her site

That is the blog mentioned in the first post.  We often refer to her here as simply Libby Anne.

Spoiler

I might contact her privately to ask if she is seeing a need to move her blog.

The acquisition happened last September and I completely missed it.

[jerkit]

There are numerous Patheos blogs I enjoy. To wordpress they go!

[ILoveJellybeans]

This is terrible news. All of the Patheos blogs I enjoy are the progressive or atheist ones!

[Dark Matters]

Some months ago, a few of the writers from the Atheist channel on Patheos mentioned that that particular channel was having it's name changed to "non-religious" or something like, sort of like they (Patheos) are trying to disassociate themselves from anything to do with atheism.   Nothing was mentioned about Beliefnet at the time but that would explain the name change.

[December]

It's unfortunate if they do so... it's been the mix of experiences/beliefs that make its content interesting. But of course, the authors can always move elsewhere.