Christian Right Loves Apple's Anti-Porn Stance

There’s something about Steve Jobs’s militant opposition to lewd content that irks techies. (It may simply be the instinctive libertarianism of Silicon Valley, which hates restrictions on Web use.) Yet his stubborn refusal to allow pornographic apps on iPhones and iPads has won the world’s most famous Buddhist CEO some surprising allies: conservative Christians. As religion reporter David Gibson of Politics Daily reports, Jobs has received warm words from religious leaders and commentators:

"While some executives try to out-sleaze their competition, we're grateful that Jobs is trying to keep the iPad from becoming an eyesore," quipped Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. That is unusual praise from a man like Perkins for a guy like Jobs, who has been pushed by at least one columnist as a future Democratic National Committee chairman because of Jobs' liberal values. ...

"Jobs' refusal to surrender to the Internet's dominating force -- pornography -- makes his claim of 'freedom from porn' quite plausible," Kevin Staley-Joyce wrote at First Things, a leading journal of social and theological conservativism. ... “Cynicism is easy, and, rather than interpreting this as a mere mercenary appeal to the pocketbooks of family-friendly homes, it's reasonable to think Steve Jobs has simply taken a hard line on smut."

Who knows how long the alliance last, however. As Gibson points out, Jobs is better known of his aggression, tantrums, and "potty mouth" than for turning the other cheek.