Cafe Press Pulls Merchandise Calling For Death of Obama

teddypsalmobama

A few days ago I posted a report on sales of  merchandise with the logo: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8.”  While this might look like an innocent suggestion, reading the full verse in context shows it to be calling for the death of Obama. The ambiguity created by the difference between the limited wording on the merchandise and the full meaning led to Cafe Press going back and forth with regards to allowing sales of this merchandise.  Cafe Press has  decided not to allow sales of this merchandise:

This morning we made the decision to remove all Psalms 109:8 designs from CafePress.

The public debate started with questioning if the design was simply intended to be criticism of the President or something much worse. The discourse was surprisingly civil online, given the heated nature of the topic. Given that, and the positions of groups like the ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League, we decided to let the dialogue play out publicly before making a final decision.

Last night we posted a poll on our blog, read through the emails we’ve received and weighed the nature of the calls we’ve received on the topic. In the process we also learned that many of the original designers of the Psalm 109:8 designs had already decided to remove them on their own.

General consensus has proven that the design does point to a broader interpretation of the Psalm and thus has been deemed inappropriate for sale at CafePress.

We try to create an atmosphere of self-expression. Many of the things we encounter are not black and white, but grey. When the dialogue is civil, we want to let the larger community work things out rather than making an uninformed ruling. The dialogue has played out and common sentiment has reached agreement – this merchandise is not appropriate.

Thank you all for your input.

6 Comments

  1. 1
    Eclectic Radical says:

    That strikes me as surprisingly mature and intelligent for a for-profit entity.
     
    It almost gives me a bit of confidence in the good in the world, again. 😉
     

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    Companies, like people, can act in good ways or bad, and can make decisions which are intelligent or foolish. The problem with with some people on both ideological extremes is to believe that businesses tend to always be good or evil.

  3. 3
    Cheryl Jones says:

    » Cafe Press Pulls Merchandise Calling For Death of Obama Liberal … http://bit.ly/6pr5Pw

  4. 4
    Traffic Machine says:

    » Cafe Press Pulls Merchandise Calling For Death of Obama Liberal … http://bit.ly/8C8qTO

  5. 5
    Cheryl Jones says:

    » Cafe Press Pulls Merchandise Calling For Death of Obama Liberal … http://bit.ly/6pr5Pw

  6. 6
    Eclectic Radical says:

    I was trying to be funny again. 😉
     
    I agree with you.

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