Google says “Remove all items that Refer to Jesus” if you want to advertise here
Concordia Publishing House (CPH) is the publishing arm of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. They have been publishing various Christian materials from Vacation Bible School materials to books for 150 years. CPH’s CEO Bruce Kintz posted on Facebook on Monday that Google Ads would no longer accept anything related to their website (see below) and Google later indicated that CPH would need to remove all items that refer to Jesus or the Bible if they wanted to advertise with Google.
CPH detailed the rejection on their website. They were initially told that all CPH remarketing ads were “disabled due to a violation of Google’s policy for advertising based on interests and location.” So they reached out to Google. In that conversation CPH staff members were informed that remarketing ads based on religious beliefs were not allowed.
CPH staff requested a manager review the decision, but that request was denied, according to CPH. The Google representative told CPH staff that in order to bring the Vacation Bible School website into compliance, they would need to remove specific faith-based content.
CPH contacted Google again for clarification and this created a lengthier manual review process by Google. The result of this manual review was Google telling CPH that they could “1) remove all items that refer to Jesus or the Bible and proceed to use the remarketing ads or 2) use a different type of Google ad product.”
In a statement, CPH President and CEO Dr. Bruce G. Kintz said, “Clearly, CPH does not agree with Google’s decision in this matter. If we are willing to remove references to our faith in our ads or website, then we will be allowed to use remarketing ads with Google. Simply stated, we are not willing to sacrifice our beliefs to comply with Google’s requirements. It’s no secret that society is becoming increasingly hostile to the Christian faith. This increasing hostility makes our mission of proclaiming that faith through the books, Bibles, and curriculum that we produce all the more important. We will continue to proclaim the faith because we know without a doubt that the Word of the Lord endures forever.”
You can visit CPH online at cph.org.
