And the Controversy Continues ...

Here is the reply from Facebook I got this morning over why they pulled our ad:

Hi Doug,

Thanks for writing in. I'm here to help. Your ad was rejected because the image violates the Ad Guidelines. Ads may not use images that are shocking. Prohibited images include:

         -Accidents
         -Car crashes
         -Dead or dismembered bodies
         -Ghosts, zombies, ghouls and vampires

To resubmit your ad, edit the image from your ads manager. 

Review our policies on ad images here: https://www.facebook.com/help/250509391644213/?ref=cr

          Thanks,
          Michelle
          Facebook Ads Team Facebook

Here is the reply I sent:

 Dear Michelle,
Here is a link to the website for the book we are trying to promote and to all of the images in thebook:http://www.passionofchristbook.com/paintings.html.  The book is indeed controversial, but its intentions are not blasphemous, there is no sexual content, and the violence is unavoidable in any retelling of Christ's Passion. Facebook publishesCrucifixes all the time, which would always violate the criteria which you lay out in you reply.   If promoting a book of art means that we are limited to strictly happy uncontroversial subject matter, then only Thomas Kinkade and the work of a select few children's book illustrators would pass muster. Picasso and Michelangelo would both be out of bounds by your own definition.   Facebook publishes the most bloodthirsty homophobic rants all the time, but lately seems to have        a lot of problems with anything with gay, and especially gay positive, content. Is this a problem for Mr. Zuckerberg?   I suspect that Facebook is trying to impose a kind of candied anodyne vision upon the chaotic variety and vitality of human communication that uses its social network. Where better to directly enforce that vision than in advertising policies?   The author, the publisher, myself, and a few friends are in conversation with Lambda Legal over this matter.

      --Doug Blanchard, the artist of the book.

Here is a follow up that I sent:


      Dear Michelle,
      A follow-up to my previous reply. I notice that the Facebook page for the Mel Gibson movie
      The Passion of Christ -- a much more violent version of this subject than anything in our book -- has more than 3 million likes.
      Can you explain this to us, and why our book was singled out?
      suspect strongly that it is because of the gay content.

      https://www.facebook.com/ThePassionoftheChristOfficial


EXTRA:

I got the reply from Michelle at 3:14 in the morning according to my email inbox.  I suspect that Michelle is a robot.