A Christian publishing house has claimed that Google has refused to run its advertisement unless it removes references to Jesus Christ and the Bible.
Bruce Kintz, CEO of Concordia Publishing House (CPH), said Google rejected advertisements related to the company's domain, cph.org, "because of the faith we express on our website."
"[A CPH associate] was told, as an example, that things like our bible (sic) challenge on our [Vacation Bible School] webpage would clearly need to come down before they could consider us for ads," he wrote on a Facebook post on Monday, as reported by The Federalist.
Kintz stated in the since deleted post that the rejection was "[i]ncredibly sobering and disappointing."
"It is an uphill battle but our mission and customers are worth it. It is why we are here," he added.
CPH is affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which is one of the conservative Lutheran denominations in the U.S., compared to the more liberal mainline Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The Bible challenge program being promoted by the publishing house reportedly includes passages like "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope . . . for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23" and "God promises: 'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.' Isaiah 43:2."
A Google spokesperson explained to The Christian Post that the company accepts advertisements from Christian institutions, but its advertising platform, Google AdWords, has some restrictions on how advertisers can display personalized advertisements to users.
The search giant says that advertisers are prohibited from using data related to "race, religious affiliation, political affiliation or sexual orientation" to target users in their advertisement.
"Advertisers can't use identity and belief categories to target ads to users or to promote advertisers' products or services," the statement read, as reported by The Christian Post.
In a statement on April 24, CPH said that the advertisements rejected by Google were remarketing ads, which are directed at users who have previously visited the advertiser's webpage or mobile app.
The publishing house was reportedly informed that remarketing ads based on religious beliefs were not allowed on the platform. A Google representative reportedly suggested that CPH could make changes to its website, such as removing specific faith-based content, to make it compliant to the search giant's regulations.
CPH claimed that Google asked for the removal of all items that refer to Jesus or the Bible from its website before it can place advertisements on the platform.
Apart from removing religious references, the search giant also suggested using a different Google advertising product.
Kintz, however, said that the publishing company would not comply with the search giant's requirements, and it will continue to "seek all available avenues to connect people to Christ."
