CitizenLink:

In an era of growing intolerance to Christian beliefs and corporate skittishness to pressure from gay activists, the world’s largest global electronic payments service provider says its clients’ religious freedoms trump homosexual activists’ preferences.

AllOut.org — a gay activist petition site — recently targeted PayPal, taking umbrage at the fact that nearly a dozen ministries and charities that don’t endorse homosexuality use PayPal in their fundraising efforts. “We won’t stop speaking up until they drop [the] 10 sites and ban all anti-LGBT extremist groups,” All.Out.org writes in its petition. The accounts in question are predominately U.S.-based nonprofits.

The petition states that it’s “PayPal’s responsibility to make sure this technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

A PayPal spokeswoman said the company prohibits the use of its services to promote acts of hate and violence. “However, we also take into account the rights of free speech and freedom of religion,” she said. “Balancing these conflicting rights is often difficult, and so we assess possible infringements objectively against our Acceptable Use Policy.”