Well after hearing about the sale last week and seeing the replies that everyone received, I was so disturbed that I sent ebay an email. I expected a stock reply and when I began to read their response last night I thought oh well. However, once you read their reply below you can see that E-bay has changed their position and it goes to show that through the power of prayer and people standing up for Christ, ebay has changed. Whether for the right reason or not they have changed. So I say thank you to anyone who prayed for, anyone who emailed, anyone who spread the word and job well done.
Peace in Him,
Tom…
Hello Tom,
Thank you for your email regarding the sale of the Holy Eucharist by one of our community members. We respect and appreciate your comments regarding this sensitive matter.
As you may know, eBay does not sell items itself. Rather, we are a global marketplace for sellers and buyers who transact directly with one another. Each day eBay’s sellers list 5 million items on the site, and those sellers decide what items they want to list. eBay did not possess, list or approve the sale of the Eucharist. The buyer and seller completed the Eucharist transaction on April 11th, before eBay even became aware of the listing.
As a marketplace, we strive to respect the diverse perspectives of our sellers. We also work hard to promote an open environment for trade.
That said, eBay has policies in place to remove listings for illegal items as well as highly offensive listings that promote hate or intolerance.
We understand that the listing of the Eucharist was highly upsetting to
Catholic members of the eBay community and Catholics globally. Once
this completed sale was brought to our attention, we consulted with a number of our users, including members of the Catholic Church, concerning what course we should take in the future should a similar listing appear on our site. We also consulted with members of other religions about items that might also be highly sacred and inappropriate for sale. As a result of this dialogue, we have concluded that sales of the Eucharist, and similar highly sacred items, are not appropriate on eBay. We have, therefore, broadened our policies and will remove those
types of listings should they appear on the site in the future.
As always, we welcome and appreciate the assistance of the community in upholding the rules of our site. Should you see another Eucharist listed on our site, we encourage you to notify us so we can take appropriate action. Further, we encourage you to directly communicate with the seller. Members are often unaware that a particular item is offensive to others. A respectful e-mail to the seller is often all that is needed for the seller to voluntarily remove the item. We believe this modification strikes the appropriate balance between respect for our community’s values and our goal of providing an open marketplace offering practically anything on earth.
Again, we sincerely appreciate your concern and thank you for communicating your views with us. Your (name removed by moderator)ut has helped us frame a policy that will enable us to better serve our diverse community of users around the world.
Regards,
Kimbal on behalf of Bill Cobb
Community Watch Team
eBay Trust & Safety
Whether you’re new to eBay or an experienced buyer and seller, the eBay Security & Resolution Center can help you protect yourself on eBay and online. For more information, please click the “Security Center” link at the bottom of most eBay pages.
