[sword-devel] [Fwd: BOUNCE sword-devel@crosswire.org: Non-member submission from ["Jeremy Bettis" <jeremyb@hksys.com>]]

[Mike Dougherty]

On Fri, 2001-12-14 at 13:23, David Burry wrote:
> I think many of you guys who are participating in this argument are missing the spirit of the Gospel... True, you **CAN** shell out a million bucks and make a new free translation if you have trust in God, since even if you don't have the money God can and definitely will provide if He has called you to do this....  but you cannot **EXPECT** everyone else to do the same.  The Gospel is about giving, you, yourself, personally, not about demanding that everyone else do the same or condemning them if they're not.
> 
> Please let's all just drop this subject, it's not productive to our work here, which is producing free software.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> 
> >> >You can't expect someone to shell out $1,000,000 or so making a new
> >> >translation, and then giving it away for free can you?
> >> 
> >> Yes, you can.
> >> 
> 

Well, I don't know about the rest of you but I feel properly chastised
;-).

Actually, given the goal of Sword I can't think of a better place to
discuss this subject. Isn't the whole point of Sword to make the Word of
God available in an Open Source environment? To quote directly from the
Sword Copyright Website "No matter how useful the tools are, or become,
their true value lies in the texts on which they operate." So if I read
that correctly developing Sword does not just include writing the code
and keeping the discussion on this list technical. But concerning all
aspects of "developing" free study tools. But then again, maybe *I* am
missing the point of Sword?

Now, as far as expecting everyone that writes a translation to be lead
by the Spirit and offer the result free-gratis. In my opinion, yes you
can, and yes you should. I believe a major problem in the church today
is that we have lowered our expectations (on a general level) so that we
don't "stand out from the crowd". When in fact we are all called to
"stand out from the crowd." So ideally, yes I can expect free-gratis
translations. Now, like everyone else I live in the real world, so I do
the best I can with what I have. But that doesn't mean I *have* to lower
my expectations to match to worlds.

So we're not "missing the point", just setting certain standards that we
believe God is expecting of us. It's kind of the same way as with our
relationship with God. He "expects" and encourages us to live up to the
standards He has set in His Word. But He gives us grace, mercy,
forgiveness, and love when we fall short of those expectations (which I
do quite often). So it is the same as our (at least my) view toward this
issue. I expect them to live up to certain standards but at the same
time I love them and will continue to encourage them in their work and
to offer that work for free-gratis.

Again, these are just my thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. Agree or
disagree if you like. They are mine, I kind of like 'em, so I'll keep
'em (for now ;-).

/mike


-- 
******************************************
 Mike Dougherty -- Java Software Engineer
******************************************
 Why is the alphabet in that order?  Is it because of that song?
 		-- Steven Wright