[sword-devel] An apology ......

[Joel Mawhorter]

Greetings Barry,

I very much appreciate all of the hard work that you put into the Sword 
project. However, I must strongly question what right you have to 
singlehandedly determine the policy of a project made up of many different 
people. I believe that if you take a look through the sword-devel archies you 
will find that Johan's comments do reflect the opinions of a number of people 
on this list. It is possible that, as you suggest, these types of comments 
are counterproductive. It is also possible that Bible socities need some 
prophetic help in being woken up from their slumber to the seriousness and 
urgency of the task at hand. I am not on the sword-support list so I don't 
have the full text of the original message that you are replying to. If in 
that message, Johan claimed to speak for the Sword project then that was out 
of place. Regardless, I believe it is very much out of place to try to 
suppress the expression of opinions on debatable matters, both on and off 
this list, when they are expressed in a calm and loving manner. What I find 
especially disturbing is your apology on behalf of the Sword project to Dr. 
Hermanson. How can you apologize on behalf of the people in this project who 
agree with Johan? I for one hope that Dr. Hermanson does not disregard what 
Johan has said but listens carefully to it and examines the attitude and 
motivation of the Bible society he represents.

In Christ,

Joel

On May 6, 2003 03:55, Barry Drake wrote:
> Dear Dr. Hermanson ......
>
> May I apologise on behalf of the Sword Project for a message sent you by
> Johan Kok.  His attitude does not reflect the policy of the Sword Project
> and should be disregarded.  Please accept my personal apology for any
> offense caused.  I have written to him as follows:
>
> On 6 May 2003 at 9:00, Johan Kok wrote:
> > GOD gave his word for free. No man or organisation has the right to keep
> > it from His people with copyright laws, thus you are defeating the object
> > of your society by blocking the free distribution of His word.
>
> I'm sorry but this kind of comment - whatever we may think privately - is
> NOT helpful to the Sword programme.  It has the opposite effect to opening
> doors, and means that when we later make approaches to copyright holders
> who have been bombarded with this kind of thing, we are not listened to at
> all.  Please, please keep this kind of thinking to yourselves or if you
> must, to the list!
>
> God bless,
> Barry
>
> -- From Barry Drake (The Revd) minister of the Netherfield United Reformed
> church, Nottingham see http://www.jesusinnetherfield.org.uk for our church
> homepages).
>
> Replies - b.drake@ntlworld.com
>
>
>
>
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