[Foundation-l] Religion and conversion and evangelism

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

On Jan 19, 2008 3:25 AM, Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> I believe, not wholly irrationally, that much of the discussion about
> how or whether to engage third parties in the free-software, free-
> culture movements is essentially religious.
>
> For some people, the only approach that feels right is a
> Fundamentalist approach -- a potential convert must surrender
> everything, and must prove having surrendered everything, before we
> will even begin to work with the potential convert and teach what we
> believe is the right path.
>
> For others -- think of them as Proselytizers -- the potential convert
> is engaged with, persuaded, argued with, and a little progress is
> given a little reward, while a lot of progress is given a lot of reward.
>
> Me, I tend to side with the Proselytizers, although of course I
> respect the doctrinal purity of the Fundamentalists.
>
> At the same time, I'm wary, because Fundamentalists tend to hate
> heretics more than they hate infidels. When they get angry, it's not
> just the infidels they're ready to string up.
>
> Movements expand, I think, when they welcome potential converts at
> least as much as they test them. I suspect that anyone here who has a
> criticism of Kaltura would find that, if he or she directed their
> criticisms directly to Shay David at Kaltura rather than the
> Foundation for daring to think that Kaltura might be converted, he or
> she would find that Shay is actually quite interested in addressing
> (and fixing) whatever problems you address.

Notwithstanding the real life issues we are discussing, I have no choice
but to admire teh casting of Erik as a modern day John Wesley, and us
folks insisting on free and open source as stick in the mud Quietists,
quite audacious. Bravo!

--
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]