On Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:24, Arthur Wiebe wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > In case you don't know I'm the one who created the distribution in > question. > > First of all I believe that the contents of the RTF file should be > welcomed by everyone, and I also believe they are true. > But I also realize that it may be harmful to this project by turning > people away from it. > > I am not a religious person but do believe Jesus Christ meant it when > he said "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every > creature" and saw this as another potential medium. > > What I will do and am in the process of doing is update the package to > include this in an About.rtf file: > > "The following contents have been included by Arthur Wiebe and may not > reflect the views of any of the contributors or developers of the > FlightGear project." > > O hope that satisfies this issue. > I also believe the Bible when it says, "If it be possible, as much as > lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." > > By the way I am also going to fix the permissions issue at the same time.
Arthur, I share the same beliefs as you do but I also feel that there are times and places which are not appropriate to share ones faith. For instance in an office environment where your employer is paying you to do a job - not saving souls. That would be stealing from your employer unless it was during a lunch break. Or for instance where people do not wish to hear your beliefs. Let people rather ask you instead of shoving it in their face. That only serves to alienate people instead of drawing them to Christ. When one reads the gospels you see in nearly every account that the gospel was preached to those who came on their own accord to listen. People went out to hear John the baptist yelling "Repent!" in the desert - John didn't go around bashing people doors down or dropping pamphlets in people's mail boxes. The same with Jesus - people came to him because he had something to offer. The few times he was confrontational was when he was challenging the religious leaders of the time for their hypocrisy. God gave Adam and Eve a free will to choose between good and evil and I certainly think he expects us to treat others the same way. That doesn't mean you have to respect what they believe but rather their choice to believe what they want to. I can't tell you how you should reach out to the lost around you but I do believe one should always do so in a PERSONAL capacity, always respecting the beliefs of those around you even if you think they are wrong and are on the way to hell. Whether you want to remove the file or not is your choice but just consider for a moment that a lot of people have put work into FG and they don't necessarily share the same beliefs. You may possibly be offending them by re-distributing their hard work with your beliefs. If I was a *radical* Muslim I would probably come and burn your house down. ;-) Paul _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
