Sunday, June 24, 2012

Open Source & Christianity: They just seem to go together


This idea has been gnawing at my mind for a while. To me, Christianity and 'open source' simply seem to go together. Let me try to briefly explain why.

In a nutshell, open source involves collaborating on the development of software solutions to meet real needs, then freely sharing the solution with the world.

Similarly, Christian organizations or churches involve people gathering together to better understand God, our relationship to Him, our purpose in life, and then learning how to work together to deal with everyday problems and issues we face in this world.

Both 'open source' and Christianity are about working together, serving others, sharing, doing good works, and meeting real needs of our communities. They both involve giving up personal control and power, humbling oneself, working with others, and freely sharing  what is collectively produced.

I'm sure others can better communicate what I'm trying to say – and I hope they do. I just felt compelled to take a shot at sharing my thoughts. I also wanted to point you to some of the many great, high quality 'free and open source software' (FOSS) solutions now available to religious organizations, churches and individuals.

Check out some of these open source solutions by visiting the non-profit COSI Open Religious Technology web site at – http://religion.cositech.net
 
'Open Source' Religious Technology & Software – Selected Examples

All religious organizations, churches, and their members should seriously consider using free and open source software. After you check out this topic a bit more, you might want to consider joining an open source community project or community. Finally, let others in your church and community know about some of the many high quality, free and open source solutions available to them.

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