As a missional-minded Christian I find myself thinking about how to reach out to and help those who experience poverty on a daily basis. Over and over again the bible speaks out against systemic poverty. There’s recognition that poverty is a part of the ongoing brokenness of humanity, but there’s also the promise that in God’s Kingdom injustices such as poverty will be overcome. Still, poverty remains a pervasive problem in the world today.

Most of us in the middle class don’t often come face to face with poverty. From time to time we may feel “broke” because we have over-extended our finances and over-stretched our credit. But in my opinion that’s different than being truly poor.

There are a number of personal finance books out these days with titles like You’re Broke Because You Want To Be that remind people of this in very frank ways. And while I think there’s some room for sensitivity in helping people to recognize how their consumerism-driven habits are wreaking havoc on their long-term financial sustainability, these forthright books do have the upside that they bring to light some of the differences between being broke and experiencing “real” poverty. Trent over at The Simple Dollar blog writes on this quite well.

I think that over time we can become disillusioned into thinking that we know what poverty is like, especially during times of “economic turmoil” like we are currently experiencing. But unless we’re put in situations where our lives cross paths with those who are impoverished we can only speculate and pretend we know what it’s like.

This is especially troublesome for Christians. As we try and find ways of participating in God’s work towards the continuing realization of the Kingdom, we are called to reach out to those who are hungry, thirsty, and without shelter. This inevitably includes the poor. Yet how can we reach out to those we don’t even know or ever encounter? How can we provide any sort of real help to those who are poor if we don’t also seek to establish relationships with them?

I’ll be honest in saying that I personally don’t have a lot of experience with those who are truly poor. I’ve helped with service projects, food pantries, and disaster response trips that sought to help those who were deeply in need, but even then there was little opportunity for real relationship. Now, in my work as a pastor, I occasionally come face-to-face with poverty in very real ways, but it’s not very often and it’s rarely because I have taken the initiative to reach out to those who are poor.

If Christians are to engage in working towards God’s Kingdom then at some point we will have to start taking real steps towards alleviating poverty. Groups like Sojourners and the ONE Campaign have been campaigning for a while now to fight poverty and are working to raise poverty-related issues during this year’s election. Next week I’ll be preaching with an eye towards the election and poverty will surely be one of the Kingdom-related issues I’ll encourage people to think about as November 4th draws near.

So what experiences do you have with poverty? In what ways have you been active in helping to alleviate the plight of the poor? How can we as Christians find real and tangible ways of reaching out to those who suffer in poverty in our communities and around the world? Feel free to share any of your thoughts in the comments …

Open Source & Freedom

Linux is an operating system that is based on the “open source” model. In explaining what open source software is, the discussion often shifts quickly to the issue of freedom. One of the attributes of Linux that is often used to convince people to try it is because it’s free, it costs them no money to use it. While this is sometimes true, it is a distortion of the freedom of open source. The phrases that are often used in describing the freedom of open source are “free as in beer” and “free as in speech.” Put briefly, not all open source software is necessarily available free of charge. In fact many of the versions of Linux that are used by businesses and corporations can cost quite a bit. However, true open source software is always free as in speech.

At it’s most basic definition, open source is software where the end-user is allowed to change the source code of the program to suit their needs or desires. This means that if a user is technically savvy enough to know how to make changes in the programming language the software is written in they can adapt it to their particular situation. Often times users are then allowed to redistribute their new version. This contrasts with the “closed source” model, which has been the predominant method in the computer industry and used by companies like Microsoft, in which the end-user is given permission only to use software as the original author intended, and does not allow for any unauthorized changes, modifications, or distribution.

Why does it matter?

For those who could not edit the source code of a program if their life depended on it, why should you care whether or not the software you use is open or closed source? I’ve heard “open source evangelists” take a number of different tacts to this. One is the economic route – the scenario mentioned previously based on acquiring software that is “free as in beer.” While this may appeal to some people’s purse strings, I think it trivializes some of the larger implications of open source. Besides, most average users will never install a new operating system, so to them whatever version of Microsoft Windows (Or Mac OS X) came preinstalled on their computer probably seems just as free in this sense. Similarly, it is an unfortunate reality that software piracy leads to many people acquiring closed source software for free using less-than-legal methods.

In my mind, the attractiveness of open source (and in turn Linux) is that it is a more socially just model for using technology. As a Christian and a concerned world citizen I care whether or not my actions are furthering social justice or hindering it. Open source allows people and populations to adapt and use software in ways that are most useful to their situation, whether it is because of language issues, social context, cultural differences, and so on. Large, closed-source software companies are often less interested in smaller, less economically viable markets because of their primarily profit-based nature. Meanwhile open source allows programs to be translated into many different languages and settings and to be easily (and legally) distributed.

Open source software is available for all different operating systems, with one of the most popular examples being the Mozilla Firefox internet browser. Another great open source program is OpenOffice.org, a full featured open source alternative to Microsoft Office. But in my opinion the ultimate expression of open source is the Linux operating system. Because of its open source nature, there are many different versions (called distributions) of Linux. I personally have chosen to use Ubuntu Linux, but there are many other no-cost options that are just as viable, such as Fedora, openSUSE, Foresight, gOS, and more.

The nice thing about many distributions is that they available on a “LiveCD” which allows potential new users to try the operating system without making any irreversible changes to their computers.

It is important to me to support business practices and institutions that I feel are working toward fairness and equality. This is especially true with technology, because it can create such a rift between the haves and the have-nots. For me, I feel that supporting Linux and open soure software in general are ways to make technology more accessible to a broader range of people. One way I see this happening is through initiatives that make old computers and hardware usable once again by installing Linux and then making them available to people and families that may not otherwise be able to afford a computer.

If you still don’t want to use Linux …

I’ll freely admit that not everyone will want to (or even be able to) switch over to Linux. I promise I won’t think any less of you, and if anyone else does then shame on them. However, there are still some things you can do to help support social justice issues when it comes to computers. If you are interested in open source and don’t want to take the big step of replacing your operating system, give Firefox or OpenOffice a try. If you don’t want to (or can’t for whatever reason) take that step and you still want to support socially just computing, then you might consider donating money to an organization that is working to further such values. I also realize that some of you may not be interested in doing any of these things, even if you agree that Linux and open source are great ways of making technology more accessible. However, there are still some things you can do as well.

Let me tell you a short story: I recently had some interactions with an organization that required me to complete some extensive paperwork for them. (I won’t name any names, but some of you who know me may be able to figure out the identity of this organization.) To complete this paperwork, I had to use a program that only runs in Microsoft Windows. This was a problem for me, since none of my computers use Windows as their primary operating system. Thankfully I was able to set up a “virtual” instance of Windows that allowed me to use this program, but had I not had access to a legitimate Windows license and install CD I wouldn’t have been able to use this program and would not have been able to fill out the important paperwork. After using the program I had to upload a file to this organization’s web site. I first tried this using Firefox on my Linux computer, only to have it fail. I called them and discovered that their web site would only work with Internet Explorer.

I share this story as an example of how you (and others) can support social justice through supporting Linux and open source software. Our actions must not stop at celebrating the fact that there is a free and fair alternative to often expensive and inaccessible closed source programs. Linux and open source software not only address a social justice issue but they also create another. Once people have access to technology and the internet, we must also do what we can to make sure they are not treated as second-class because they do not use Microsoft Windows. Companies and organizations need to realize this as they require the use of computer programs and web sites that only work with Windows.

I don’t expect this article will cause anyone who hasn’t considered using Linux to do so. If it does, by all means let me know how it goes and if you have any questions. It is my hope that together we can begin to help others understand that Linux and other open source programs are not only used by “geeks” anymore, but are a viable alternative for less privileged people in this country and throughout the world, for non-profit organizations (such as churches) who cannot afford to spend lots of money on computers and software, and for users like me who want to support social justice in the area of technology. Regardless of what operating system and other software you may use, it’s time to stop looking down our noses at one another and recognize the social implications of the way we all interact with computers.