I think you will find nobody more troubled by the horrible things you mention than Christians. I agree that some of those things were done under the name of Christianity, but I don’t agree with they were compatible with the teachings of that religion. Do not blind yourself to the good that Christians have done; they were the earliest anti-slavery advocates in the United States, helped slaves escape, and have acted for peace and against violence across the world.

The image of Jesus’ death isn’t about a guilt trip. I know it can be presented that way sometimes, but that is not the only way to understand it. I don’t actually see it as the core of the religion either. But you are missing what happened there. It was the Romans, not the Christians, that inflicted death; Christians are called to give of themselves for the good of everyone. Many have suffered and died for that. The roots of my own church go back to the time when the anabaptist Christians in Europe were protesting corruption and state relationships with the official churches, and as a result were tortured and killed by other Christians. Not a pretty picture, but you can find two stories there: one, of power-hungry people using Christianity as an excuse to torture and kill; and the other, of peace-loving people willing to endure torture and death rather than hurt others. One famous story involves Dirk Willems. Dirk escaped from a Dutch prison, and having lost a lot of weight, was able to run across a frozen lake. Guards pursued him, and one of them fell through the ice and was drowning. Dirk turned around and went back to rescue the guard, and was himself recaptured and then burned at the stake. There’s a powerful thread of love there that you might be missing.

I realize that my comment sounds hateful, but I feel that for balance, the other side of Christianity should be mentioned.

If you just want to spread love, live by the words of the beetles – All you need is love.

Thanks for your very nice testimony. And as one of the readers through Planet Debian, I really appreciate all your posts, be it about your religion (which I share to some degree – I’m not anymore a member of any church, but strongly believe in the less controversial christian ideals, which also seems to be your position) or your boys (BTW: If you ever come to northern part of Germany with the boys, make sure to visit the miniaturwunderland in Hamburg).

kind regards,
Sven

Despite, and because of, his words, I don’t particularly identify Pat Robertson as a Christian. He has managed to miss the point so completely that it’s not very recognizable.

Anyhow, I digress. I think that, despite the language people often use, and the obvious differences, you faith and mine are not all that different at their very core.

As for all the trolls going on about religion, from what I’ve seen over the past few years John seems to post more about his boys than about his church, and yet there’s no flaming about those two being off-topic for whatever planet it happens to fall on. Why not? Honestly, I tend to skip those posts more often than the religious ones (sorry John)— and that’s even accounting for the fact that I’m generally opposed to christianity. But I read and enjoy the religious posts because John asks interesting questions and demonstrates that not all christians are fundamentalists opposed to rational enquiry. I’d be much fonder of the religion if it included more folks like him. I have as little patience for atheistic zealotry as I do for religious zealotry.

And John’s not the only Haskeller to blog often about politics and religion, I do the same thing on my blog. The fact that mine isn’t syndicated on the planet has more to do with laziness on my part than because of the FAQ. And I agree with both John and the maintainers of Haskell Planet that restricting it to technical content devalues it. The planet is about building community, and in communities people are often driven by things other than whatever it is that brought them together that day. Being aware of those motivations is important for understanding one another and keeping the community together and harmonious.

It’s pretty easy to get a Haskell tag feed of this blog, and if the maintainers of Planet Haskell wish that instead of what they’re currently using, they can use http://changelog.complete.org/archives/tag/haskell-s9y/feed instead of what they’re using now. I’m not going to request it because I think that having a Planet be only technical devalues it, and because I’m not in agreement that these posts violate their standards; however, I also won’t stand in the way if they disagree or change their standards. I don’t want to be the annoying one. But three comments on a blog doesn’t a consensus indicate.

I like that Planet is a window into what is going on in the lives of Debian contributors. If I wanted technical Debian discussion with no off-topic, personal information, there are plenty of mailing-lists I could read instead.

Secondly, within the Debian context at least, I have solicited input from the community. I talk here about Debian, Haskell, Python, my boys, Kansas, religion, philosophy, literature, whatever interests me. Which is no different from what most other people do. Today I see posts about someone getting engaged, a great photo of a cat, some solar power data, someone else’s post about religion and taxation, and a black and white photo of some hands. Plus a lot of technical content. The feedback I have generally received is that most people like it this way.

All of the above is valuable, and the Planet is one of the few ways I have to get to know my fellow hackers better. If it became a dry, “Debian technical only” place, then I would stop reading it. As it is, there is more there than I have time to read, which is a wonderful problem to have.

I would like to point out that it is difficult to separate religion from a number of topics. How can one, for instance, review Homer’s Odyssey without discussing religion? Or War and Peace? Or Bach’s music?

If you have a visceral gut reaction against religion, you might want to read more carefully what I’m saying. My post was not a solicitation for anyone to become religious. It wasn’t a put-down of atheists. It was simply a story of what’s been happening with me.

Personally, I enjoy reading how people grapple with important issues of our day, whether they be politics, religion, freedom, whatever. I can learn from, and am friends with, atheists, agnostics, and people from all sorts of religion.

Having said all that, and also recognizing that you have a delete key just as usable as everyone else’s, I don’t want to have my posts appear at places where they’re unwanted. I will contact Planet Haskell people and see if they have a problem with it. (Any Planet Debian person is also welcome to contact me in case they think the situation has changed.)

I’m not following this blog, I’m following Planet Debian. Religion and operating systems are nowhere related.

I’m just asking the author to avoid aggregating all his posts to the planets, if it’s not on-topic.

Let me just say that I’m no longer involved with Haskell (went back to Python) but follow John’s blog even though ‘my religion’ is not Christianity. :-)

It’s nice to see intelligent people living & writing about God…Otoh there are plenty of techy blogs not bringing much value for their readers.

Thank you, John ;)

Please configure your blog to use tags and set the correct feed URL on the planets!

Thank you.

Thanks John. I am not a Christian but it is just terrific to see sincere and intelligent testimonies of religious faith. There is hardly much that is more important than the meaningful life. It shouldn’t be driven from the public discourse.

I am reminded of the famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” If the prominent Christians in most of the world’s discourse today followed your inspired example, Gandhi would have had no reason to draw that contrast.

Even though I am not part of your faith, I am grateful that you and your brethren are bearing truer witness to Jesus’ inclusive teachings than judgmental ideologues like Pat Robertson and Tony Perkins have ever known.

- Jimmy

Interestingly. I was just reading a post earlier today on reddit about the mennonites so it was in my thoughts.

http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/hh4t2/i_dont_always_post_pictures_of_my_commute_but/c1vdkni