Re: [Linux-aus] Request for Grant from Linux Australia for Ubertweak

Bret Busby <bret@busby.net> · Wed Sep 13 00:10:03 2006

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:

On Tuesday 12 September 2006 23:17, Tim Ansell <mithro@mithis.com> wrote:

On Tue, 2006-09-12 at 12:41 +1000, Elspeth Thorne wrote:

Ubertweak is a Christian camp for high school kids that
is run (at present) twice a year in Winter and Spring, and has been
running since 1996. Our parent organisation is Scripture Union
Queensland.

I have to admit that as a non-Christian this makes me a little uneasy.
I thank you for being open enough to clearly mention in the proposal
that you are a Christan camp.
From your website it appears that the camp is clearly for the promotion

and furthering the Christian faith.
For example, on the Leader section:
        It is a requirement of Scripture Union camps that leaders be
        committed christians involved in annual scripture union
        leadership training events.
and on the A Day in the Life of section:
        9:00am Where else should God be but first in our lives, and our
        day.
I don't think it would be appropriate for Linux Australia to provide
funds for an event which specifically has the purpose of promoting a
specific religion (or even no religion, such as an atheist event).

I quite agree.
Especially with the feral government embarking on a religous 
vilification campaign against muslims, I suggest that the timing would 
be extra bad, for Linux Australia to be supporting a particular 
religion, and specifically thee one that appears to be the one that the 
feral government is pushing (christians are goodies and muslims are 
terrorists), in its campign of religious vilification.
It would be unfortunate for Linux Australia to be seen as taking sides 
in what the trinity of evil (the usa, uk and australian governments) 
have started as yet another religious crusade against muslims.
I am not of any of these religions, and, about the only good thing about 
the usa at the moment, is that, in spite of what the usa government is 
doing, I believe that the usa constitution states that there shall be no 
state religion, which means that it is unconstitutional for any usa 
government body to support any particular religion.
I think that the same should apply to Linux Australia - it should not 
support any particular religion, and, I believe that, from the above, to 
grant the application, would be Linux Australia buying into a particular 
religion. The use of the term "buying into" in that sentence, is 
metaphorical, and not literal.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams,
  published by Pan Books, 1992
....................................................