I recently paid a visit to Psah Toul Tom Poung, the main tourist market in Phnom Penh, to buy some new clothes for the kiddies. It was a relatively uneventful affair. We plowed our way through a morass of people, rummaged through heaps of clothes, made our purchases, and departed. As usual, the last few vendors near our chosen exit were vendors selling bootleg DVDs, VCDs, CDs, and software. Windows Vista? Adobe Photoshop? Quickbooks? All these and can be yours for just a dollar. Two dollars if you don’t bargain.
For better or for worse, the sight of such brazen disregard for the law and ethics has long since lost its ability to enrage me. So it is that I surprised myself by the degree of disgust and anger that engulfed me when I saw one particular software package on display … Bibleworks 6.0.
There is something seriously, deeply, disturbingly wrong about buying bootleg Bible software.
What’s even more disturbing to me is that few, very few, other missionaries would seem to agree.
About two weeks ago Anita and I were having dinner with a missionary family for whom we have great love and respect. As our conversation turned toward our imminent departure from Cambodia, the husband casually said, “So, you’d better go to Toul Tom Poung to stock up on DVDs and software before you back to the States.” I didn’t know how to respond. It didn’t seem appropriate to issue a rebuke but neither did I want to laugh it off. I was silent. Anita then said, “We don’t buy bootleg movies or software.” Our friends looked at with shock, and a measure of embarrassment, and joked, “You guys are too holy for us!” We all laughed, the tension was defused, and the evening progressed.
But the issue remains.
About two years ago, through the reading of Joshua 7, I was convicted that individual sins affect the whole faith community. In that chapter, the Israelites were beaten severely by the Amorites such that the “hearts of the people melted and became like water.” In response Joshua and the elder threw themselves down on the ground before the ark and Joshua cried out to God. It was God’s response that struck me in a powerful way, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? … they have stolen, they have lied … I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.” In other words, why should God bless us if we’re not fulfilling our part of the bargain?
This struck me because I found myself praying fervently, often with my face to the ground before God, for God to work powerfully through the missionary community but it often seemed like my prayers fell on deaf ears. Yes good things are happening but not enough to change the nation and not on a scale that causes God’s name to be honored by Christians and Buddhists alike. So the Holy Spirit convicted me that there was sin in our camp, that God was ticked about it, and that if we wanted to be used to bless the poor then we would need to purify ourselves.
So I went to my team and shared with them how deeply disturbing it was to me that they purchased illegal media. In an attempt to clarify my position, one teammate said, “What Danny is saying is that we should try to refrain from breaking copyrights frivolously.” So I clarified by saying, “No, what I’m saying is that it’s wrong to break copyrights, period.” After that meeting only one teammate approached me and asked me how she could proceed with “going legit”. I praise God for her, but am still deeply saddened that many on my team, and most in the larger missionary community, purchase illegal media without a second thought.
Which brings me back to Bibleworks 6.0. The reason I was filled with such disgust is that the market vendors, who are probably animistic Buddhists, realized that there was an untapped market for media specifically targeting the huge missionary community. Though our purchases of their software may bless the vendors financially, I fail to see how we are revealing anything about our God who calls us to be holy as he is holy.
{ 8 } Comments
I remember I was in total shock at how little our teammates responded to your “gentle rebuke” regarding purchasing non-copyright stuff. Just a week later, I wanted to lend a book to a teammate and she responded, “Could you just make photo copies of it for everyone?”
I’ve heard many excuses from our fellow Christians, “But there is no where in Cambodia to buy legitimate stuff.”, “Microsoft/Hollywood is making billions anyway.”, “Why would a Christian author mind if we distribute tons of photo copies of their books if we’re not making a profit.”, “There is no copy-write laws in Cambodia so it’s actually not illegal.”
One teammate, Hayden, who is usually really calm surprised me when he had an outburst, “I just bought 3 movies from Amazon.com and had them delivered to me here in Phnom Penh. I’m tired of hearing people making excuses saying that they can’t get things legally!” Hayden has since formed a “Legit DVD club” for those who refuse to buy and watch bootlegged DVDs to share and swap real stuff. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people joined.
When it’s so easy, available and CHEAP to buy bootlegged stuff, we fail to see that we’re just giving into the corruption that we’ve become so used to. More than disgusting me, it saddens me that we missionaries are ruining our own witness by encouraging illegal activity. Are we any better than the “pagans” we are trying to “convert”?
Hi Hado,
I just sent you the following email at the address you gave but it bounced back saying it didn’t exist…
Is this bible software from a non-profit or for-profit venture?
Should the bible be exploited for financial gain?
Isn’t it a good thing to distribute the bible in any manner possible?
Is illegally smuggling a bible into a non-Christian country any worse than selling a copied CD?
This is an interesting topic with hard to define, “right or wrongs”
NB. my question about smuggling bibles into countries was comparative in a regional sense because many governments ban this although I believe it is not true in Cambodia.
But surely if you follow the law then missions to China or other countries could not happen?
Is it okay to break the law for Jesus?
thanks for your insightful comment.
Wow, Danny, I didn’t know you had such an eclectic mix of readers. I have no idea if Details are Sketchy was responding to the issue you raised, or just making a blanket anti-missionary statement, in which case it was an empty comment. And Hado misses the point entirely, since nowhere in your post is there anything about being superior over Cambodians. That would be the absolute last thing to ever come from you. This is about the behavior of you and your team. Anyway, knowing you as well as I do, your response is very typcial Danny, and it makes me smile. You’ve never been one to sit quietly by in the face of injustice and sin. It’s got nothing to do with you having a sense of superiority (usually).
If you’re correct that the vendors are trying to target the missionary market, then it puts the whole thing in perspective. At first I thought, well what Cambodian would even be able to use BibleWorks? It’s in English, Greek, and Hebrew, and it’s a tool for academics and pastors. So then I think you’re right that foreign Christians (missionaries or otherwise) would be doing something dubious by buying it. The whole time I was reading your post, I was like, well just buy it from Amazon. I mean, how hard is that? Don’t our smallest actions reveal the condition of our heart. And you are exactly right, God calls us to a life of holiness in all our actions, big and small. Compromise in the small things probably can lead to a willingness later on to compromise in the bigger things.
Steven raises some good questions, although BibleWorks is not just the Bible, and as I mentioned, it would be useless for most Cambodians, even Christians probably. The issue of Bible smuggling is sticky. When I lived in China, Bibles were readily and easily available. You could buy them at a government church. I even saw them alongside Mao’s little red book in street markets. I decided then that smuggling Bibles has little to do with the actual need, and more to do with foreign Christians wanting to feel like they’re doing something dangerous and important. I suppose there are places in China where Bibles are not so freely available, but that was my experience in two different out of the way cities.
Maybe you could have a discussion with your team about how buying bootleg stuff might adversely affect the team’s witness, and how it might reveal a spiritual blindspot. At the same time, I’d guess that most people just don’t really give it any thought, so it’s not like they’re out trying to break the law or be evil or something. So be gentle and humble.
“establishment”ative. Why should Microsoft or Intuit develop Khmer versions of their software if they know they will never recoup any of their costs?
BTW, I miss having these types of discussions with you in person. Looking forward to seeing you again this summer!
I struggled with this issue in another Asian country, too. I didn’t buy illegitimate media myself, but I watched DVDs with a family who unabashedly did. I am still not sure that was the best decision. I am glad that you brought up the issue as it does reveal one’s heart condition as Kevin pointed out, but I have to wonder if it really makes that much of a difference in your witness. God definitely has his standards, but it seems normative for Cambodians to purchase their media in this way; I don’t really know, but I wonder how they would perceive the missionaries’ “going legit.”
Anyways, a lot of Hollywood movies, etc. aren’t really good for you — maybe the incessant and unquestioned exposure to such things reveal more about one’s heart condition.
Interesting point about rooting out sin in one’s camp; I agree that we need to be on good praying ground in order to expect our prayers to be effective.
{ 2 } Trackbacks
1″
“0
”
431
”
stevenvlady
“dcolombara@gmail.com
“http://www.colombara.org/danny
202.47.102.37″
“2008-02-29 01:09:24
2008-02-29 06:15:242008-02-29 01:09:24
”
Hi Hado,
I just sent you the following email at the address you gave but it bounced back saying it didn’t exist…432thanks for the comment … i definitely appreciate varying viewpoints from any and all persons who read the blog.-dc
Anita responds:
Um, no. Welcome to reality. What took you so long to get here?
Post a Comment