A recent post on a Christian Forum which I moderate made me think about my position as 1) a member of staff in the church 2) a moderator of a lively forum 3) a christian in the church family.

The post in question was asking for people who may have DVD’s or Videos which show sporting celebrations, and if you had any could the user borrow them for a project he was doing with the youth one sunday morning – he proposed to copy clips from the DVD’s & Videos and create a montage of celebrations in a 2 minute clip to show the children – he then stated “i know this is illegal but if your ok about this then so am I!”

“nothing wrong with that!” i hear you cry but lets think a bit longer on this – copying from a dvd or video is in breach of copyright – this in itself is breaking the law, then by cracking a dvd to rip it onto a computer to be able to get segments for clips is then not only breaking copyright but also piracy.

this made me think 1st should he openly admit he as a christian is breaking the law? the answer to this is no, but as we are all aware piracy is a fast growing craze with internet peer to peer file sharing programmes readily availible, and CD-RW drives easily accesible from computer shops, is this another law which we as christians turning a blind eye too?

but what was more worring to me was the fact he was doing it for the church sunday school, and as the leader of the sunday school shouldnt he be creating a responsible attitude to the law, and be a good model for the youngsters?

i could provide answers for what i think to these questions but i want to personally challenge you to find the answers for yourself, i can honestly say yes, i have ripped cds and copied them and yes i do have a few pirate dvd’s in my collection, bust since this post came up it challenged me to say is this acceptable behaviour, and after some searching i agreed it wasnt and if i couldnt afford to buy the DVD or CD in question then i will have to wait until i can. if i have been entrusted in a position of responsability as a christian, i should try my hardest to live the life of Jesus and be a respected Model for those who i work with and those who look up to me in my position.

In a society that is becoming more and more liberal how many more laws as christians will we turn our backs on as it becomes more readily acceptable to break them in the society we live in? if we are to show light to the world then these small things will make a difference!