Consider a Boycott of Microsoft Software

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??? They also supported medicine to cure river blindness in African children, sponsor NPR (my fav. radio station) and are heavily into research for an AIDS vaccine – no one is going to always do things you like, but honestly I think MOST things the Gates Foundation does are highy admirable and I’m impressed that they actually DO give back to the world community instead of just hoarding their wealth like so many other “wealthy” people seem to do …
 
So you are saying that we can tolerate abortion as long as we’re doing some good things!!??
 
There is good and bad in everything. It’s an organization mainly operating to help people in areas where medicine and medial care is in desperately short supply –

We have so many luxuries that other people don’t have – far be it from me to begrudge a philanthropic organization my money because it funds one thing I disagree with and 100 things I agree with …

Now I am more than happy to boycott Microsoft because it takes unfair advantage of small business competetors in a monopolistic sort of way, but this has absolutely nothing to do with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
I don’t know how you can consider yourself a Catholic and not be concerned about millions of dollars going to organizations that promote abortion.
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– and Greg, this kind of nastiness is uncalled for – I am Catholic if you like it or not – I may not VOTE the way you do, I many not LIVE the way you do, but I live fully within the precepts set out for me by our same Catholic faith – if those guidelines lead me to one ideology and you to another and that’s going to have to be ok for BOTH of us.

When I call myself Catholic I do so with a pride in our history of social justice promoting organizations and with our history of tolerance for others and love for our fellow man regardless of background, race, religion and so on. This is how I call myself Catholic.

----- so as not to make a fight now, I am more than happy to know that there are people who have the same faith as I do and it leads them to a place of political conservatism … this is ok with me – you are just fine being that way, woo for you … :clapping:

now, can you do the same for someone like me?:tiphat:
 
I don’t consider it nastiness to point out that a Catholic should care about millions of dollars going to organizations that promote abortion.

Compare the amounts given to “population control” vs. other charities.
 
Bill Gates started Microsoft and still drives it, but he’ll be gone eventually and the company is bigger than him. I think with such a large company you can guarantee there’ll be at least one good Christian somewhere in the work force, possibly even in the management.

On the weekend we heard in the first reading about Abraham questioning God over the cities of Soddom and Gomorrah and God told him He would not condemn the cities even if he found only 50, 45, 40, 30, 20 or 10 just men in them. Meaning that however small the good was in a group of people, the whole group would not be condemned.

I think we can apply that to Microsoft. The mission of the company is not to promote Bill Gates’s views on human life issues - it’s to produce software. If it became “Microsoft Software and Fertility Control”, we could condemn its actions and boycott it. But it is just a software company whose founder and current boss is of questionable intent in some areas and we need to look past him and support the company and its other staff.
 
I hear what everyone is saying but we need to get the message out that killing the unborn is not acceptable. Refusing financial support is a great way to do this.

Yes, I looked for good Christians on the Microsoft web-site. What I found is a Merck executive on the Microsoft Board of Directors!! Merck is another company to watch!!!
priestsforlife.org/news/infonet/Infonet03-03-27.htm#merck
christianity.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,PTID4211|CHID102753|CIID212998,00.html

Note how Merck is also associated with the Gates foundation and the children are singing songs about condoms!!!
catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1091

Don’t Vote Democratic:
catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=1603
 
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Greg_McPherran:
. . .we need to get the message out that killing the unborn is not acceptable. Refusing financial support is a great way to do this.
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Are you ready to begin withholding taxes because the Federal government and all State governments have declared abortion to be legal?

Where will you move? Vatican City is probably the only country in the world where abortion is illegal.

And they have a pretty strict immigration policy. 😛
 
The problem you see with the Gates Foundation is that they give money to ‘reproductive health’. This could mean anything from making sure pregnant mother’s with AIDS are on the proper medication, to education about how to prevent spreading the disease, they could just be offering pre-natal care to women who would otherwise not get any … Do they fund abortions? I don’t know – Probably some of the time – is their main goal to provide abortions? certainly not! They are involved mainly in providing health care to nations where it is scarce –

The people in Africa are not necessarily Catholic – so while OUR faith says to not use contraception I think in their case even the most conservative would prefer for people to be “Protected” in that society –

I know it’s not a 100% prevention, but they can extend people’s lives, they can save some innocent babies from having the diesase that will eventually steal their parents from them –

If the intent of a “contraception” is not the prevention of pregnancy for selfish reasons it is allowed in the Catholic faith – women who have severe cycles and need to be on the pill to prevent anemia/sickness are permitted to take the pill according our faith – The side effect of preventing pregnancy is something we deal with in those cases.

In the same way providing “protection” for people with AIDS or in a society where AIDS is rampant and killing twice as many people a day as abortion kills in the US I should think the good done by not passing the disease makes the prevention of a pregnancy understandable.
 
IMO, it would be near impossible to boycott Microsoft, since they practically have a monopoly in the computer industry.
If you boycott Microsoft, how many people would be on these posts? Probably a few hundred.
Just like the story about the boy and the starfish, we can’t save them all but we can save those that we can.

go with God!
Edwin
 
To those who are going to be boycotting Microsoft software, if you want to completely give up MS, you will have to stop visiting forums.catholic-questions.org, which is running on Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) web hosting system. Oops!

How can I tell? Just browse to any non-extistent page, like [this one](Internet Information Services (IIS)) and you’ll find an error from IIS.

Guess we won’t be seeing you around here any more, right?
 
Let’s work together as Catholics to CHANGE the world.

If all Catholics voted Republican or non-Democrat there would be plenty of a majority to change the abortion system.

If all Catholics worked on a new operating system we could use it for good.

Right now we make a few so rich and powerful that they can decide what’s best for the poor, weak, and helpless women of the world. Granted they may do some good, but the rest is inexcusable. These women need education of their dignity and real healthcare with medicine and the love of Jesus. These women don’t need to be overrun with chemicals. How many of these abortions are coerced or exploitative? These women are weak and poor. Our rich organizations supported by the Gates Foundation are showing up with portable vacuum abortion devices and contraceptive body-polluting chemicals and abotifacients.

This is not revealing the love of Jesus to them. It’s heartbreaking.

This is the organization that the Gates Foundation has given millions to:
ippf.org/about/strategi.htm

At least contact the Gates Foundation indicating your disapproval.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
PO Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
Phone: (206) 709-3100
Email: info@gatesfoundation.org

While we’re busy working to make a living, the rich and powerful are murdering the unborn children of the world. As Catholics this should be one of our top priorities as well as the very important work of caring for our own families. The human race is a family under God.
 
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Greg_McPherran:
Let’s work together as Catholics to CHANGE the world.

If all Catholics voted Republican or non-Democrat there would be plenty of a majority to change the abortion system.
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I think you are wrong here for two reasons.
  1. Republicans are no better than Democrats lately. While they have a pro-life plank in thier platform, that doesn’t stop many of them from being pro-choice.
  2. Abortion is not really an issue that anyone except a president can affect as the Supreme Court has ruled that there is a Consitutional Right to abortion. Until the Court takes this issue up again there is nothing that law makers can really do about it. The president can appoint justices who will uphold the rights of the unborn.
Now, Microsoft is a corporation, to try to boycott them because of something the owner does will not affect that owner when he already has billions of dollars, all it could do is put people out of work.

The software Microsoft makes is morally neutral as has been pointed out. You have not even suggest something to replace Microsoft products that do not suffer from the samethings that you claim against Microsoft.

Also, why just the continuing rant against Microsoft. Do you have health insurance? Why? They provide contraception and abortions, shouldn’t you give up your health insurance too then?
 
Yes, but we have to send a message. I don’t accept that we Catholics, 1 Billion of us are powerless to change the world beyond our personal lives.
 
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ByzCath:
  1. Republicans are no better than Democrats lately.
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That’s not true. Republicans are in general much, much better than Democrats on abortion. However, we Catholics readily excuse ourselves from voting pro-life so yes the movement is weakening. If ALL Catholics vote pro-life we I think we CAN EASILY end abortion - but we DON’T. Our Catholic religion has to be greater than our political religion.
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ByzCath:
Also, why just the continuing rant against Microsoft.
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Because the Gates Foundation is giving millions to these organizations, they are powerful, and their sponsored organizations are murdering unborn children. Just because the Gates Foundation doesn’t operate the vacuum pump doesn’t free them from responsibility.

I am proposing a new operating system. I am a software engineer and I have written OSes for small systems. I plan to open a web site for the project and its status - stay tuned. I will make this a non-profit project or similar so that no one company will become rich and powerful from it.

God Bless!
 
Well, my copy is certainly demon possessed. Please send me an exorcised copy
 
I am using Microsoft software to write this. I’m not saying it can easily be avoided and I am not against companies making money for software. The software I currently sell runs only on Windows. I think Windows XP very is well done.

What I am saying is, now that I see what the Gates Foundation is doing, it’s time to send a message that the slaughter of the unborn by the rich and powerful is unacceptable.

You cannot serve two masters - God and mammon. Jesus teaches us that.

God Bless!
 
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Greg_McPherran:
Because the Gates Foundation
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The Gates Foundation is not Microsoft.

I see that you only addressed my comments about the ongoing rant and that Republicians are no better than Democrats.

It must be good to be where you are becuase in New York state the Republician run Senate is no better than the Democratic run Assembly.

And I think there could be a bit of conflict of interest in your posting.

You say,
I am proposing a new operating system. I am a software engineer and I have written OSes for small systems. I plan to open a web site for the project and its status - stay tuned. I will make this a non-profit project or similar so that no one company will become rich and powerful from it.
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You are a competitor of Microsoft…

This is like Netscape calling for a boycott of Internet Explorer because of moral reasons and then saying, “Hey, buy our web browser”.
 
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ByzCath:
The Gates Foundation is not Microsoft.

And I think there could be a bit of conflict of interest in your posting.

You say,

You are a competitor of Microsoft…
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No, I am one who uses their software and now I am concerned with what the Gates Foundation is doing. I think you’ll find the Gates Foundation is controlled by Bill and Melinda Gates and Microsoft is also controlled by Bill Gates.

And yes developing a new OS is where my talents could serve the kingdom of God. What’s wrong with that? Everything I have written is for the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior. I am not here to debate. I am here to work with and for God to change the world. Anyone want to help me?

Maybe the new OS is not the right idea - but I think it is. Either way, we must send a message that the slaughter of the unborn in the weak and poor women of the world, by the rich and powerful is not acceptable.
 
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