Tech for the Local Church
Does Google Hate Christians? Do Christians Hate Google?!
Answer: NO. And some.
But if you were to believe some vocal Christians complaining about Google changing their policies, you would think that they do hate us. Google used to give away the Education version of Google Apps to all non-profit organizations, including churches. Now they do not. You can still use google apps for free, but they limit the service to 10 email addresses / accounts.
To be honest, I was sad to hear the news, too. But we cannot assume that this is because they have a low opinion about faith-based non-profit organizations. The laws that protect churches registered as non-profits are also under attack – specifically the tax laws. We should not be surprised by government or business that wants to remove financial advantages that churches have enjoyed for years. And to go further, I don’t think we should make assumptions about the motives behind these changes.
What I do know is that Google provides a great value for churches who want to use their services. If 10 email addresses isn’t enough, I suggest you pay for the service – its $50/year per seat. If you have an IT guy on the payroll who is managing Exchange server, you would save money to retire the server and use Google Apps for email/docs/calendar/contacts and dropbox.com to share files.
That is my advice and I am sticking to it.
| Print article | This entry was posted by admin on November 9, 2011 at 2:30 pm, and is filed under Apps, Cloud, Google. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
Comments are closed.
about 6 months ago
You're right…we can't make assumptions about Google's motivations as Google has every right to decide who gets to use their Google for non-profits; However, this was not the bone of contention. It was the very narrow, well-defined list of "restrictions" which excludes a lot of faith-based groups from using the service while, at the same time, allowing other non profits to use the service.
It can't be proven whether Google is anti Christian or not. But, it appears that they have no problem with excluding many faith-based organizations from using their suite of tools.
The more you study their terms of service you will find that Google holds all of the cards. If you are going to play in their sandbox, they reserve the right to change the terms at any time.
Now, really… what church or other faith-based organization would want to do business with an entity who could change their terms at any time and leave them without recourse?
I say keep the IT guy but run Linux in your church or faith-based organization and control your data and operations on your OWN terms…
That is MY advice and I am sticking to it.
about 6 months ago
I want to make a clarification.
I said in the above comment that "It can't be proven whether Google is anti Christian or not. But, it appears that they have no problem with excluding many faith-based organizations from using their suite of tools."
It should be noted in fairness to Google that a church or any other faith-based organization may sign up and use Google Apps for Business. The free apps account for groups with 10 or less employees is also available. My comment was written to mean that Google seems to have no problems excluding churches and faith-based groups from their non-profit suite of tools.
I did not want to imply that Google's restrictions apply to all of its products as it clearly does not…
Thank you!
about 5 months ago
I don't believe that Church's should receive government tax benefits. Gives them an easy platform to dictate how Church's believe, preach and operate.
I'd gladly give to Caesar what is Caesar's.
about 5 months ago
If you started a big nasty IT intensive company, offering it for free for a while as it gained popularity, then realized that you just added a whole bag of SH*T to your work load for no extra pay, you might reconsider your business strategy too.
My experience with Google apps has been that they are very attentive, helpful and they even call YOU with questions about how your site it running as they observe your practices. This is world class service for very active users… such as WEEKLY congregations who initiate service projects, fund raising campaigns, fill up email servers, and calendar events regularly.
Contrast that sort of "faith based" non-profit with the one who has one administrator logging in one or two times per month to add an update or calendar an event. Chances are they would be a lot LESS maintenance and much less of a burden on the nice guys standing by when you call.
Bottom line, thats what its about. Google is simply stating, "will not work for free, but still want to help the little guys out IF possible."
Like the service? Be happy to pay for it!! Otherwise take a picture because tomorrow it'll be gone. ($50 a year is still ridiculously inexpensive for such a great IT service)
Give honest labor for pay, and pay a man what he is worth… the days of slavery in America are long gone. How can you hate Google for trying to stay profitable. I'll support them! Thats my advice and I'm sticking to it.