Wikipedia:WikiProject Jewish Christianity/Memorandum of Understanding
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Purpose edit
(See talk page for now.)
Procedure edit
Kindly discuss modifications on the talk page before making them. This MoU exists to prevent edit/revert wars; let's not make it another battleground itself.
Policies edit
These Wikipedia policies are relevant to this discussion. You should be aware of them.
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
Points edit
- Messianic Judaism characterizes itself as a type of Judaism. Whether or not that is "true" is not a matter for WP debate.
- MJ is a distinct minority within Judaism. Most of mainstream Judaism believes (rightly or not, which again is not a matter for WP debate) MJ to be "non Jewish" or even heretical.
- Regardless, MJ is a viewpoint/philosophy/movement/"thing" that WP can document. MJ exists; it is real.
- As MJ claims to be a branch of Jewish culture, many MJ articles will reference (i.e. link to) articles of general Jewish interest. This is perfectly valid.
- Likewise, those articles may be expanded with information pertinent to Messianic views. This is also perfectly valid.
- Granted the intent is not to give undue weight to a minority viewpoint or to soapbox, of course. But to give a viewpoint no weight at all (by censoring it altogether) is just as bad.
- It is also legitimate to note, in these cases, that mainstream Judaism does not consider the Messianic views to be valid expressions of Judaism.
- But these disclaimers should not be posed as denigration of the MJ view, either. No soapboxing from the other side—fair is fair.
- MJ views in articles relating to Judaica should be accorded the same treatment as other minority Jewish views, commensurate with relevance and significance.
- MJ should not pass itself off as mainstream Jewish thought/practice. That's verifiably inaccurate. It may think itself to be perfectly acceptable (and it may be, but again that is not a matter for WP debate) but the fact remains that it is a small sect that is outside the boundaries of every major Jewish group.
- MJ should not be censored simply because it is unpopular.
See also edit
- WP:JUDAISM talk archive 14 – discussion of this topic elsewhere