Comments on How should we handle questions that (probably) don't depend on denomination/tradition?
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How should we handle questions that (probably) don't depend on denomination/tradition?
I'm not Christian, so not part of your core group or target audience. I occasionally have questions about Christianity, but as an outsider I don't necessarily know which questions depend heavily on denomination/tradition and which are more general. I mean, I think there are things that practically all denominations agree on, where the answer wouldn't change from one to another. Are questions about these common elements welcome as general questions, with the understanding that "no, actually, that really depends on denomination" is a fine reason to close them?
I have two examples from questions I asked Somewhere Else:
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A question about the timing of funerals. I asked the question broadly, thinking there might be core factors at play. Never closed, 12k views, score net 6, one answer (Catholic), and no disagreeing comments/answers.
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A question about reconciling wrongs against other people. I thought that this was a core concept and wouldn't vary much. But the top answer starts "This is one of those questions that should have a clear, easy answer, but when you ask "what do Christians believe about this" you will likely get a lot of different answers." That answer goes on to give an overview of key differences and then give a common teaching based on Jesus's teachings. (Those teachings were why I thought there was a common answer.) The question was closed 2.5 years after being asked, 32k views, score net 23, three answers.
To me as an asker from the outside, I thought those questions had about the same amount of "commonality" across denominations. Obviously that wasn't actually the case.
On Christianity Codidact, how would we handle questions like these two? As an asker, am I expected to narrow it down to a tradition ("what do Roman Catholics say about..." or the like) and let answers say "you asked about RC but that's actually more common"? Should we accept the questions but close the ones that actually do depend on denomination, leaving the ones that are truly more general open and answerable? Should we do something else I haven't thought of yet?
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Ultimately this and many other questions come down to who you define as "Christians". Yes, there are certainly things that 99% of Christian groups believe. But the 1% exist, so what should be done about them?
This is further complicated because most of the 99% don't have any idea that the 1% even exist. So most users will say "yeah this question is fine; no one disagrees about the answer" until someone more knowledgeable or in the 1% comes along and says "actually there are at least two completely different viewpoints on this."
Thus in my view, the other site has it right when dealing with theology/philosophy/praxis questions. You basically have two options:
- Ask for the viewpoint of a particular tradition
- You can do this conditionally – "I'd don't think there would be disagreement on this, but if there is, I'd like the view of Roman Catholics"
- Ask for an overview
The point of an overview is that the answerer must make an effort to address more than one tradition, or attempt to demonstrate that there are no other views. Most of the time overview answers are less contentious and more academic. But they're harder to write, so such questions sometimes languish without answers for longer.
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