User:McCormack/policy on religious content

General points

 * 1) Articles which involve fringe religions and sects should be speedily deleted. For the definition of fringe religions and sects, see below.
 * 2) Articles which offend against academic objectivity should be tagged (including a warning template), or in more extreme cases a "request for deletion" (with community consensus) should be made. For examples of objectivity or lack of it, see below.

Fringe religions and sects
The general principle is that if a religious group is not sufficiently notable to be allowed an article on Wikipedia, then there should not be learning projects on this religious group at Wikiversity either. This is a particular case of the more general principle that Wikiversity is not a dumping ground for Wikipedia's refuse.

This principle does not imply its converse; in other words, the fact that there is an article about a religion on Wikipedia does not create an automatic right for people to write anything about that religion on Wikiversity. For example, the Wikiversity article must still have educational value.

Academic objectivity and teaching doctrine
A part of standard religious studies in almost any religion is the teaching of doctrine. Distinguishing legitimate doctrinal studies from indoctrination is difficult. Indoctrination is unacceptable; objective doctrinal studies are acceptable. Signs of indoctrination are the presence of elements of persuasion or assumptions in the metalanguage of the article that privileged truths are involved. An objective, academic approach is advised.

Example of unacceptable content:

Q. Who are the wicked? A. ....

Example of acceptable content:

Q. According to [name of book], [chapter and verse], who are the wicked? A. ....

Example of unacceptable content:

Q. How many names does God have? A. ....

Example of acceptable content:

Q. According to [name of religion & variant of religion], how many names does God have? A. ....

Example of unacceptable content:

Q. Complete the following text with the right words. A. ....

Example of acceptable content:

Q. The following text is taken from the catechism of the [name of religious group], [details of book, version, date, page]. Please fill in the gaps. A. ....

Additionally, the introduction to the resource, page or project should clearly state the perspectives and contexts of the learning material, so that young learners do not accidentally mistake one thing for another.