Complete or Partisan answers?

Question

This is a discussion started by this questions:

Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit still active today?

Let's start by saying what I hope we all know: that Christians are very much divided on this issue, and no single viewpoint is going to be a complete answer.

As of now there is one answer attempting to give an overview of the various positions, one giving an answer from a specific doctrinal view (fine) and one that presents the answerers own views as the correct ones. Some people are arguing that the partisan answer is the best answer. My problem with this, as I wrote, is that if we go down that road then this site stops being a site where people answer questions about Christianity, and it starts being a site where we answer questions about the opinions of the people who happen to be visiting. That's a very fast route to being irrelevant.

Some people are saying "It's somewhat unreasonable to ask answerers to illuminate all positions." Others are asking "why should we give answers we disagree with?", or claiming it's too difficult to summarize all positions. This is simply not true. My wife taught at a Bible college for many years, and any student who couldn't articulate all the major viewpoints on any theological subject they were writing about would have got a failing grade. Are we claiming that most people on this site don't have the knowledge and ability of a first year Bible college student?

I believe that we need to emphasize the need for complete answers to questions on this site. The survival of the site depends on us being able to put aside our prejudices to write, and vote for, comprehensive answers.

EDIT: In case anyone is wondering, I am not arguing for a ban on partisan answers, but to confirm that the goal of the site should be the comprehensive answer.

Answer 1

Unless the author of the post defines their positions, it is better if we can develop a single comprehensive answer

Let me unpack that a little bit. As a site, we would strongly prefer that the people who answer questions state that doctrinal perspective from which they would like to receive an answer. The reason behind this is the same reason that on Stackoverflow you would state the language that you are coding in, or on Super User, which version of your OS you were running. The fact of the matter is that without this statement, we can't tell you anything that is necessarily relevant to your situation, beliefs or doctrinal positions. Good questions should state their desired position up front.

However, sometimes a question comes along that doesn't show that kind of effort, or requires a more survey type answer from all the various Christian positions that exist. These questions leave open an interesting opportunity to use the SE engine for something special; developing authoritative reference answers. Here is my proposal for dealing with these questions:

• Anyone is welcome to answer, and can do so by stating what positions they are going to cover, and then, answering the question as completely as possible from each of theological perspectives that they chose.

• Someone willing to put the time and effort into developing a comprehensive answer form the answers already written can and should do so.

• Preferably people will vote up (or the OP will accept) the comprehensive answer, rather than the individual perspective answers. (Obviously this is unenforceable, but is strongly encouraged).

Remember, a statement of doctrinal perspective is still strongly recommended for questions. However, this will allow us to correctly and appropriately handle questions that require multiple perspectives.

Answer 2

Virtually any question about the interpretation of Scripture or Christian doctrine is going to have numerous possible answers, depending on the tradition / perspective of the person answering. There are two ways to deal with this in the question itself, and the style of the answer depends (to some degree) on which angle the OP takes in asking the question.

Form A: Specify desired tradition / perspective

The question can be asked in the form, "From a [Roman Catholic] perspective, what is the significance of communion?"

The only correct way to answer a question of this form is to answer from the perspective specified by the OP.

Form B: Ask the question generically

We see these questions a lot. For example, "Can I believe in evolution and still be a Christian?".

Clearly the answer will depend on the perspective of the person answering.

• The labeled answer: In some cases it makes sense to say "From a [Roman Catholic] perspective, [yes]."

• The unlabeled answer: In other cases, attempting to describe your perspective with a label is less effective than simply describing your perspective by answering. (Some perspectives do not have a label. In many other cases, the label would appear as complete gibberish given its extremely infrequent usage.)

• The generic answer: Sometimes people will attempt to answer a generic question with a generic (or survey) answer. For example, to the question about evolution and Christianity, one may answer by saying: "Some would say 'yes'. Some would say 'no'. Some would say 'maybe'."

The Vote

It is important to remember that the vote is there to indicate whether or not the answer is helpful - not that it is correct, not that you like it, not that you agree, etc. For many questions, it is helpful to understand multiple perspectives. As a result, the voter is encouraged to up-vote all answers which would be helpful to future seekers.

In fact, folks will sometimes answer by describing a perspective they disagree with in order to provide another helpful perspective for the seeker to consider! (For example, see the quote and comments in this answer.)

Helpfulness depends entirely on the question:

• For answers to questions of "Form A", the only helpful answers would be those which accurately represent the designated perspective

• For "labeled answers" to questions of "Form B", the only helpful answers would be those which accurately represent the label

• For "unlabeled answers" to questions of "Form B", a helpful answer would be one which the voter finds helpful in understanding the topic more fully

• For "generic answers" to questions of "Form B", a helpful answer would be one which does a good job representing each of the perspectives listed.

Postscript

There is a real challenge in providing a survey answer in response to a generic question. Consider the following scenario.

Question: How should Genesis 1 be understood?

• Answer 1: It should be understood literally; God really did make everything in 6 (24 hour) days, (proceeds to make a strong case for this view)

• Answer 2: It should be understood literally; God made everything in 6 long periods of time, (proceeds to make a strong case for this view)

• Answer 3: Genesis 1 is intended to show that God made everything, but it is not a science book, so it should not be read as such, (proceeds to make a strong case for this view)

• Answer 4: Genesis is more of a story with a lesson than a history book, (proceeds to make a strong case for this view)

• Answer 5: Some people say [...], some people say [...], some people say [...], some people say [...], some people say [...], (proceeds to provide a brief summary of each view)

In this case I would not expect Answer 5 to be very "helpful". For one thing, it is already apparent to everyone that there are different perspectives. Once that is established, Answer 5 is not very "helpful" at all - no "strong case" is made for anything, and the reader does not really walk away having learned anything new.

At times a survey answer is the most helpful answer, but it is difficult to compete with more comprehensive answers which often come directly from the people who believe and understand their perspective, and can make a strong case for it.