Wikipedia; The Free Encyclopedia

I love Wikipedia; The Free Encyclopedia. It’s open-source and definitely pomo. But I am totally frustrated with the editors (from what I can tell each page has its own set of editors) who seem to have complete control over any additions or edits to the (their) Church of Christ page. The perspective they evoke is right-winged conservatism and it’s not the predominant view among churches of Christ today. I’m sure some of you who read this blog have at some point crossed paths with this right-winged group. I’m so sorry.

I’ve spent my weekend (and part of Monday) negotiating with these men for space that would describe the emergent Church of Christ. Sometimes I’m ashamed of my tribe.

I made an addition Friday evening to the section titled “Other Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement bodies” by Saturday morning it was gone; deleted! I had also added a section titled “Noted Blogs among the Church of Christ.” Guess what? They deleted it too. Strange thing; they had links of their own on the (their) site. They referred to my additions as spam links.

After a bit of navigation, I discovered a backside to the Church of Christ main page where a lively conversation was going on on the Wiki discussion page. I lurked for awhile and learned my attempt to add an EC section to their Church of Christ page was creating quite a stir.

The better part of my Saturday was spent on this discussion page pounding out the differences between traditional and emergent. The word liberal was thrown around far more than necessary. I felt their understanding of the word was spurious. So I suggested that in matters of faith a liberal was someone who rejected the death, burial and resurrection.

I was surprised to learn that one of the editors was 27 and the other 31. I could be wrong but my hunch is they were graduates of Freed-Hardeman College. I found it very difficult to articulate the gathering conversation with a couple of uninformed young men. This weekend was their first exposure to the EC. We went back and forth. Throughout they sent mixed signals; first it’s on then it’s off.

Finally I was told that the person who deleted my addition Friday evening was someone who only visits the site once a month and has a habit of deleting everything and anything he disagrees with.

I was told to go ahead and add the section on the Emergent Church of Christ. I went back and made the addition and shortly after received the message that my article was being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy. I went back to the discussion page. Here’s what I read:

This article should be called "The Emergent Movement in Churches of Christ." But even then, I doubt this page can be salvaged. Emergents are apparently not clear on what their movement is, where it's going, who's involved, or what vocabulary to use. They are very, very long on philosophy and wordiness.

Since Punk Monkey and others had already started a page for the emergent church on Wikipedia I had to ask for a subsection on my tribe’s page. I’m happy there is an EC stand alone page. But too bad for the EC and what’s happening among my tribe. It’s simply not going to be included among a dying segment whose archaic perspectives and methods are given front and center on Wikipedia. By the way the Wiki editors slammed the EC article also. Here’s their comment:

They (emergents) are very, very long on philosophy and wordiness. Look at the Emerging Church article and you'll see what I mean. I believe the author (that would be me in this case—as if I can do better than the writers on that page) should focus his energies on improving that article. It needs a lot of help.

So Punk Monkey; get busy.