Earlier this week, the Canadian Hungarian Journal published an article on how a small group of Wikipedia users deleted virtually all of the information on the religious and denominational affiliations of Canadian prime ministers and politicians. Our article made the rounds on the internet, and the news story was picked up by several blogs, including fivefeetoffury.com, hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com, smalldeadanimals.com and several other sites. Thanks to their interest in this topic and their willingness to feature this news item on their sites, some Wikipedia users are starting to reverse the unwise and unilateral decision taken by a few of their peers. We checked Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Wikipedia biography, and earlier this evening his Christian Missionary Alliance affiliation was once again included in the infobox. The Wikipedia contributor who made the change argued that „religious affiliation is an important bit of information.”

It is especially good to see that former Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Roman Catholicism made its way back to Wikipedia as well, considering that he is one of a relatively small handful of contemporary Canadian politicians who has actually spoken about his faith in public. „I am a practising Catholic. In fact, I am a strong Catholic. But I am also a legislator, and I believe in the separation of church and state,” Mr. Martin noted in 2005, during the same-sex marriage debate. There was some rather unfortunate talk that Mr. Martin and other politicians who support gay marriage should be denied communion. But Father John Walsh, the priest assigned to a La Salle parish that Mr. Martin often attended while back in Montreal, said that the Liberal prime minister could continue to participate in the Eucharist, regardless of his politics.

It is difficult to tell if religious information will remain on Canadian Wikipedia pages, or if it will once again be deleted based on spurious logic. But it’s reassuring to note that so many people had an opinion on this issue, and expressed it on a range of websites. A post on smalldeadanimals.com based on our article and entitled „Separation of Church and History” attracted 56 comments thus far. A blogger on hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com also referenced our article, sagely noting that although he is an atheist, „the larger issue here is of ad hoc censorship.”

Many thanks again to all the bloggers who found our article through the Google News service and commented on a range of sites.

Here are just a few of the responses posted on other sites, after the publication of our article.

„I think religious affiliation is an important bit of personal information (as long, stating the obvious, it is backed up by sources). It does by no means reduce the person’s complex world views, it just provides the simple information that a person (at least nominally) belongs to a certain religious institution.” Gugganij (Source)

„I think since its standard practice for other countries’ politicians to have their religion in their infoboxes, that there is no reason why we should be any different. And really, do we have any jurisdiction to be different?” — Earl Andrew (Source)

„Inclusionism is the philosophy that information should be liberally added and retained on Wikipedia. It is espoused by users called inclusionists who favor keeping and amending problematic articles over deleting them. Inclusionists are generally less concerned with the question of notability, and instead focus on whether or not an article is factual, with merit, or useful.” (Source)

As always, your comments are welcome here as well, and feel free to publish them in English, French or Hungarian. Let us know what you think, whichever side of the debate you might be on. Just include your name in the „Név” field, your e-mail address (which will not be published) and click on the „hozzászólás küldése” button when you are ready to send it.

Canadian Hungarian Journal