Take the 2-minute tour ×

I was browsing meta.Christianity.SE recently when I noticed a question with a rather obvious (and good) answer that had not been posted. I was about to go ahead and answer it when I realized there might be a serious problem: by helping them out, we are in fact promoting that religion (or at minimum helping them promote their religion).

So is that indeed a problem?

Is it still a problem if that answer would put their religion in a bad light?

share|improve this question
How are you promoting their religion with an answer that puts it in a bad light? –  Gershon Gold Sep 8 '11 at 17:48
@Gershon well you're still helping them, even if it's in some negligible way –  yydl Sep 8 '11 at 18:03
I'd answer this question by looking up any teshuvot regarding entering an online church. –  avi Sep 8 '11 at 19:03
@avi FWIW, they claim vociferously to be "not a church," but a secular site. –  Isaac Moses Sep 8 '11 at 19:20
@avi Not quite a gift. This has the potential to help others in their religion (like giving a cross) –  yydl Sep 8 '11 at 20:15

1 Answer 1

It's important to highlight that Christianity StackExchange has a very different atmosphere to Mi Yodeya. Christianity SE is very much true to its mission of being a Q&A site about Christianity. It is not a Christian site. And that post on meta isn't just a claim. It's lived up to throughout the site. In fact, it was recently brought up again in discussion of the design theme.

Just a heads up, we aren't a church and don't want to look/feel like one. In fact I think some visual clues that this is a secular QnA site with topic/theme of Christianity would be welcome.


I'm saying the idea is that we are not a Christian site. We're on the outside looking in, not on the inside trying to reach out like church and "Christian" sites do.

Bearing that in mind, asking a question about Christianity, or indeed answering a question on the subject of Christianity should probably not necessarily be seen to count as aiding Christianity in any way.

Analysis of Jewish legal reasoning in this situation I will leave to others, I just wanted to clarify what the situation actually is.

share|improve this answer
Indeed, while everything you wrote may be true, it may still be a problem from a Judaism perspective (like you indicate at the end of your answer). –  yydl Sep 27 '12 at 1:09

Your Answer


