Wikipedia:WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses

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Welcome to the WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses! The project helps editors working on Jehovah's Witnesses-related articles by providing a repository of information and resources, and providing a place for discussions that affect more than one article.

[edit] Key goals

To make the Wikipedia articles about Jehovah's Witnesses the most comprehensive and highest quality on the web.
To establish some guidelines to allow uniformity across articles about Jehovah's Witnesses.
To improve the main Jehovah's Witnesses article to featured article quality.

[edit] How to help

Put your name in the alphabetical Participants list.
Read the editing guidelines.
Help with the open tasks.

[edit] Open tasks

To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses:	edit · history · watch · refresh
Adapt the current articles to the adopted structure. Create stubs for the articles, adding {{JehovahsWitnesses-stub}} stub tag to the article, and {{JWProject}} to the Talk page. Move content from main articles to sub articles, replacing with a short summary and link to sub article. Add references to Watchtower publications for all doctrines/practices information.

[edit] Editing guidelines

State, "The Watchtower says..." rather than, "Jehovah's Witnesses believe...". This avoids difficulties in different interpretations of what the WT is saying; the WT statement can be interpreted by the reader, rather than by editors.
Use the newest available reference when stating what JWs currently believe.

[edit] Cite sources

All Wikipedia articles should cite sources to allow for verification. A third party must be able to check the source and ensure the statement is correct. Statement about what JWs believe would naturally cite JW publications. Statements about practices could cite JW publications, media reports and other publications. Wikipedians' own first-hand knowledge or personal experiences are not eligible sources.

[edit] Citing Jehovah's Witnesses publications

Do not use the Watchtower reference format when refering to Watchtower literature. References should conform to Wikipedia reference style, as noted in Wikipedia:Cite_sources and Wikipedia:Cite_sources/example_style. This enables non-Jehovah's Witnesses to use the references and maintains consistency across Wikipedia articles.

For example:

g97 22/2 1

would become:

"Living With a Learning Disability". (February 22, 1997). Awake!, p. 1.

[edit] How to cite sources

See also Wikipedia:Cite sources/example style and help:footnotes for information on footnotes.

Use a footnote to quote the source when explaining JW teachings to allow for immediate verification by readers and editors, by using the <ref></ref> and <references/> tags.

The basic use of the "ref" and "references" tags is simply encosing the entired reference in ref tags:

put <ref>Why Snakes Hurt, ''The Watchtower'' November 15 2006, p. 15.</ref> where you want the footnote number to be
the references will show up automatically wherever the <references/> tag is.

This is an example of a whole document in wiki format.<ref>and this is a note about the text from page 25
 of a book.  If known, give full reference including title, author, and ISBN.</ref>

==References==

<references/>

[edit] Example

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God has always dealt with his people as an organized group, and that he continues to do so today.^[1]

References

↑ "These examples clearly show that in the past God has always dealt with his people as an organized group. The few individuals with whom God had dealings personally—Noah, Moses, Jesus, and others—were, in fact, used by Him to communicate with a closely associated group. There is no reason to believe that God deals any differently with his servants today. Of course, this gives rise to another question: Will affiliation with just any religious group suffice? We will consider this vital question in the next article." — "Should You Belong to a Church?". (June 1, 2004). The Watchtower, p. 1.

[edit] Use of scriptures

Do not cite supporting scriptures when explaining doctrines or practices, unless the issue is the interpretation of a particular passage. In this case, quote the passage in full and then explain the JW interpretation given.

[edit] Example

Do not write like this:

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Christians are required to 'speak in agreement'. (1 Corinthians 1:10)

Instead, write like this:

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Christians are required to obey the command at 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NWT) :

"Now I exhort you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you should all speak in agreement, and that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought."

They interpret this verse to mean that (interpretation goes here).

Or like this:

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Christians are required to obey the command at 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NWT) to "speak in agreement" by (interpretation goes here).

[edit] Jehovah's Witnesses leadership

When refering to the Jehovah's Witnesses leadership or those that set policy or doctrine, refer specifically to the Governing Body or the Faithful and Discreet Slave as required. Do not use the terms "the Society" or "the Watchtower Society".

See also the discussion about this guideline here.

[edit] Readability for non-JWs

Wikipedia articles are for the general public, and as such, the articles about Jehovah's Witnesses should not require familiarity with Jehovah's Witnesses, the Bible or Christian beliefs. Avoid phrases that are unique to Jehovah's Witnesses that haven't been defined within the article. Generally avoid colloquialisms unique to Jehovah's Witnesses unless quoting directly from a source.

[edit] Proposed guidelines

This a proposed guideline. Please see discussion of this guideline here.

Editors should not attempt to reconcile contradictory statements in JW publications, as this is original research. Simply state both statements, and allow the reader to determine how to reconcile them. For example:

"Jehovah's Witnesses publications vary on who will survive Armageddon. While The Watchtower has often stated that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot speculate on who will survive Armageddon^[1]^[2], it has also indicated that ...^[3]^[4]."

[edit] Templates

[edit] Talk page notice

Please tag the Talk pages of articles which are about Jehovah's Witnesses with the {{JWProject}} template, which expands to the following:

This article is part of WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Jehovah's Witnesses. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.