The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) LlamaAl (talk) 00:04, 21 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Missionary dating (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)

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Seems to be a non-notable neologism. The only source cited is a non-reliable website. The author also quotes two Bible passages which he or she thinks are relevant. Needless to say people did not "date" in the time of Saint Paul. Besides that he was talking about marriage in these verses. There is already an article on Marital conversion, which is a related topic. There is really nothing here to merge there, but maybe a redirect would be a good thing. BigJim707 (talk) 19:07, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. A quick search on Google Books shows a number of sources. Reliability is so-so, but the concept seems (barely) notable. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 19:30, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Guilty as charged. I did not check books before nominated. However I still think a redirect to Marital conversion is a good idea. That would be a more neutral and universal title. (Note that sincere believers in almost any religion only date in order to find a marriage partner. So missionary dating is a part of the marital conversion process. A religious person dating for "sinful" reasons would not be missionary dating.) -BigJim707 (talk) 19:45, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A section of Approaches to evangelism might be more appropriate. --JFH (talk) 19:49, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It would also fit there. I still have a problem with the title "missionary dating." It seems like a neologism which might not be around for very long. While the practice, with some variations of course, has probably been going on for thousands of years among Christians and people of other religions too. BigJim707 (talk) 19:58, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'd be neutral on that; perhaps even a weak support. It is true that there does not seem to be much depth to the concept discussed here, and Marital conversion seems to be more of a reliable treatment of the subject. Approaches to evangelism perhaps less so, although it should link to this concept (redirected or not). My suggestion is to let this AfD run out, as you did not mention the merger in the nom, then start a merger (ping me for it, or better yet - ping the related WikiProjects I added on the talk pages for all articles here). --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 13:44, 15 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. Good idea. BigJim707 (talk) 15:56, 15 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Keep: There are plenty of sources/references about this concept. Query any peer-reviewed sociology journal, conference minutes, or related books and this term will appear. I also do not support an merger. This article should remain on its own. --Thorwald (talk) 21:01, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• Weak keep. A Google Scholar search, contrary to a statement above, shows no currency whatsoever in peer-reviewed literature. There are rather more sources apparent in a Books search, but many of the references are either passing, or in books that do not meet our standards as reliable sources (the Mitchell book is a POD publication, the Boaz book is self-published). But that's not universally true, and it's probably possible to piece together an article on the topic (although it's very hard to find references outside of a conservative Christian POV, so neutrality will be a concern). Alternatively, a merge might to approaches to evangelism might be preferable (and I would prefer that target over marital conversion, which is the goal, not a synonym). Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 16:27, 15 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can you explain more why you prefer merge to approaches to evangelism then to marital conversion? I see this topic as a unscientific name for a cultural context (modern American Christian) limited version of marital conversion (although taking time before marriage, during dating). I don't think there is much work on this from the evangelist perspective, the books I've reviewed seemed to be for the most parts "guides to living as a good Christian", and their discussion of "missionary dating" can be summed up as "does not work, can lead you astray, don't do it." --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 17:14, 15 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • Cause/effect distinction, I think. Look at the parent topics. Evangelism has the goal of conversion. Missionary dating has the goal of conversion; thus, it is evangelism. It may be distinct in that the intended conversion is a marital conversion, but that means the topics are related, not synonymous. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 17:39, 15 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Social science-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 15:25, 19 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Christianity-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 15:25, 19 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.