Odyssey Networks is partnering with the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg to take a deeper look at religion and the media. Odyssey's own Pastor Mary Brown asked Associate Professor Mary Hess the following questions to get a better understanding of modern media and faith.
“Why have some church leaders and congregations been so slow in embracing new media platforms as a way to share the faith and connect with a younger generation?”
Well, the first thing I’d say is I think the degree to which a specific congregation or group of church leaders embraces particular media platforms primarily has to do with their central commitments and concerns. There are a lot of church leaders who have not been slow in doing so! The ones who have been tend to be more protective of their authority. They worry about what constitutes authentic faith, and are fearful about the extent to which a certain media platform does or does not carry with it inhibiting ideologies or other factors. These are legitimate concerns, but I think our practices with various media are beginning to demonstrate that these concerns – at least if the practical response is refraining from using specific media – are overblown.
"Electronic media allows everyone to become a source of information and opinion. How does the democratization of theology fit in with the concept of more formal seminary training?"
I think in many ways this radical flattening of authority – I’d term it that, instead of a democratization of theology – has presented huge challenges to seminary education. Basically I think we, that is, those of us who teach in seminary settings, need either to learn how to swim in these mediated spaces, or we are going to drown – and may well take down our congregations and communities with us. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit has always blown where she will, and this moment in time holds enormous potential for listening carefully and collaborating globally.
A key question has to do with who determines what is authoritative and authentic in a given community of faith. At any moment in time when you can access all sorts of “stuff” online, how do you decide if the “stuff” you’re looking at and listening to is worthy of your attention? The ironic thing about these challenges is that people who have spent a lot of time in various kinds of digitally mediated environments are learning how to do this – they have a lot to teach us about thoughtful ways to attend. But those of us who have held back, who have legitimate concerns, who worry about how these environments are shaping our relationships – are not bringing those concerns into these environments. In some cases we’re actively avoiding the very spaces where these questions are most being engaged.
If we are serious about a commitment to democratizing theology – and frankly, even though I work in a lot of seminary environments I sometimes think seminaries are the least committed to such a process – then I think we have to learn how to “practice attention” in deeper and more faith-full ways. We now have access to a global ocean of differing perspectives, differing ways to listen to God, differing ways of responding in faith… what a wonderful and rich resource! We need to stop being afraid of it, and wade in and learn to swim.
“Can you envision a congregation where every worshipper would be encouraged to provide regular FB status updates and tweet during the service? Do you believe this would be an effective evangelism tool? What would be sacrificed in worship, if anything?”
I don’t need to envision this, because there are already congregations actively doing this – and many of them are growing rapidly. I would say for myself personally, however, that I’m a Roman Catholic and I tend to prefer the kind of room for personal interior engagement that is framed in traditional RC worship. I’m not really interested in tweeting while I’m in worship, or posting a status update. I may do so later, after I’m home, but for me when I’m in worship I want to be focused through the liturgy in a way that frees me to pray and to listen in the multiple modalities that worship encourages. We argue, in the RC tradition, that the sacrament of Eucharist signs forth God’s presence in our midst. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t present at all other times as well, but a sacrament is a particular sign and I want to make myself fully available for engaging it.
I think a lot of people actually long for this kind of space and experience in worship, but because it’s so unfamiliar they’re uncomfortable trying it, let alone learning the practices of attention that make it so richly sensory. Rather than adding digital media to worship, I’d prefer to add more room for individuals to share their own experiences, and for people to learn how to inhabit silence.
Follow the Blog Tour:
Day three is hosted on A Cyberpilgrim's Blog
Sarah, that's a great question! I think my answer would be that there are many, many such conversations going on all over digital places. But how you define such a conversation will limit what you find. So, for instance, take a look at Scott Thumma's study (http://faithcommunitiestoday.org/report-congregations-and-their-use-inte...), and look at the Pew data (http://www.pewinternet.org/Data-Tools/Get-the-Latest-Statistics/Latest-R...), and then think about what you mean by "cross-cultural inter-religious" dialogue. I think what you may be pointing to is that a lot of folk who are regularly involved in what we might identify as "mainline traditional" churches have been less active in online dialogues. So we (if by "we" you mean mainline traditional religious folk) may simply be reaching the same old crowd if we haven't changed our practices in person, but are simply trying to replicate them online.
Ruthann, as to deciding how to discover what is worthy of your attention, I commend to you the work of media literacy educators. They're deeply involved in helping people learn to do this, and have lots of fun ways to make it an invitational practice. And I would agree -- every church who's interested in being "found" by anyone besides their most immediate constituency, needs to be online. But I can think of lots of better reasons than that to want to have an online presence, starting with being willing to listen for God might be doing in digital spaces.
Beth, I think that digital tools are never as good at starting a relationship, as they are at sustaining and intensifying one. Heidi Campbell's research is useful on that front. So I wouldn't go about using digital stuff to begin from. But I do think that people wander across ideas on the web -- in videos at Odyssey, for instance! -- that can draw them into being more open to discussions in their own immediate context. And once they've found the conversation in their context, then digital tools can be a great way to keep the conversation flowing, and to bring new resources into it. I'd point to the Interfaith Youth Core's work as an example of using media platforms to strengthen dialogue -- but their use of media platforms is only one element of an integrated learning approach.
You talk about people getting out there to join the conversation online in regards to their religion or faith and not being afraid of this new space for dialogue. I completely agree, but I wonder who joins in on the other end of this conversation.
One study comes out after another highlighting how millennials are more spiritual than tied to a specific religion. They even tend to stray away from the word or topic of religion at times, associating it with a negative connotation. Are they joining in this cross-cultural inter-religious dialogue in new forms of media or are we still just reaching the same old crowd?
Greg, I agree with you -- the hard part is discriminating amongst a firehose of "stuff." Not everything qualifies as "information," let alone "wisdom."
Larry, I think that's a profoundly important issue -- finding a creative way to manage these tensions in a "mediatized" society (which is a fancy word for finding media in every nook and corner of one's life). I really like Howard Rheingold's recent book "Net Smart" -- which reads as a kind of thoughtful guidebook from someone who's profoundly "digitally connected" but also very, very aware of the constraints and dilemmas of digital saturation. As to finding "sacred space" -- I can find that anywhere. I think it has more to do with inhabiting a certain kind of listening posture, than with the specific environment you're in. In that way I love Parker Palmer's work -- any and every book he's ever written, but the most recent one ("Healing the Heart of Democracy") is particularly pertinent.
I have two questions at the moment.
1. The question of “how to decide if the “stuff” you’re looking at and listening to (online) is worthy of your attention?” is of utmost importance. What might seminaries and/or churches do to help lay people learn better ways to make that judgement? What else might be done?
2. As one who uses the internet constantly, I am disheartened by the number of churches I know who do not have an online presence. For example, when I relocated several years ago, I used the internet to find a new congregation. I learned that many Lutheran and other mainline churches in my area did not even have a web page, while most of the evangelical churches had very effective web pages. How might there be a priority to get our Good News OUT there?
Have you seen evidence of interfaith dialogue being informed and strengthened through the use of media platforms? Isn't face to face conversation a better way to get to know someone and learn about their faith? How does the media help people get together and talk directly?
Regarding Question #3, a number of my colleagues actually "gave up" Facebook for Lent - trying to find a way to give back some space to God in this media saturated world in which we live. Wiill you reflect on the tension that exists in bringing media into every aspect of our lives? Is it possible to use media and still find a sacred space?
My favorite blogs... argh, that's a hard question! My interests tend to shift from day to day. I have, at this very moment, more than 2000 unread posts in my news reader. Sigh. But I would point to some resources that I tend to return to over and over again. The Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies is one such site (http://digitalreligion.tamu.edu/). The MacArthur Foundation's spotlight blog on new media literacies is another (http://spotlight.macfound.org/). There are all sorts of people I regularly read and link to, but Andrew Sullivan's blog at The Daily Beast is one I always read early and often (http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/). I try to keep linking to particularly good pieces at my own blog (http://www.religioused.org/tensegrities/) and also at StoryingFaith (http://www.storyingfaith.org/).
To the first question, I wonder how much demographics plays into how churches approach technology. Mainline and evangelical churches tend to be somewhat older than the general population, and I suspect that's true of our leaders. Some demographic groups are simply less wired (not to mention, wireless) than others.
To the second question, I find that yes, new media have democratized the conversation. But they've also driven people to seek genuine expertise -- which is more widely available than ever. For many people, the hard part is discriminating between more and less responsible sources of information.
Post new comment