The question of the impact of globalization on religion is fraught - caught between the advantages and the drawbacks. With social media, as well as the impacts of reporting religion, thrown into the global mix, debate over the effects and mediated outcomes become a complex thread linking the superficial reporting of national and international religion-related conflicts, the skewed (mis)representation of religious adherents, especially Muslims (Rane et al 2011), and the scant coverage of positive stories around religious themes.
Social media has enhanced the global spread of religion outside of news and current affairs reporting. Through tweets, youtube imagaries, and websites, news of internal conflicts like in Syria, or anti-government/pro-democracy perspectives, e.g. the 'green wave' movement in Iran, the wider public has been informed of people power.
But media coverage of these issues has all but ignored the significant foundations of religious teachings and values. Not all religions are reported in the same way. It would be interesting to monitor the coverage of world religions and compare the media reports of Islam, Christianity and Judaism with reports on Buddhism for instance. Would there be a difference and why?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Globalised, Mediated, Religionised
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Is sport religious or religion?
by Sylvie Shaw
A fundamental question related to the debate on 'Is sport
a religion?' is to consider what is religion? Or what kind of religion could
sport be? Or even, what kind of religion would one seek and find in baseball?
(Chidester 1998).
According to Lester Kurtz (1995:9), religion 'consists of
the beliefs, practices (rituals), the sacred and the community or social
organization of people who are drawn together by religious tradition.' This
overview definition is helpful but does not focus on issues raised by Geertz's
5-pronged perspective, including his vision of the role of the
transcendent in religion, or incorporate the role of religion for the
individual as a sacred or symbolic process of meaning making.
In trying to determine whether there is a relationship
between religion and sport, I turn to Geertz (1973:98) who, in the chapter, Religion as a
cultural system of his his masterly text The
interpretation of cultures, reflects on what makes something
religious. In doing so, he turns to the sport of golf and explains: 'A man can
indeed be said to be "religious" about golf, but not merely if he
pursues it with passion and plays it on Sundays: he must also see it as
symbolic of some transcendent truths.'
Thus, from Geertz's viewpoint, sport must be symbolic or
resonant of something beyond the individual - the transcendent as something
more than, bigger than or eternal, or perhaps it could also be deemed, from an
invididual stance, as something that takes one out of or beyond oneself.
Engaging further with this notion, I turn to other theorists such as Gary Bouma
(1992:15) who seems to agree with Geertz by saying that 'religion is grounded
in some truely transcendent being, force or principle,' while Hilton Deakin
(1982:98) states that transcendence 'extends the human experience beyond the
level of everyday life.' But trancendence can also be found in everyday
experiences such as a round of golf as Geertz has outlined.
A few years ago when contemplating this subject, I went to interview a leading AFL coach and one of his players to see if they described their football activities on and off the field had anything to do with what William James (2002 [1902]) may have defined as a religious experience. The coach was depicted in biographies as being able to kick 'magical' goals or connect with 'superhuman' abililities when leaping above the pack to grab or mark the ball. When I tried to probe this ability further, the coach shrugged saying that his ability was 'nothing special'; it was just the way he played.
A few years ago when contemplating this subject, I went to interview a leading AFL coach and one of his players to see if they described their football activities on and off the field had anything to do with what William James (2002 [1902]) may have defined as a religious experience. The coach was depicted in biographies as being able to kick 'magical' goals or connect with 'superhuman' abililities when leaping above the pack to grab or mark the ball. When I tried to probe this ability further, the coach shrugged saying that his ability was 'nothing special'; it was just the way he played.
But the football player held a different view. He said
that this particular coach also had the ability to get the team to deeply mine
their own reserves of strength, agility and power in order to succeed - and
win. Building teamwork as well as encouraging players to 'innately' read the
game, allowed the team to rise above the pack. In addition to following the
coach, the player I interviewed did something else.
He went about organising his game preparation almost as a
religious ritual. This included what he ate, the respectful way he acted in the
dressing room towards other players and the jersey (the symbol of the team and
its history), and the way, or order in which he put on his symbolic uniform.
For this player, being part of the team was sacred, and while the game may be,
in his eyes, as non-religious, one could argue that the whole game, from
preparation to the final siren, including the winning team's collective
'group-hug' and their bellowing of the club's anthem, was a sacred, or at least
a special kind of religious experience.
A short definition of religious experience is the
'subjective experience of the sacred' but that necessitates another definition
- what is the sacred? Are things intrinsically sacred or do humans determine,
by cultural and social relationships and actions, which things, places, objects
or activities are sacred or special? Is 'making' or consecrating something as
special the same as naming something as sacred?
In her book, Religious experience reconsidered, Ann Taves
(2009:27) suggests that 'if care is taken to avoid certain pitfalls', the use
of the term 'special' can expand concepts of the sacred (defined, e.g. by
Durkheim and Eliade in opposition to the profane), to embrace processes of
meaning making that may not, at first glance, be seen as religious - but may be
experienced as religious, spiritual, mystical or magical (Knott 2010:305). But
I would ask whether such experiences or extra-ordinary moments could also be
regarded as 'ordinary' or secular by the practioner rather than the theorist.
They may certainly be special but this will depend on the particular occasion,
location or circumstance.
In an interview with Ann Taves on the excellent and
thought-provoking blog The Immanent
Frame, she extends what she means by the term special:
'Specialness has to do with ascriptions of value. In other
words, it signifies how important something is to people. In some cases these
things have a kind of Durkheimian sense of sacredness; they are considered so
valuable that they’re set apart and protected by taboos. Specialness is a term
that allows us to investigate where people position things along a continuum of
value rather than simply assuming that people consider things in terms of
binary oppositions such as “sacred” and “profane,” or “religious” and
“secular.” (Schneider, nd).
Another way of seeing this juxtaposition is to look to
Mircea Eliade and the exposition by Bonnie Miller-McLemore (2001) who
deconstructs his sacred and profane hierophany in relation to American
football. Like many types of arena-centred sport, 'gridiron' is a television
spectacular reminding us of the theoretical descriptor of Guy Debord. Always on
the lookout for the spectacular narrative, TV sports coverage creates myths
around certain superhuman feat of players who are able to rise above the play
and soar into the annals of sports history. Miller-McLemore puts it this way:
'Football's mythic quality has less to do with the hype,
excitement and cheering... than it does with some form and structures of the
game itself...Watching a series of plays entertains and intrigues fans
precisely because it moves them outside all routines of ordinary life into an
imaginary world and at the same time creates a world that feels more real than
all other ordinary moments.' (2001:123)
Reminiscent of Baudrillard's hyperreality, the mythic
narrative of the sports superhero can lead the fans into a world of the
simulacra - and to another religious experience of sport - the religion of
fandom, from the US football code to the world game and the enthusiasm of
Barcelona fans.
Football tragic Jordie Xifra's (2008) passion is the
Barcelona Football Club. With over 170,000 fans, the enthusiasm of the fans of
Europe's most popular club explodes into a Durkeimian effervescence as they
scream, sing, blog, consume and ritualise their involvement in this (sacred or
special?) Catelonian club. Xifra refers to the religious expression of the fans
as a form of 'civil religion' which 'bestows social energy', creates a sense of
communal belonging among the fans, and builds 'emotional unity' (4).
Normally critics point to the emotional unity among the
fans but I would argue that there is also a communal bond that exists between
the fans and the players during a match. The loud and fervent support of
well-rehearsed chants and the club anthem stir the players to achieve
heightened states and exploits. In this space, players, as well as fans, may be taken out of
themselves - and into a place of quasi-religious experience or an experience of
what could be termed the 'secular sacred'.
So back to where we started - is sport religious, sacred,
secular or a combination of these themes? And back to the question David
Chidester (1998) poses about whether baseball is in any way religious?
Chidester states: 'The determination of what counts as religion is not the sole
preserve of academics. The very term "religion" is contested and at
stake in the discourses and practices of popular culture.' (760). So asking the
question or even considering if and in what ways is sport religious, Chidester
wavers.
Whether sport is religious is probably yes and no
depending on how one defines religion. There is a need to unravel the various
perspectives of religion expression, whether from theorists and practitioners,
about what is regarded as sacred or special, transcendent or self-transcendent,
or, as I prefer it, as just the way it is.
References cited
Miller-McLemore B. 2001. Through the eyes of Mircea Eliade: United States football as a religious 'rite of passage'. In J. Price, ed., From season to season. 115-135, Macon, GA, Mercer University Press.
Xifra, J, 2008. Soccer, civil religion, and public relations: Devotional-promotional communication and Barcelona Football Club. Public Relations Review 34(2): 192-198.
Questions:
- How do you define religion?
- Is there a relationship between sport and religion? Which sport?
-
How do sportspeople like Kelly Slater (super surfer) or Billy Slater
(superMelbourne Storm player), or any other heroic or mythical
sportsperson create that myth or is that myth created by outsiders such
as sports journalists?
- What is religious about sport? Is one sport more religious than another?
- What is religious experience in sporting terms? Give an example.
References cited
Bouma, G.D. 1992, Religion. Meaning, transcendence and community in
Australia. Melbourne: Longman
Cheshire.
Chidester, D. 1998. Church of Baseball, the Fetish of Coca-Cola and the Potlatch of Rock'n'Roll. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64(4): 743-765.
Deakin, H. 1982. Some thoughts on transcendence in tribal societies. In E. Dowdy, ed., Ways of transcendence. Insights from major religions and modern thought. Bedford Park, SA: The Australian Association for the Study of Religions.
Deakin, H. 1982. Some thoughts on transcendence in tribal societies. In E. Dowdy, ed., Ways of transcendence. Insights from major religions and modern thought. Bedford Park, SA: The Australian Association for the Study of Religions.
Geertz, C. 1993. Religion as a cultural system. In The interpretation of cultures: selected essays, 87-125. Fontana Press, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/.../Geertz_Religon_as_a_Cultural_System_.pdf
James, W. 2002. [1902]. Varieties of religious experience. New York: Routledge.
Knott, K. 2010. Specialness and the sacred: Ann Taves, Religious Experience Reconsidered. Religion 40(4): 305-307.
Kurtz, L. 1995. Gods in the global village. The world's religions in sociologial perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.Miller-McLemore B. 2001. Through the eyes of Mircea Eliade: United States football as a religious 'rite of passage'. In J. Price, ed., From season to season. 115-135, Macon, GA, Mercer University Press.
Schneider, N. nd. The study of special experiences: An interview with Ann Taves
The Immanent Frame, http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/01/04/the-study-of-special-experiences-an-interview-with-ann-taves/Xifra, J, 2008. Soccer, civil religion, and public relations: Devotional-promotional communication and Barcelona Football Club. Public Relations Review 34(2): 192-198.
Newsy Sport or Sporty News - It's a rap!
The News-Sport Rap
Written by Sylvie Shaw
Listen out there in TV land
I've got news for you - it's so grand
S'about war and accident, flood and fire
'Bout politicians too diving into the mire
Where celebrities walk the red carpet of life
Having babies, getting married, taking drugs, getting strife,
But half of the news that we watch each night
To take our minds of the dreadful sight
S'about sport
More and more about sport
Just can't live without sport!
Who wins who loses is the theme of our newses
They've coached us well,
We're playing their game;
Don't question, don't argue,
Just all think the same.
They've coached us well,
We're playing their game;
Don't question, don't argue,
Just all think the same.
Written by Sylvie Shaw
Listen out there in TV land
I've got news for you - it's so grand
S'about war and accident, flood and fire
'Bout politicians too diving into the mire
Where celebrities walk the red carpet of life
Having babies, getting married, taking drugs, getting strife,
But half of the news that we watch each night
To take our minds of the dreadful sight
S'about sport
More and more about sport
Just can't live without sport!
Who wins who loses is the theme of our newses
They've coached us well,
We're playing their game;
Don't question, don't argue,
Just all think the same.
They've coached us well,
We're playing their game;
Don't question, don't argue,
Just all think the same.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The dog that dances with bubbles. Is this news?
by Sylvie Shaw
Walking along the Brisbane River in the late and languid afternoon I come across a wonderful sight. A group of people are gathered in a quiet clearing, chatting. Right by them are a group of dogs, playing softly, all except one. This dog is large, black, a mix of breeds but charming. It is leaping high in the air and dancing as its owner spreads large irridescent bubbles across the darkening river valley. This dog is entranced with joy - and smiling.
Voices rise up from the river below. Another group of people are rowing in their thin long boats, and laughing.
A flock of Terresian crows flies by cawing raucously - happily?
Is this news? Is it news that people connect with the Brisbane River in a celebration of social and 'doggy' capital? Is it news that on a quiet afternoon, people are conversing and enjoying the moment by the water's edge? Why isn't this news?
This week in class we discussed the push and pull of news media and the oft-held perspective that the audience has agency and the individual has subjectivity in relation to media choices and habits. We discussed the relationship between media and society and reflected on which comes first - the media story and its ideology or the community's or society's values and ideas? Does the media report what the public want, or does the public influence the media to report on the issues it wants to be informed about? But what happens if what if the public wants is exactly what is being dished up on commercial TV news and chat shows? What's your view of this?
When I worked in the media as a producer in current affairs it never occurred to me that there was, or should be, a two way flow between the media and society. Deadlines and timeframes compel the producer to fill the program with informative and interesting material, and with people who are often described as being 'good talent'. Debates and talkback were prevalent - Israel-Palestine, gun control, drug legalisation, logging native forests, as well as issues related to abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, sexual abuse in the church, and other religiously-related or socially contentious issues.
The drama of a debate, the conflict inherent in two sides arguing, the page one newpaper article of the day, all these were grist to the mill. A story with a positve ending, or a story about something wonderful like a dog dancing with bubbles was not often on our agenda. We searched for current stories which informed, but often those issues involved a dualistic or binary framework of 'us' versus 'them'.
What's your view?
Can radio and television news be informative and not only focus on accident, conflict and drama? Can a story be longer than just a few brief seconds? Is love a story and how would it be covered? Can news be compassionate and altruistic? And can it be responsible, ethical, moral?
Thinking about incorporating religious and spiritual values into the news broadcast might smack of preaching and proselytising. But what if the news spread a message of hope instead of a message of fear?
Journalism and religion
In scholarly articles about the relationship between religion and journalism or religion and journalists, Doug Underwood (2002), for example, points to the gap in values between the two monolithinc institutions, as well as on a personal journalistic level, between what's reported and what's worshipped. Underwood explores the dimsions of this gap and questions whether there is any difference between U.S. journalists' own religiosity and the way their religious views may be transmitted, consciously or unconsciously, through their reporting. This could involve - what they choose to write about, the way they write it, what language they use, what focus or stance they take.
Underwood found that journalists' religious values are intertwined with their professional values. In particular, journalists from all faiths brought the attributes of compassion and social justice from their own religious traditions into their working lives. The more religious they were, the more they wove their views into their work, whether this was conscious or not.
Another theorist also researching the nexus between religion and journalism, John Schmalzbauer (2005) maintains that traditionally, journalists would aim for objectivit or neutrality in reporting, and suppressed comments on moral judgement. But regardless of this traditional practice, the choice of stories (what's in, what's left out), and the players within each story (who's in and who's not), represent ideologies or ideological terrains of power.
The religion reporter for the Times newspaper in the UK, Ruth Gledhill, states that religion has become a seriously-considered mainline issue since 9/11; it continues to grab the headlines. She also notes that religion's shift onto page one headlines have also occurred due to changes in technology but she comments that this shift has created a challenge for journalists as the new technologies have also put temptation at hand. The result has been the challenge to the ethics and morals of journalism as seen in the recent response to Britain's phone hacking scandals.
In March of this year, an international gathering of journalists took place in Italy to discuss this issue of ethics and morals in the industry. Journalists representing 23 nations raised the need for responsible journalism and discussed how to combat religion illiteracy among journalists and the public alike. The group, the International Association of Religion Journalists, called for reports on religion to be 'fair-minded', 'promote understanding and bridge the gaps causing biases and hatred among religions'. This latter view was put forward by a Pakistani journalist (Eglash 2012).
Perhaps similarly, the Media Diversity Institute in Europe has put out a short guide to reporting religion which states, in part:
As an example of the possibility for change, I turn to the American journalist Amy Goodman, anchor of Democracy Now, who states that journalism is 'a sacred responsibility' (Dinovella 2008, my italics). Goodman broadcasts on community media, a medium that provides a voice for the voiceless who may not be heard on mainstream media. Described as having a 'missionary zeal' about her work as an investigative journalist (she is often referred to as a 'muckraker'), Goodman is committed to working for change, reducing suffering and encouraging an ethic of care. She says:
'I care deeply about what I cover. And I think we have a tremendous responsibility as journalists to expose what’s going on in the world. When you see suffering, you care. We never want to take that out of our work.'
Dinovella, N. 2008. Amy Goodman Interview. The Progressive. feb 2008, http://www.progressive.org/mag/liz/intv0208
Eglash R. 2012. International religion reporting gets a boost. Common Ground News Service, April 10, 2012, http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=31252&lan=en&sp=0
Media Diversity Institute. MDI tips on reporting religion. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/documents/tips_reporting_religion.pdf
Schmalzbauer, J. 2005. Journalism and the religious imagination. In C.H. Badaracco, Ed., Quoting God: How media shapes ideas about religion and culture, 21-36, Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Underwood, D. 2002. I will show you my faith by what I do: a survey of the religious beliefs of journalists and journalists' faith put into action. From Yahweh to Yahoo! the religious roots of the secular press, 130-147, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Walking along the Brisbane River in the late and languid afternoon I come across a wonderful sight. A group of people are gathered in a quiet clearing, chatting. Right by them are a group of dogs, playing softly, all except one. This dog is large, black, a mix of breeds but charming. It is leaping high in the air and dancing as its owner spreads large irridescent bubbles across the darkening river valley. This dog is entranced with joy - and smiling.
Voices rise up from the river below. Another group of people are rowing in their thin long boats, and laughing.
A flock of Terresian crows flies by cawing raucously - happily?
Is this news? Is it news that people connect with the Brisbane River in a celebration of social and 'doggy' capital? Is it news that on a quiet afternoon, people are conversing and enjoying the moment by the water's edge? Why isn't this news?
This week in class we discussed the push and pull of news media and the oft-held perspective that the audience has agency and the individual has subjectivity in relation to media choices and habits. We discussed the relationship between media and society and reflected on which comes first - the media story and its ideology or the community's or society's values and ideas? Does the media report what the public want, or does the public influence the media to report on the issues it wants to be informed about? But what happens if what if the public wants is exactly what is being dished up on commercial TV news and chat shows? What's your view of this?
When I worked in the media as a producer in current affairs it never occurred to me that there was, or should be, a two way flow between the media and society. Deadlines and timeframes compel the producer to fill the program with informative and interesting material, and with people who are often described as being 'good talent'. Debates and talkback were prevalent - Israel-Palestine, gun control, drug legalisation, logging native forests, as well as issues related to abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, sexual abuse in the church, and other religiously-related or socially contentious issues.
The drama of a debate, the conflict inherent in two sides arguing, the page one newpaper article of the day, all these were grist to the mill. A story with a positve ending, or a story about something wonderful like a dog dancing with bubbles was not often on our agenda. We searched for current stories which informed, but often those issues involved a dualistic or binary framework of 'us' versus 'them'.
What's your view?
Can radio and television news be informative and not only focus on accident, conflict and drama? Can a story be longer than just a few brief seconds? Is love a story and how would it be covered? Can news be compassionate and altruistic? And can it be responsible, ethical, moral?
Thinking about incorporating religious and spiritual values into the news broadcast might smack of preaching and proselytising. But what if the news spread a message of hope instead of a message of fear?
Journalism and religion
In scholarly articles about the relationship between religion and journalism or religion and journalists, Doug Underwood (2002), for example, points to the gap in values between the two monolithinc institutions, as well as on a personal journalistic level, between what's reported and what's worshipped. Underwood explores the dimsions of this gap and questions whether there is any difference between U.S. journalists' own religiosity and the way their religious views may be transmitted, consciously or unconsciously, through their reporting. This could involve - what they choose to write about, the way they write it, what language they use, what focus or stance they take.
Underwood found that journalists' religious values are intertwined with their professional values. In particular, journalists from all faiths brought the attributes of compassion and social justice from their own religious traditions into their working lives. The more religious they were, the more they wove their views into their work, whether this was conscious or not.
Another theorist also researching the nexus between religion and journalism, John Schmalzbauer (2005) maintains that traditionally, journalists would aim for objectivit or neutrality in reporting, and suppressed comments on moral judgement. But regardless of this traditional practice, the choice of stories (what's in, what's left out), and the players within each story (who's in and who's not), represent ideologies or ideological terrains of power.
The religion reporter for the Times newspaper in the UK, Ruth Gledhill, states that religion has become a seriously-considered mainline issue since 9/11; it continues to grab the headlines. She also notes that religion's shift onto page one headlines have also occurred due to changes in technology but she comments that this shift has created a challenge for journalists as the new technologies have also put temptation at hand. The result has been the challenge to the ethics and morals of journalism as seen in the recent response to Britain's phone hacking scandals.
In March of this year, an international gathering of journalists took place in Italy to discuss this issue of ethics and morals in the industry. Journalists representing 23 nations raised the need for responsible journalism and discussed how to combat religion illiteracy among journalists and the public alike. The group, the International Association of Religion Journalists, called for reports on religion to be 'fair-minded', 'promote understanding and bridge the gaps causing biases and hatred among religions'. This latter view was put forward by a Pakistani journalist (Eglash 2012).
Perhaps similarly, the Media Diversity Institute in Europe has put out a short guide to reporting religion which states, in part:
- 'When writing about religion, pay close attention to the language you use to describe other people. You may not consider some words derogatory, but they may be offensive to the members of the group you are writing about. If you are not certain whether or not a word is insulting be sure to check before you use it. ...
- Be careful not simply to repeat common stereotypes about people of other religions. When it comes to religion, many self-styled ‘experts’ will say whatever they like about other spiritual traditions without feeling a need to back up their statements with facts. Because journalists often share those prejudices, they may need to remind themselves that their job is to challenge such statements, not accept them without question.'
As an example of the possibility for change, I turn to the American journalist Amy Goodman, anchor of Democracy Now, who states that journalism is 'a sacred responsibility' (Dinovella 2008, my italics). Goodman broadcasts on community media, a medium that provides a voice for the voiceless who may not be heard on mainstream media. Described as having a 'missionary zeal' about her work as an investigative journalist (she is often referred to as a 'muckraker'), Goodman is committed to working for change, reducing suffering and encouraging an ethic of care. She says:
'I care deeply about what I cover. And I think we have a tremendous responsibility as journalists to expose what’s going on in the world. When you see suffering, you care. We never want to take that out of our work.'
Dinovella, N. 2008. Amy Goodman Interview. The Progressive. feb 2008, http://www.progressive.org/mag/liz/intv0208
Eglash R. 2012. International religion reporting gets a boost. Common Ground News Service, April 10, 2012, http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=31252&lan=en&sp=0
Media Diversity Institute. MDI tips on reporting religion. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/documents/tips_reporting_religion.pdf
Schmalzbauer, J. 2005. Journalism and the religious imagination. In C.H. Badaracco, Ed., Quoting God: How media shapes ideas about religion and culture, 21-36, Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Underwood, D. 2002. I will show you my faith by what I do: a survey of the religious beliefs of journalists and journalists' faith put into action. From Yahweh to Yahoo! the religious roots of the secular press, 130-147, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
'You gotta have faith'
by Sylvie Shaw
When George Michael sang 'Faith', he was not expressing his religion but his desire. But can you take religion out of desire? We desire contact with what we hold to be sacred but can you get too much faith? Can religion turn into an addiction or obsession? Even a glorious obsession?
On the Hillsong TV show on Channel 10 in April, Pastor Brian Houston questioned the compulsion or obsession some people have towards their religious worship. He called this a 'glorious obsession'. To provide context for his view, Houston asked the following questions: ' What is it that gets you up in the morning? What are you passionate about? Do you live your life out of obligation and requirement? Or do you live it with a passion - where it's not a have-to, it's a want-to? Is there something that stirs you to make a difference? Have you got a glorious obsession?' (Houston 2012)
This led me to contemplate the glory in the work people do in acting for change, and to ask why is it that they want to make a difference? Houston repeats the idea that a richer [religious] life is not necessarily experienced by a requirement to fulfil one's obligations, but by one's passions and even one's 'glorious obsessions'. But I would question the distinction between obligation and passion, and ask - is there a requirement or an obligation, even a passionate obsession within religion to care for others, where others are not only other people, but also animals and the natural environment?
My observation in this Western society is that such a responsibility seems to be negotiable - that the idea of acting for the common wealth or communal good seems submerged within a material (or materialist) culture. But there are pockets and places of sacred action and passionate and communal faith in many people's responsibility for others as well as for creation care, For religionists and secularists alike, caring for the environment and for social justice becomes a passion for their lives and/or their lived religious expression. While some might argue it is a calling, or even a compulsion to act for others, it is a calling they have taken up with joy.
Such passion to action can emerge when problems or disasters occur in a community. For instance, it overflowed in the outpouring of civic action in the 'Mud Army' during Brisbane's floods in January 2011.
In the aftermath of the deluge, thousands of Brisbane residents flocked to help people clean up their homes. Religious organisations played a significant role, as right across the city and suburbs, religious leaders from all faiths dispensed solace and care, food parcels, clothes and furniture, and conducted liturgy and memorial rituals. It was 'all hands on deck' as far as the religious leaders were concerned. Some shut down their regular religious services and joined the work of the mud army.
The mud army was an inspiration. It spread like Durkheim's collective effervescence across the river valley. It was an example of people being driven by a sense of communal commitment and responsibilty. It was an act of selfless service and mindful engagement that cut across religious and cultural differences. It was an act of generosity that stirred and linked the community in one common goal.
The action of residents was, to use a more American religion theoretical perspective, an act of 'civic' or 'civil religion', which Nancy Ammerman (2009:50) refers to 'at its most basic, ..[is]. about what it means to be a citizen'. She adds that the religious heritage of a nation, 'is part of its strength'. Non-Indigenous Australian culture was created on what has been termed 'the pioneering spirit' - could that be part of our religious heritage in more of a secular frame? Was the work of the mud army already enshrined in Australia's cultural heritage, or is that thought way too jingoistic? People helped because of their felt need to work for the common good.
Ammerman observes that 'diverse faith communities will bring people together around diverse public causes' (60). Qualities of compassion and altruism, religiously-inspired or not, were embedded in the spirit of the volunteers who turned out to clean up. While they may not have joined the mud army out of an obsession, what they did was certainly glorious.
Questions
- What limits people to act on behalf of others, and what encourages them to do so?
- Is there a religious obligation to care for others, including care for the environment and creation?
- Religion's has concisely been engaged in social justice activism; it is a major function of religion. Is it a glorious obsession? 'Is there something that stirs you to make a difference? Have you got a glorious obsession?'
Reference
Ammerman, N. 2009. Building religious communities, building the common good. A skeptical appreciation. In P. Lichterman and C. Brady Potts, eds., The civic life of American religion, 48-68. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Houston B. 2012. A glorious obsession, part 2, Lightsource.com, http://www.lightsource.com/ministry/hillsong-tv/a-glorious-obsession-part-1-253899.html
When George Michael sang 'Faith', he was not expressing his religion but his desire. But can you take religion out of desire? We desire contact with what we hold to be sacred but can you get too much faith? Can religion turn into an addiction or obsession? Even a glorious obsession?
On the Hillsong TV show on Channel 10 in April, Pastor Brian Houston questioned the compulsion or obsession some people have towards their religious worship. He called this a 'glorious obsession'. To provide context for his view, Houston asked the following questions: ' What is it that gets you up in the morning? What are you passionate about? Do you live your life out of obligation and requirement? Or do you live it with a passion - where it's not a have-to, it's a want-to? Is there something that stirs you to make a difference? Have you got a glorious obsession?' (Houston 2012)
This led me to contemplate the glory in the work people do in acting for change, and to ask why is it that they want to make a difference? Houston repeats the idea that a richer [religious] life is not necessarily experienced by a requirement to fulfil one's obligations, but by one's passions and even one's 'glorious obsessions'. But I would question the distinction between obligation and passion, and ask - is there a requirement or an obligation, even a passionate obsession within religion to care for others, where others are not only other people, but also animals and the natural environment?
My observation in this Western society is that such a responsibility seems to be negotiable - that the idea of acting for the common wealth or communal good seems submerged within a material (or materialist) culture. But there are pockets and places of sacred action and passionate and communal faith in many people's responsibility for others as well as for creation care, For religionists and secularists alike, caring for the environment and for social justice becomes a passion for their lives and/or their lived religious expression. While some might argue it is a calling, or even a compulsion to act for others, it is a calling they have taken up with joy.
Such passion to action can emerge when problems or disasters occur in a community. For instance, it overflowed in the outpouring of civic action in the 'Mud Army' during Brisbane's floods in January 2011.
In the aftermath of the deluge, thousands of Brisbane residents flocked to help people clean up their homes. Religious organisations played a significant role, as right across the city and suburbs, religious leaders from all faiths dispensed solace and care, food parcels, clothes and furniture, and conducted liturgy and memorial rituals. It was 'all hands on deck' as far as the religious leaders were concerned. Some shut down their regular religious services and joined the work of the mud army.
The mud army was an inspiration. It spread like Durkheim's collective effervescence across the river valley. It was an example of people being driven by a sense of communal commitment and responsibilty. It was an act of selfless service and mindful engagement that cut across religious and cultural differences. It was an act of generosity that stirred and linked the community in one common goal.
The action of residents was, to use a more American religion theoretical perspective, an act of 'civic' or 'civil religion', which Nancy Ammerman (2009:50) refers to 'at its most basic, ..[is]. about what it means to be a citizen'. She adds that the religious heritage of a nation, 'is part of its strength'. Non-Indigenous Australian culture was created on what has been termed 'the pioneering spirit' - could that be part of our religious heritage in more of a secular frame? Was the work of the mud army already enshrined in Australia's cultural heritage, or is that thought way too jingoistic? People helped because of their felt need to work for the common good.
Ammerman observes that 'diverse faith communities will bring people together around diverse public causes' (60). Qualities of compassion and altruism, religiously-inspired or not, were embedded in the spirit of the volunteers who turned out to clean up. While they may not have joined the mud army out of an obsession, what they did was certainly glorious.
Questions
- What limits people to act on behalf of others, and what encourages them to do so?
- Is there a religious obligation to care for others, including care for the environment and creation?
- Religion's has concisely been engaged in social justice activism; it is a major function of religion. Is it a glorious obsession? 'Is there something that stirs you to make a difference? Have you got a glorious obsession?'
Reference
Ammerman, N. 2009. Building religious communities, building the common good. A skeptical appreciation. In P. Lichterman and C. Brady Potts, eds., The civic life of American religion, 48-68. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Houston B. 2012. A glorious obsession, part 2, Lightsource.com, http://www.lightsource.com/ministry/hillsong-tv/a-glorious-obsession-part-1-253899.html
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Whose representing whom?
by Sylvie Shaw
There are some really wonderful theorists and players within the scholarly framing of representation. Two of my favourite theorists are Stuart Hall and bell hooks. I find their work riveting and their viewpoints both enlightening and enlivening.
They make me look inside myself to see where are my biases as a person born white. They throw up issues around the imaging of certain groups, genders, religions, and make me question the education I had, the worldview of the society I grew up in, and the constant barrage of images that I absorb each day from the media.
Stuart Hall, in a doco on current media representations, says that images 'have become the priviledged sign of late modern culture'. He maintains that, on a global scale, they have become the 'saturating medium' of something represented, or 're-presented' by the media.
As a media worker in my past, I wondered how often i had assumed, even adopted, a mediated sterrotype of certain groups or issues. As a current affairs producer and journalist, I wondered if the information I had garnered was positioned within the accepted or hegemonic worldview of the time. But what I did not realise, perhaps, was the effect this view was having on audences.
For Hall, representation delivers meaning. He states that: 'Representation is the way MEANING is given to the things depicted' through the various mediums being used to project a particular text or image.
In relation to religion and social and religious groups, how are certain religions or groups depicted in the media and in popular culture? bell hooks, in anohter online vid doco. discusses her approach to representations using her marvellous book, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representation (1994) to describe the essence of representations and the way to resist representations.
Like Hall, hooks uses the vehicle of popular culture to frame and embellish her arguments. The media presents a powerful imagining which, she notes, can help the audience understand the politics of difference. She sees popular culture as a pedogogy for realising the world.
Importantly, hooks urges us, as viewers and audiences, to 'think critically' about the world and the way different 'worlds' are shown and which aspects are highlighted. Her view is that there is a 'direct link' between representations and the choices we make in our lives'.
Her fear is that certain groups in society, or even in the academy, will dismiss the plethora of images and storylines around, for example, sexual and racial violence as not affecting or influencing people's worldviews or 'the choices they make in [their] lives'. Her critique extends to Hollywood and to which groups and what stories are being told and by whom - and what impact that screen blockbusters like Mel Gibson's Braveheart have on audiences. The industry priviledges the white gaze, in this case, the political liberals and white male powerbrokers.
The important question to ask in such cases is - in whose interest is this kind of representation? I remember when I went to see the film Braveheart, I was moved not by the independence movement in Scotland, the theme of the movie, but by what was happening at the time in the Balkans and the atrocities being perpetrated. I'd gone to the theatre with my elderly mother who was really puzzled when, after the film, I was visbily shaken. 'What's the matter with you?', she asked. All I could reply was 'Bosnia', explaining the extent of violence in the war that was all-pervasive.
Questions
- How does media represent and affect different groups in society?
- What is the impact of this representation of stories and images on audiences? And on the people being depicted?
- What role does the media have in countering negative stereotypes?
- Could the media do this? What would you recommend?
Sources:
Media Education Foundation: bell hooks: Cultural criticism, part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLMVqnyTo_0&feature=related
Media Education Foundation: Representation and the media, featuring Stuart Hall, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY
Image source:
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/DelamotteOrnamentalAlphabets/pages/051-16th-Century-letter-r/
There are some really wonderful theorists and players within the scholarly framing of representation. Two of my favourite theorists are Stuart Hall and bell hooks. I find their work riveting and their viewpoints both enlightening and enlivening.
They make me look inside myself to see where are my biases as a person born white. They throw up issues around the imaging of certain groups, genders, religions, and make me question the education I had, the worldview of the society I grew up in, and the constant barrage of images that I absorb each day from the media.
Stuart Hall, in a doco on current media representations, says that images 'have become the priviledged sign of late modern culture'. He maintains that, on a global scale, they have become the 'saturating medium' of something represented, or 're-presented' by the media.
As a media worker in my past, I wondered how often i had assumed, even adopted, a mediated sterrotype of certain groups or issues. As a current affairs producer and journalist, I wondered if the information I had garnered was positioned within the accepted or hegemonic worldview of the time. But what I did not realise, perhaps, was the effect this view was having on audences.
For Hall, representation delivers meaning. He states that: 'Representation is the way MEANING is given to the things depicted' through the various mediums being used to project a particular text or image.
In relation to religion and social and religious groups, how are certain religions or groups depicted in the media and in popular culture? bell hooks, in anohter online vid doco. discusses her approach to representations using her marvellous book, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representation (1994) to describe the essence of representations and the way to resist representations.
Like Hall, hooks uses the vehicle of popular culture to frame and embellish her arguments. The media presents a powerful imagining which, she notes, can help the audience understand the politics of difference. She sees popular culture as a pedogogy for realising the world.
Importantly, hooks urges us, as viewers and audiences, to 'think critically' about the world and the way different 'worlds' are shown and which aspects are highlighted. Her view is that there is a 'direct link' between representations and the choices we make in our lives'.
Her fear is that certain groups in society, or even in the academy, will dismiss the plethora of images and storylines around, for example, sexual and racial violence as not affecting or influencing people's worldviews or 'the choices they make in [their] lives'. Her critique extends to Hollywood and to which groups and what stories are being told and by whom - and what impact that screen blockbusters like Mel Gibson's Braveheart have on audiences. The industry priviledges the white gaze, in this case, the political liberals and white male powerbrokers.
The important question to ask in such cases is - in whose interest is this kind of representation? I remember when I went to see the film Braveheart, I was moved not by the independence movement in Scotland, the theme of the movie, but by what was happening at the time in the Balkans and the atrocities being perpetrated. I'd gone to the theatre with my elderly mother who was really puzzled when, after the film, I was visbily shaken. 'What's the matter with you?', she asked. All I could reply was 'Bosnia', explaining the extent of violence in the war that was all-pervasive.
Questions
- How does media represent and affect different groups in society?
- What is the impact of this representation of stories and images on audiences? And on the people being depicted?
- What role does the media have in countering negative stereotypes?
- Could the media do this? What would you recommend?
Sources:
Media Education Foundation: bell hooks: Cultural criticism, part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLMVqnyTo_0&feature=related
Media Education Foundation: Representation and the media, featuring Stuart Hall, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY
Image source:
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/DelamotteOrnamentalAlphabets/pages/051-16th-Century-letter-r/
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Reflecting on Sacred Embodiment & Engagement Online
by Sylvie Shaw
Blogging, online chat, ebay shopping, religious rituals, each day I wonder if the internet is taking over my life as I ponder - should I go for a walk or walk though my favourite websites? Should I explore the local riverscape or explore the virtual world for information on spirituality and rivers?
Blogging, online chat, ebay shopping, religious rituals, each day I wonder if the internet is taking over my life as I ponder - should I go for a walk or walk though my favourite websites? Should I explore the local riverscape or explore the virtual world for information on spirituality and rivers?
Sometimes, especially when it's raining or even just drizzling, I feel torn - which do I prefer - the shoulds (you should go outdoors and experience the beauty of nature) or the wants (the online engagement and possible seduction).
Sitting on the couch, surfing the world, seems such a passive experience. Looking at the way individuals engage with online religious experiences and religious services also seems to be similar. There's engagement certainly, but embodiment? Religious leaders can beam their message out across the globe, but the practitioners and the leader themselves are often sitting watching their computer screens. The action is taking place in their minds and their imagination.
Sitting on the couch, surfing the world, seems such a passive experience. Looking at the way individuals engage with online religious experiences and religious services also seems to be similar. There's engagement certainly, but embodiment? Religious leaders can beam their message out across the globe, but the practitioners and the leader themselves are often sitting watching their computer screens. The action is taking place in their minds and their imagination.
Certainly the senses of sight and hearing are being activated but, according to Glenn Young (2004: 104), 'the only way I found myself able to connect with this [Catholic] ritual in any tangible way was through the relation of what I was viewing to my own previous experiences as a participant in this liturgy.' The experience is embodied, he says, but only through the bodymind remembering.
In his article, Religion and praying online, Young (2004:101) cites Brenda Brasher (2001:42) as observing that cyberspace 'stimulates the imagination but ignores the rest of the body...[and] that sucks attention away from the immediate surroundings in which most traditional religious lift occurs.'
So the quandary remains - why the intense engagement if the 'real' body is left only as a passive participant in the virtual sacred? To help me answer, or at least reflect on the question, I go webwalking and find T.L. Taylor (2002:42) explaining that:
'The body through which presence is being constructed is not simply the corporeal one, but the digital as well. In multi-user worlds it is not just through the inclusion of a representation of self that presence is built. It is instead through the use of a body as material in the dynamic performance of identity and social life that users come to be “made real” – that they come to experience immersion.'
Taylor refers specifically to online avatars, imaginative creations of alter-egos for participation in the virtual. From Second Life to online gaming, avatars take on a life of their own as they become observably (at least onscreen) real, and real in the minds of the creators. Taylor comments that some individuals regard their avatar as more real or more corporally real than their own bodies or selves. This raises the question - which body is real for the avatar creator and other online participants?
So rather than an avatar, could Skype become an online process for connecting people in religious and spiritual embodied engagement?
Perhaps another way to chart the change is through the amazing and moving virtual choir. Composer Eric Whitacre uses the online vid format in the most imaginative way - by creating a virtual choir with singers, from all over globe and faiths, linked to a central performance online stage.
Whitacre began the project in 2009 after a fan and friend, Britlin, posted a message to him via a vid of her singing on youtube. He then put out a call to other fans to record themselves singing the same track. Whitacre (2012) writes:
'When I saw Britlin’s video today the idea hit me like a brick: what if hundreds of people did the same thing and then we cut them all together, creating the very first virtual choir?'
Recordings of the Whitacre's virtual choir, especially the sound of beautiful sacred music, Luxe Aurumuqe, emanating from numbers of individual voices so intricately woven together, are evocative, touching, moving - but then I'm brought back to reality with a question raised by Jenny Mackness (2011) on her blogpost: 'Is a virtual choir ...even a choir?' What's missing, she says, is the sensual element and the minute adjustments a chorister would make in a face-to-face choir.
In contrast, there was a sense of spiritual capital or a spirit of togetherness and closeness mentioned by the choristers. In her blogpost Mackness examines Facebook posts by the choir participants and finds one talking about connectivity, emotionality and energy: 'It means that my voice can be heard around the world in harmony with other voices. We are connected through the emotions expressed by Eric’s composure. The energy created cannot be measured and will never die.’
While some comment on the practical difficulties of being alone and finding the right harmonies to sing along with, others exclaim how close they feel to the process, the music and the other singers.
Whitacre's music is so beautiful that I'm persuaded, at least until the sun comes out, to stay and listen online. It moves me. But then I know that the outdoors is calling, not to mention my cat the brown Burmese Merlin, is demanding his walk too.
Which is more engaging and embodied? Perhaps if I took the music I could be in both places at once - but I prefer the thoughts and the walking mashing together, accompanied by the gorgeous carolling of the magpies and the chatter of butcher birds along the riverbank in the early morning. Must dash, nature awaits.
Questions: Over to you
Questions: Over to you
- Are virtual worlds as fun as real worlds?
- Is religious experience or spiritual experience similar or different and how?
- Would you prefer to be in nature or on Facebook?
- What is more engaging - real worlds or virtual worlds?
- If you are religious from a monotheistic faith, do you feel God is online too?
- How does cyber space become sacred space?
- Is religious experience or spiritual experience similar or different and how?
- Would you prefer to be in nature or on Facebook?
- What is more engaging - real worlds or virtual worlds?
- If you are religious from a monotheistic faith, do you feel God is online too?
- How does cyber space become sacred space?
References
Brasher, B.E. Give me that online religion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Mackness, J. 2011. Is a virtual choir a learning network or even a choir? Oct 16.
http://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/is-a-virtual-choir-a-learning-network-or-even-a-choir/
Taylor, T.L. 2002. Living digitally: embodiment in virtual worlds. In R. Schroeder, Ed., The social life of avatars: presence and interaction in shared virtual environments. London: Springer-Verlag.
Young, G. 2004. Reading and praying online: the continuity of religion online and online religion on the internet. In L.L. Dawson and D. Cowan, Eds. Religion online: finding faith on the internet. London and New York: Routledge.
Whitacre, E. 2012. Eric Whitacre's virtual choir - history. http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir/history
Taylor, T.L. 2002. Living digitally: embodiment in virtual worlds. In R. Schroeder, Ed., The social life of avatars: presence and interaction in shared virtual environments. London: Springer-Verlag.
Young, G. 2004. Reading and praying online: the continuity of religion online and online religion on the internet. In L.L. Dawson and D. Cowan, Eds. Religion online: finding faith on the internet. London and New York: Routledge.
Whitacre, E. 2012. Eric Whitacre's virtual choir - history. http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir/history
Image Source:
http://pixabay.com/en/drops-drop-leaf-nature-22884/
http://pixabay.com/en/drops-drop-leaf-nature-22884/
Labels:
Embodied or Engaged Online Religion,
Online religion,
Real or Virtual,
Writing Religion and Spirituality
Friday, April 6, 2012
Where is the Love?
by Sylvie Shaw
The Black Eyed Peas appeal to humanity's compassion with one of their early singles - Where is the Love?
'I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
Questions
The Black Eyed Peas appeal to humanity's compassion with one of their early singles - Where is the Love?
'I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all,
people gets colder
Most of us only care about money
makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our
own direction
Wrong information always shown by
the media
Negative images is the main
criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wonna act like what they
see in the cinema'
(Pajon, Adams & Board).
The lyrics lay down the
philosophy of this globally-brilliant hiphop group. They question society's
ills, listing issues from war, to racism and violence - and see the answer in a
faith that spreads love, compassion and right (and moral) action. Directed at
youth culture, the Black Eyed Peas use the vehicle of the voracious music
industry to ignite young people to a faith beyond that of mainline media, to compel them to action over what they see are negatively shifting social values.
'Yo', whatever happened to the
values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness
in equality
Instead of spreading love we
spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading
lives away from unity'
The group feels weighed down, not
only by what they experience and observe is happening in society, but maybe are also weighed down by
their sense of responsibility to raise awareness and encourage the practice of
peace and acceptance.
The group has positioned themselves within the realm
of protest or message songs, a sometimes religious, sometimes secular genre of
the highly commodified music industry, where 'faith songs' seem out of place or
on the edge. But increasingly, music with religious themes is entering the pop
charts, although those with political messages, whether focused on social justice, environment
and peace, are far less apparent in mainstream (superficial) pop.
Music with a religious or
spiritual message acts to blur the boundaries between the sacred and the
profane, but what is surfacing in the sacralised merging of pop plus religion
is the redefining of religious boundaries. As traditional mainline faith declines
in the west, especially the weekly obligation of church attendance, what is
emerging, or what has emerged, has been dubbed by Rupert Till (2010) as the
'sacred popular'. As forms of religious worship shift from the pulpit to the
religious moshpit, dimensions of religiosity are increasingly located in the realm of
experience culture that bursts forth in a host of popular music genres that are
invited into places of worship to update the practice - but perhaps not
transform it substantially as music is implicit in religious ritual.
Accompanying the celebration of
pop music in experiential religion is the interweaving of messages of love,
peace and spirituality both incorporated within the secular music industry and the ‘new’ forms of faith worship. In his article 'Rap music, hip-hop culture and
'the future of religion in the world', music theorist Robin Sylvan (2010:301)
states that 'peace and love spirituality is not simply superficial
sloganeering, but something that must be put into practice amid the difficulties
of daily life'.
'That's the reason why
sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes
I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes
I'm feelin' under'
Sylvan shows that although there
has been a decline in institutional religion adherence, there’s been a blurring of boundaries between sacred-profane and religious-secular, and an expansion of expressions of religiosity. Sacred themes and spiritual messages have not disappeared at all, but have been
absorbed into Till's (2010) 'sacred popular', and become an intimate player in both the (profane-secular) industry - and the (sacred) religion.
'Gotta keep my faith alive until
the love is found
ask yourself
Where is the love?'
Questions
- Why does Sylvan suggest that
hip-hop has been a great vehicle for the crossover pop religion?
- Where is the love? In what ways
has pop music transformed religious ritual and, in what ways has religion
transformed popular music?
References
Sylvan, R. 2010. Rap
music, hip-hop culture and 'the future of religion in the world'. In E. Mazur
and K. McCarthy, Eds., God in the details, 2nd edn., 291-306, Hoboken:
Taylor & Francis.
Till, R. 2010. Pop cult: religion
and popular music. London: Continuum International Publishing.
Image source:
http://pixabay.com/en/acoustic-guitar-bridge-strings-21184/
Image source:
http://pixabay.com/en/acoustic-guitar-bridge-strings-21184/
Transformation by Media; Reflections by Religion
by Sylvie Shaw
In his article in The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, Gordon Lynch (2010:549) asks: 'In what ways are particular forms of media and popular culture implicated in transforming contemporary [lived] religion?'
In answering his own question, Lynch is critical of the mediatization theory of religion which he suggests results in a 'linear' or one-way influence of media products on religion. Instead he argues for seeing the interconnection between religion and media as a vital two-way process in which religion can affect or 'act on' the media, and in turn, media can influence or 'act on' religion, specifically the expression of lived religion in contemporary culture.
In reviewing this interconnected triad between religion, media and popular culture, Lynch points out that religions which do not keep pace with mediated approaches may risk a loss of adherents, especially younger believers. Religion needs to speak to 'religious sub-cultures', so 'adherents feel part of a wider collective, learn and maintain aesthetic and sensory regimes for encountering their vision of the sacred, and find reinforcement for particular ways of seeing and acting in the world.' (552).
These issues about how to see and act in the world were highlighted on Good Friday, 2012, when Anglican leaders raised differing perspectives of the 'darkness' apparent in Australian society. The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Phillip Aspinall pointed to the use of social media and youtube as damaging cultural values and social harmony by being used as 'a weapon for bullying, brutality and destruction.' (Sydney Morning Herald 2012).
In contrast, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Phillip Freier, saw the 'darkness' in society in the growing equity gap between rich and poor, highlighting the corporate world's high profits and reluctance to share its wealth. He singled out the banks and mining companies for failing both their employees and the nation as a whole. As a counter to this financial bonanza, he referred to the actions of the global Occupy Movement which promoted the need for intimacy between the common-wealth, the common good, and moral and social responsibility.
Other Anglican leaders across the country were similarly critical of social networking and continuous political reporting. Bishop Stuart Robinson of the Canberra Goulburn diocese focused on the Twitter barrage and the 24/7 news cycle, saying they lead to a social disenchantment and lack of trust of both politics and politicians. His view was supported by the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Jeffrey Driver, who called on politicians to 'lead the nation, openly, selflessly and with integrity.' (Hegarty 2012).
All Anglican leaders promoted a vision for change, a change resplendent in the vision of the story of resurrection and renewal, for hope and selfless service. In particular, Archbishop Driver stated: '"In the story of Jesus we see that renewal begins with openness, vulnerability and a willingness to sacrifice institutional privilege in order to give and serve without heed for self.' He especially noted the need for religion to promote these values - and 'renew its influence in the modern world.' (Hegarty 2012).
In his article in The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, Gordon Lynch (2010:549) asks: 'In what ways are particular forms of media and popular culture implicated in transforming contemporary [lived] religion?'
In answering his own question, Lynch is critical of the mediatization theory of religion which he suggests results in a 'linear' or one-way influence of media products on religion. Instead he argues for seeing the interconnection between religion and media as a vital two-way process in which religion can affect or 'act on' the media, and in turn, media can influence or 'act on' religion, specifically the expression of lived religion in contemporary culture.
In reviewing this interconnected triad between religion, media and popular culture, Lynch points out that religions which do not keep pace with mediated approaches may risk a loss of adherents, especially younger believers. Religion needs to speak to 'religious sub-cultures', so 'adherents feel part of a wider collective, learn and maintain aesthetic and sensory regimes for encountering their vision of the sacred, and find reinforcement for particular ways of seeing and acting in the world.' (552).
These issues about how to see and act in the world were highlighted on Good Friday, 2012, when Anglican leaders raised differing perspectives of the 'darkness' apparent in Australian society. The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Phillip Aspinall pointed to the use of social media and youtube as damaging cultural values and social harmony by being used as 'a weapon for bullying, brutality and destruction.' (Sydney Morning Herald 2012).
In contrast, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Phillip Freier, saw the 'darkness' in society in the growing equity gap between rich and poor, highlighting the corporate world's high profits and reluctance to share its wealth. He singled out the banks and mining companies for failing both their employees and the nation as a whole. As a counter to this financial bonanza, he referred to the actions of the global Occupy Movement which promoted the need for intimacy between the common-wealth, the common good, and moral and social responsibility.
Other Anglican leaders across the country were similarly critical of social networking and continuous political reporting. Bishop Stuart Robinson of the Canberra Goulburn diocese focused on the Twitter barrage and the 24/7 news cycle, saying they lead to a social disenchantment and lack of trust of both politics and politicians. His view was supported by the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Jeffrey Driver, who called on politicians to 'lead the nation, openly, selflessly and with integrity.' (Hegarty 2012).
All Anglican leaders promoted a vision for change, a change resplendent in the vision of the story of resurrection and renewal, for hope and selfless service. In particular, Archbishop Driver stated: '"In the story of Jesus we see that renewal begins with openness, vulnerability and a willingness to sacrifice institutional privilege in order to give and serve without heed for self.' He especially noted the need for religion to promote these values - and 'renew its influence in the modern world.' (Hegarty 2012).
As Gordon Lynch warns above, religions need to get relevant or lose influence. Australian religious leaders have heeded the warning and recognised the need to promote their product. But there's a catch. This easter they are using the very same mediated 24/7 news cycles and social media networks they are critical about.
Questions
- Why are religious organisations having their cake and eating it too (criticising mediated practices while utilising them)?
- Do you imagine that mainline religions will lose adherents unless they become socially relevant?
- What is your view of Lynch's perspective - get active, get modern or lose members?
References
Hegarty, A. 2012. Politicans told to think about others at Easter. The Advertiser, http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/politicians-told-to-think-about-others/story-e6freooo-1226320202585
Lynch, G. 2010. Religion, media and cultures of everyday life. In J. Hinnells, Ed., The Routledge companion to the study of religion. 2nd edn., Abingdon, OX: Routledge.
Sydney Morning Herald. 2012. Social media bad for society: archbishop. Sydney Morning Herald, April 6, http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/social-media-bad-for-society-archbishop-20120406-1wgho.html
Image Source:
http://pixabay.com/en/craft-background-architecture-organ-20118/
Sydney Morning Herald. 2012. Social media bad for society: archbishop. Sydney Morning Herald, April 6, http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/social-media-bad-for-society-archbishop-20120406-1wgho.html
Image Source:
http://pixabay.com/en/craft-background-architecture-organ-20118/
Spectacular Religion and Guy Debord
By Sylvie Shaw
The work of Guy Debord (1967), Society of
the Spectacle is highly relevant for exploring the outpouring of religious
fervency in charismatic religious services, pilgrimages and spiritual parades,
even for contemplating the heightened emotionality from sports fans (Xifra
2008).
Debord is uncompromising in his critique of
society and its insistent, almost compulsive, drive towards commodification. He
uses the explosion of spectacle to analyse the way that societal processes have
embraced commodity production. He observes that this act unifies the society in
the 'work' of consuming, but, at the same time, separates and isolates. While
he does not specifically mention the construction of the self as spectacle, he
is relentless in his denunciation that the individual is powerless in the
onslaught of the spectacular with its grounding in capitalist power and
ideology.
Using a Marxian framework, Debord shows
that society is increasingly imbued with 'an immense accumulation of
spectacles', constructed though a mediated cultural hegemony, so much so that
the spectacle becomes 'a social relationship between people that is mediated by
images'. He sees this process as creating an Adorno and Horkheimer-like
passivity in those bound up in this socially mediated existence. Within his
perspective, individuals are no longer autonomous thinkers but pawns in a
system that Debord sees as alienating, where an 'individual's own gestures are
no longer his [her] own, but rather those of someone else who represents them
to him.' Thus, no longer can the individual construct an authentic self, even
one's own sense of authenticity is moulded by outside forces.
This is not to say that the society of the
spectacle is a society of puppetry. What Debord exemplifies, but does not
engage much within this critical text, is the potentiality for active
engagement, both political and, to my mind, religious. While Debord views
religion as 'a vestige of moral repression', aspects of religion in
contemporary society can be imagined as 'spectacled' (or spectacular), mediated
and commodified. But does this mean that the religious self then becomes an inauthentic self?
Religion, through its practices, rituals and symbols, is itself a spectacle, and one that creates meaning and purpose for individual adherents and religious communities. However, these sacred processes too are critiqued as being commodified and thus rendered desacralised.
Religion, through its practices, rituals and symbols, is itself a spectacle, and one that creates meaning and purpose for individual adherents and religious communities. However, these sacred processes too are critiqued as being commodified and thus rendered desacralised.
In his article 'The Morality and Politics
of Consumer Religion: How Consumer Religion Fuels the Culture Wars in the
United States', author Scott Kline (2007) laments the shifts in contemporary
religion saying:
'we live in a world of commodities where
religious symbols and practices have been detached from their historical and
cultural foundations, and where consumers tend to value "tradition"
only inasmuch as it fulfills specific immediate desires. The fragmentation
between historical-cultural foundations and the lives of modern consumers has
enabled the commodity producers to promote religious products to consumers
hungry for enhancement and university, transcendent truth.'
His view, like Debord's, is that
commodification has disenchanted, even disheartened religious practitioners, as
they see their sacred practices being mediated, commodified, and transformed
into 'profaned' objects of fashion and passion.
I want to question this perspective and
look to the work of Guy Debord and Douglas Kellner's (nd) Media Culture and the
Triumph of the Spectacle, but not via their critique of commodified
cultural constructions under capitalism. I argue instead that there can be a
moving away from their one-way assessment towards embracing the notion of
spectacle as counter-hegemonic - as a celebration of contemporary forms of
religious practice (in its broadest sense) and a relational process of meaning
making. Rather than censuring spectacle
culture, could one not endorse it in an outpouring of collective effervescence,
where the individual is active and engaged in spectacular acts of worship - whether religious, spiritual
or even sportive?
This fervency can be seen in the increasing
interest in religious tourism and pilgrimage, in the spontaneous
eruption of a flashmob, in the celebration of joy at World Youth Day
events, in the excitement of an Olympics opening, or in a rally for peace, justice
and equity.
According to Best and Kellner (nd), the
spectacle, for Debord, 'is a tool of pacification and depoliticization' but
could it be upturned and appropriated, or culture jammed, to a spectacular
event of 'vibe and energy'? (Leichty 2010). While Best and Kellner focus on the
overpowering role of media, advertising and infotainment, they also propose
that 'cyberdemocracy and technopolitics' could
provide an avenue for 'the sort of subversive politics and the use of the
tools of the spectacle against the capitalist spectacle that Debord promoted.'
Taking heart in the possibility of jamming
the spectacle, religious and spiritual practices are increasingly adopting the
spectacle (or did they always do this in various forms of ritual and sensation?).
From events such as the magical and fiery Edinburgh Fire Festival, to television advertisements
promoting religion (such as the 'I'm a Mormon' campaign with practitioners like
The Killers' Brandon Flowers), as well as religious activism and prayer
services at the various 'Occupy Movement' rallies, the spectacle can become a
counter-hegemonic practice of celebration and/or protest action.
This shift in religious engagement is
highlighted well in an opinion piece in Religion Despatches on the role of religious
activists at the Occupy Wall Street encampment. Senior Minister of Judson Memorial
Church in New York City, Donna Shaper (2011) states:
'If you want to find the Occupy Movement
now, just go here: exile, diaspora, online, viral, on radio, at Thanksgiving
tables, over coffee, in Los Angeles and Poughkeepsie and Riverside and more.
Everybody wants to know where it is—and it is everywhere.'
Taking the spectacle and re-modelling it,
Shaper views this re-invigorated counter-capitalist movement as a process of
social relations - but not one that alienates as Debord suggests. Instead, she
welcomes it as a movement that conjoins people in community responsibility and
communal understanding. Through various ritual sharings and interactions, the idea
of spectacle can be, and is, incorporated as sacred practice (and sacred
service).
Other theorists, such as Meghan Sutherland (in
Walker 2012), have questioned Debord's resolve in condemning spectacle society,
commenting that: 'Any struggle for social change could never fully abolish the
spectacle.' In an article in the UK newspaper The Guardian, What Debord can
teach us about protest, Sutherland (2012) points out that an affirmation of
Debord's notion of alienation and his criticism of the role of capitalist power
relations and mediated commodification can easily become a repetition of what
is all too familiar in contemporary western society:
'The danger with this reading – the
spectacle as a retroactive name for the social alienation of modern media
culture – is that it turns Debord into a prophet who simply confirms everything
we already know and further cements its inevitability. In other words, it is to
make The Society of the Spectacle into precisely the kind of spectacle that Debord
warns us of... where he insists that the spectacle is not a simple product of
mass media, but "a weltanschauung that has been actualised, translated
into the material realm – a world view transformed into an objective force.'
Sutherland notes that rather than pushing
the spectacle aside, that Debord himself, through his films and artistic visual
collages, as well as his engagement in the radical French movement of the 1950s
and 60s, the Situationists International, actually uses the medium of spectacle
through the process termed ‘détournement’, 'an appropriation and
recontextualistion of cultural meaning' (Walker 2012). Using this notion of
subverting accepted or hegemonic meanings, Sutherland asks whether 'mass media
techniques' can be upturned, or re-used in ways that make sense of 'how to
think about
transforming social existence in an age of
mass media commerce.'
Taking her idea into a religious and
spiritual context, the use of media is already being utilised not to dilute
religious traditions but to disseminate them, creating new forms of meaning
within the spectacle of the sacred.
Questions
- How is religious ritual a spectacle?
- In what circumstances could religious
rituals be regarded as counter-hegemonic?
- Do you agree with Debord that society is
under sufferance because of the plethora of entertaining mediated spectacle
- In what ways can you take active agency
rather than passivity in light of Debord's critique?
References
Best, S. and D. Kellner. nd. Debord and the
postmodern turn: new stages
of the spectacle. Illuminations, http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell17.htm
Debord, G. 1967. Society of the spectacle. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm
Kellner, D. nd. Media culture and the triumph of the
Kellner, D. nd. Media culture and the triumph of the
spectacle. http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/mediaculturetriumphspectacle.pdf
Kline, S. 2007. The morality and politics of consumer religion: how consumer religion fuels the culture wars in the United States. Journal of
Kline, S. 2007. The morality and politics of consumer religion: how consumer religion fuels the culture wars in the United States. Journal of
Religion and Popular Culture 17, Fall, http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art17-consumerreligion.html
Leichty, JC. 2010. World Cup reflections:
religion (but mostly) conflict and peace. Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace,
3(2) Spring,
Shaper, D. 2011. Occupy in exile: sacred
space is everywhere.
Religion Despatches, Nov 28, http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/5439/occupy_in_exile%3A_sacred_space_is_everywhere/
Sutherland, M. 2012. What Debord can teach
us about protest. The Guardian,
Walker, B. 2012. The Big Ideas podcast: Guy
Debord's 'society of the
spectacle'. The Guardian, March 28, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/audio/2012/mar/28/big-ideas-podcast-debord-society-spectacle">
Xifra, J. 2008. Soccer, civil religion, and
public relations: Devotional-promotional communication and Barcelona Football
Club. Public Relations Review 34(2): 192-198.
Image
source:
http://pixabay.com/en/alone-background-beautiful-bright-15155/
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Slow Beauty
by Sylvie Shaw
Which would you rather be - techno-addicted or nature connected?
Recent research from the US shows two significant changes for children - the first is that they are spending less time in the outdoors and more time inside and online. The second is more surreptious, children's books are depicting less and less animals and nature-related stories.
Why is this relevant to media, culture and religion?
Techno-philia, or online-philia is replacing outdoors experiences for many young people. Children's stories are now mainly set in the built environment and, according to Williams et al. (2012), accompanying this shift indoors are fewer books containing images of nature or animals, especially wild animals, and fewer images and stories than in the past about people interacting with the natural envrionment or with animals.
Perhaps more concerning are not the direct implications of this research study, but the indirect social and political perspectives surrounding the study.. In the US (and perhaps Australia), support for the environment movement dropped during the 2000s decade, while environmental issues also ranked low in the American public's mind. Importantly however, note the authors, research on the significance of nature connection shows a relationship between 'experience in natural environments, and understanding, concern, and action with respect to environmental problems.' (Williams et al. 2012). So the more time you spend in nature, the more aware of the natural world you become, the more meaningful nature experiences are. The more understanding you have about nature, especially through the frequent and meaningful encounters in the outdoors, the more concern you're likely to show towards nature - and the ecological crisis.
In 2006, when Al Gore produced his Inconvenient Truth, he stated that climate change was a 'moral issue'. 'Make no mistake, this is not just a political issue, not just a market issue, not just a national security issue, not just a jobs issue. It is a moral issue.'
Since then (and before then too), a great many books have been written in the field of religion and ecology and environment issues have been at the forefront of much recent religion and spiritual discourse and practice. For instance, the Vatican has installed solar power across its ancient rooftops; Muslim associations like the environmental IFEES in the UK produced a 'green guide' for Muslim living; Buddhists in the US have worked with local people in Mongolia to establish an inspirational ecology centre and program to protect local fish habitats and species; Muslims at the Al Ghazzali Centre in Sydney's south have revegetated river banks; the Jewish Ecological Coalition in Melbourne have published a sustainability guide; while Brisbane's multi-faith community have held prayer meetings and other interfaith-based services. Religious organisations are installing green energy, developing ecological programs and policies, reviewing scripture, writing nature-inspired liturgies and even a Green Bible has been produced.
Last week I watched the trailer for a documentary called Play Again, where techno-focused children and teens were taken into wild nature to 'play again'. It shows their transformation from techno-connected to enjoying adventures in the outdoors. Life slows, observation grows, passion for nature (hopefully) is ignited because - if we don't know nature, how can we learn to love it, and if we don't love nature or know nature, why would we know it needs protecting?
Nature teaches us to watch, slowly and see the beauty emerge in its stillness. It encourages us to play. And act.
Questions:
- Can films about nature and religion replace engagement with God's creation or creation care?
- Why are religious organisations so concerned about environmental issues?
- How important is the outdoors in your life - and your spirirtual life?
Reference
Williams Jr, A., C. Podeschi, N. Palmer, P. Schwadel, and D. Meyler.2012. The Human-Environment Dialog in Award-winning Children’s Picture Books. Sociological Inquiry 82(1):145-159.
Which would you rather be - techno-addicted or nature connected?
Recent research from the US shows two significant changes for children - the first is that they are spending less time in the outdoors and more time inside and online. The second is more surreptious, children's books are depicting less and less animals and nature-related stories.
Why is this relevant to media, culture and religion?
Techno-philia, or online-philia is replacing outdoors experiences for many young people. Children's stories are now mainly set in the built environment and, according to Williams et al. (2012), accompanying this shift indoors are fewer books containing images of nature or animals, especially wild animals, and fewer images and stories than in the past about people interacting with the natural envrionment or with animals.
Perhaps more concerning are not the direct implications of this research study, but the indirect social and political perspectives surrounding the study.. In the US (and perhaps Australia), support for the environment movement dropped during the 2000s decade, while environmental issues also ranked low in the American public's mind. Importantly however, note the authors, research on the significance of nature connection shows a relationship between 'experience in natural environments, and understanding, concern, and action with respect to environmental problems.' (Williams et al. 2012). So the more time you spend in nature, the more aware of the natural world you become, the more meaningful nature experiences are. The more understanding you have about nature, especially through the frequent and meaningful encounters in the outdoors, the more concern you're likely to show towards nature - and the ecological crisis.
In 2006, when Al Gore produced his Inconvenient Truth, he stated that climate change was a 'moral issue'. 'Make no mistake, this is not just a political issue, not just a market issue, not just a national security issue, not just a jobs issue. It is a moral issue.'
Since then (and before then too), a great many books have been written in the field of religion and ecology and environment issues have been at the forefront of much recent religion and spiritual discourse and practice. For instance, the Vatican has installed solar power across its ancient rooftops; Muslim associations like the environmental IFEES in the UK produced a 'green guide' for Muslim living; Buddhists in the US have worked with local people in Mongolia to establish an inspirational ecology centre and program to protect local fish habitats and species; Muslims at the Al Ghazzali Centre in Sydney's south have revegetated river banks; the Jewish Ecological Coalition in Melbourne have published a sustainability guide; while Brisbane's multi-faith community have held prayer meetings and other interfaith-based services. Religious organisations are installing green energy, developing ecological programs and policies, reviewing scripture, writing nature-inspired liturgies and even a Green Bible has been produced.
Last week I watched the trailer for a documentary called Play Again, where techno-focused children and teens were taken into wild nature to 'play again'. It shows their transformation from techno-connected to enjoying adventures in the outdoors. Life slows, observation grows, passion for nature (hopefully) is ignited because - if we don't know nature, how can we learn to love it, and if we don't love nature or know nature, why would we know it needs protecting?
Nature teaches us to watch, slowly and see the beauty emerge in its stillness. It encourages us to play. And act.
Questions:
- Can films about nature and religion replace engagement with God's creation or creation care?
- Why are religious organisations so concerned about environmental issues?
- How important is the outdoors in your life - and your spirirtual life?
Reference
Williams Jr, A., C. Podeschi, N. Palmer, P. Schwadel, and D. Meyler.2012. The Human-Environment Dialog in Award-winning Children’s Picture Books. Sociological Inquiry 82(1):145-159.
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