Media Ministry

 Welcome back on this sunny Saturday, my friends. It was downright warm yesterday and I am deeply displeased - can we not have some spring before summer rears its ugly head? I do hate the weather here. I used to have a friend in New Zealand who, when she did the conversions from Fahrenheit to Celsius, was abjectly appalled by our weather. I share that. 

But, here in the air conditioning that we do not quite yet need, it's time to talk about Media Ministry. This is the final class that I require to complete my Certificate of Media Ministry, and I just finished the Media Ministry class earlier this semester. I am an ordained minister and I feel somewhat qualified to tackle this subject from an original aspect. And in general, this one's a doozy.

When I began the path of adding Media Ministry to my education degree, I believed it to be familiarizing one's self with modern tech and exploring how people and churches are integrating the ubiquitous technology into their worship experience. Uniquely salient in the age of COVID, as my Polestari (our word for church) found out. Learning how to digitize services, how to reach out to people feeling isolated and sad, creating new spaces and learning new technologies. It was an adventure.

What I found, however, is not so much of that as an emphasis on how to turn faith into a consumer product, and it has rubbed me the wrong way all year. It infuriates me. It feels dirty and slimy. And worse, I know it works because media is a prescription. It's a studied and observable science of how to influence people or manipulate results. It's...I don't have scholarly-appropriate words for how helpless and disgusted it makes me feel. 

This week's readings somewhat back up my discoveries, for instance the way the LDS (the Latter Day Saints, formerly known as the Mormons, though they eschew that title) have been manipulating search results for their benefit (source). Or, a national survey who's results are primarily to find ways to persuade and retain the "audience" of Protestant Churches (source). I don't follow a path that believes in proselytization. We genuinely believe there are multiple paths of correct choices, and that not everyone is supposed to be on our path. And we're not alone - most pagan paths, Judaism, and Hinduism are also non-proselytizing. And paths like Zoroastrianism will not allow converts at all. Which means that this concept of turning churches and faith into "products" to be "marketed" to a "consumer", i.e. the congregation, is a slap in the face. 

On the other hand, is it the only way faith is staying relevant? This harkens back to the "Evolve or die" concept that has plagued social interaction regarding technology for as long as there's been technology. Is there something lost in updating tradition? Is there something gained in staying abreast of technology, even as it diversifies beliefs? Is faith a function or a static fact? Back in the ancient days, when people would attend the Catholic church, the priest would stand facing away from the congregation, performing the service in Latin (which very few spoke). There was a church schism when the printing press made faith accessible to everyone, and from that concept grew the Protestant denominations. Technology has been throwing a wrench in the works for a very long time. 

Maybe it isn't that faith is waning. Pew Research found that one in five people share their faith online (source), but what quality is that sharing? Is it contributing to the echo chambers that we talked about last week that boost extremism? Or is it the modernization of at least the Christian faith that can allow for growth and the embrace of more basic needs, like family fulfilment and peace with one's neighbor? (source) I'm not really sure. The more global we get, the more we are exposed to the fact that other people are not like us. That's what turns us into liberals, really - realizing that this guy over here isn't like me and that he's not lesser than me for it. That we're the same, and that he deserves the same opportunities and love I do. It's why cities are blue. And it's why people are leaving Christian evangelism in droves - they've found the wider world and realized that there are billions and billions of people who aren't like them. 

I can't wrap my head around the idea of the consumer economy of faith. I don't know how churches justify taking the heart out of faith and collecting congregants like carefully collated Pokémon cards. But faith also can't be static - it has to learn and grow with its people to serve its function. Faith's function is to serve the spiritual needs of its followers, to offer answers or paths to answers for the individual, and to bolster and uplift the community of followers and non-followers alike. And technology is a part of that in today's society. I don't think we have the answers yet, but I'm fairly certain turning the church into the moneylender's is the wrong direction.

In the spirit of fun, I leave you today with a cat in a habit. Next week, we'll talk about Data. I'm not certain where that one is going to go, but we'll take the journey together.

I'll be in tow!