The coronavirus pandemic has created a wide variety of religion-beat stories — from empty local pews to the U.S. Supreme Court debating how many people can occupy local pews. And sometimes it feels like all roads during this crisis, for better or worse, lead to the internet.
Yes, we had lots of ground to cover in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in).
Empty local pews have, in some cases, led to near-empty offering plates. Leaders in religious groups that were struggling before COVID-19 — look for closing congregations, seminaries, colleges and even cathedrals — are now hearing the demographics clock tick, tick, tick even louder.
We’re talking about huge stories, but they are also stories that are hard for journalists to cover, simply because they require information at the local, regional and national levels.
It was easy to cover local clergypersons as they learned to mount smartphones atop camera tripods and stream worship services to their locked-down flocks (as opposed to megachurches that already had cameras and massive websites). It was also easier to cover black-sheep clergy that rebelled against social-distancing guidelines than it was to report on the remarkable efforts of leaders in entire denominations and religious traditions seek ways for their people to worship as best they could within constantly evolving (and often hostile) government guidelines.
Journalists, of course, were also being affected by lockdowns and, in some cases, budget cuts. This was an equal-opportunity crisis.
Let me give you an example of an important story that everyone knows is unfolding right now. Consider this Baptist Press headline: “Pandemic division causing pastors to leave ministry, pastoral mentor says.” Here is the overture:
Brian Croft jokes that masks are the new “color of the carpet argument” in churches, with similarly poor outcomes. Pastors are resigning from the stress “kind of in a way I’ve never really seen.”
The founder of Practical Shepherding transitioned from fulltime pastoring to lead the shepherding outreach fulltime in January, pulled by a need for coaching and counseling that has steadily increased among pastors over the past decade.
Then came COVID-19.
“I know of pastors who are quitting just over the stress of this issue and what it’s causing in their churches, and I know churches splitting over whether you should wear a mask or not,” Croft said. …
“Once masks and no masks got politicized, and once masks and no masks became about what’s right and what’s wrong, instead of about what is an individual’s conscience on the matter, then that’s where these unnecessary divisions started setting in, in a really unhealthful way,” Croft said. “That’s pretty much what’s happening all over the place. … And this is global too. I work with pastors all over the world.”
What we have here is one expert reporting on what he is seeing. That’s a solid story hook.
But there’s the problem: How do reporters look at the bigger picture at this moment in time? The Baptist Press report is rather candid about this problem:
Though Croft is not a statistician and does not have hard numbers, he counsels and coaches hundreds of pastors through Practical Shepherding. He is also an adjunct professor and senior fellow for the Mathena Center for Church Revitalization at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Lifeway Research, describing pastors as resilient, said about 250 pastors are known to leave the ministry each month, as opposed to a “prevailing myth” that the number is 1500 to 1700.
Croft is eager to see what statistics will indicate once the pandemic ceases.
In other words, how do journalists gather information on issues that, at this moment in time, are too big for national level experts and administrators to handle?
Meanwhile, there is another issue that has haunted me — both as a religion columnist and as a professor who has taught mass-media courses in Christian colleges and even in a seminary. Think of this as the larger “technology shapes content” issue that looms in the background, right now.
I opened my syndicated “On Religion” column (which I will post here at GetReligion and then at Tmatt.net after it runs in newspaper weekend editions) with this question:
Even before the coronavirus crisis, this question haunted pastors: What in God's name are we supposed to do with the internet?
American clergy aren't the only ones wrestling with this puzzle. Consider this advice -- from Moscow -- about online personality cults.
"A priest, sometimes very young, begins to think that he is an experienced pastor -- so many subscribers! -- able to answer the many questions that come to him in virtual reality," noted Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, at a recent diocesan conference. "Such clerics often lose the ability to accept any criticism, and not only on the internet, or respond to objections with endless arguments."
Pastors eventually have to ask, he added, if their online work is leading people through parish doors and into face-to-face faith communities.
Let me frame that big question with one that is even larger in scope: Should clergy view the internet as friend or foe during this crisis (and during our digital age)?
Obviously, digital technology is helping churches “stay in business” right now. And I noted, during the podcast, that we continue to see newcomers contact and visit our church — here in East Tennessee — who are interested in converting to Eastern Orthodoxy and joining our parish.
The common denominator? The internet. They have read about Orthodoxy and even our parish online. It helps to know that our founding priest is globally known as a blogger and podcaster. Our new priest (with professional library science experience in the digital age) has moved all kinds of educational and even fellowship materials into online libraries and forums.
So this is positive, right? This may even show that “online evangelism” is a real thing? There is a new Barna Group study shows that this is a complex question, but worthy of discussion. As I said in my column:
Half of all unchurched adults (52%), along with 73% of non-Christians, said they are not interested in invitations to church activities. However, a new Barna survey -- cooperating with Alpha USA, a nondenominational outreach group -- found that 41% of non-Christians said they were open to "spiritual conversations about Christianity" if the setting felt friendly.
Online forums and streamed events -- experienced at home, with viewers in control -- may offer some newcomers the flexibility and "safety" that they want.
But what about the studies connecting the internet and “screens culture” to our culture’s digital pandemic of loneliness?
Once again, there is too much information here to discuss here. You could — and religious leaders should — build entire seminary ministry courses on this topic.
But here is the big issue: Can clergy use the internet as a bridge to legions of lonely Americans when that is the same technology that is, in large part, linked to their isolation? This issue is especially crucial when discussing trends among young adults, teens and children.
Consider the top of this Barna press release about another study: “Half of Gen Z Feel Bad About the Amount of Time Spent on Screens.”
Screens are everywhere. Whether at work, school or home, no generation is exempt from tech’s influence in this digital age, especially as society moves further into a COVID-shaped reality that has necessitated an even greater dependence on devices.
While utilizing technology and media has its benefits, turning to devices too often can have harmful repercussions as well—and recent Barna data show that at least the younger generations (namely, Gen Z) are speaking up about their ambivalent relationship with technology. Teens and young adults in new Barna studies are articulating both the positive and negative impact screens have in their lives. Is it time to push the reset button on our technological leanings?
The screens giveth, the screens taketh away? Blessed be the screens?
That’s a story. How in the world will journalists, myself included, be able to cover that one?
Enjoy the podcast and, please, pass it along to others.
FIRST IMAGE: Photoshopped image from MelissaPierce.com piece entitled, “God Gave You Two Ears, One Mouth, Two Hands, and the iPhone.”