Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Religious communication amid the Covid-19 pandemic (Conference remarks)

Asian Research Center for Religion and Social Communication (St. John's University, Thailand) 
12th International Roundtable Online (5-6 November 2021)
Theme:
Religious Communication During and Post Covid-19 Pandemic: Examining Present and Future Models and Strategies


Friends,

Religious communication is an essential part of human life. Whether through images, spoken words, written texts, or actions; whether in analog or digital forms of transmission, religious communication provides guidance for living, resources to make sense of the ever changing events taking place in our personal and communal lives, motivation for self-cultivation and transformation, and rationale for our engagement with other people, with the natural environment, with the cosmos, and with the transcendent.

Religious communication tries to appeal to the deepest part of the soul, seek out the furthest recesses of the mind, and compel every muscle of the heart and the body towards the good. The goal for religious communication is simple: the physical, social and spiritual well-being and flourishing of humanity in this life and in the next.

Religious communication is anthropocentric in so far as it is directed towards the human person and not to trees, animals, viruses or rocks. It is also anthropocentric in that it takes the human person as the primary center of relationship – with self, with others, with nature and with the Ultimate.

Nonetheless, religious communication, when successful, can lead to total human self-transformation that not only promotes well-being of the individual but also all those that exist in the interconnected network of life in the physical universe.

Our major religious traditions – Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese religions all have resources that in one way or another affirms the interconnected (and some would say interdependent) nature of all beings, from the tiniest microbes to the widest galaxies in the cosmos.

Therefore, it is not surprising that in the midst of this ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, in which the so called “enemy” is a virtually invisible coronavirus, one of the tiniest organisms in the universe, religious communication has an essential role in how humanity ought to understand and confront the crisis.

Certainly, the content of religious communication should not sound like information that comes out of a local or national governing body, the World Health Organization or the Center for Disease Control. It should not sound like what one hears on the evening news, or read like a social media post with recipes for how to prevent infection. Moreover, it should not resemble the antagonistic tone of American cable TV opinion programs.

Undoubtedly, religious communication, especially that which is carried out by prominent or well-respected religious leaders can contain content that would normally be communicated by secular leaders, medical experts, and social scientists. We have seen that oftentimes, the same piece of information is received differently depending on who communicates it. But ultimately, religious communicators, in their role as religious communicators, are not political leaders and scientists.

The question for us to explore is what is the nature, purpose and method of religious communication in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic in the present and in the future? What unique perspectives can religious communication contribute to understanding more comprehensively about the pandemic with its various dimensions – political, social, scientific, psychological and spiritual? Like many other woes affecting humanity, the Covid-19 pandemic is a complex problem that requires interdisciplinary, dialogical and dialectical approaches to discover solutions.

Indeed, as the world’s human population spends the last two years, and counting, obsessively following the pandemic with daily infection counts, deaths, recovery locally and globally, not to mention all the economic and emotional tolls on society, it might be helpful to ask the questions:

·        Is finding out the source of the virus as important as finding out the source of the many pandemics plaguing humanity at this time? Buddhism identifies for us the plagues of greed, hatred and delusion. But indeed there are many others.

·        Is the coronavirus the enemy that we should fear the most and try our hardest to fight rather than another enemy that is no less dangerous to the well-being of the present and future world? Pope Francis identifies indifference as the enemy that must be battled against in the modern time. For Pope Francis, “Indifference is a virus that is dangerously contagious in our time, a time when we are ever more connected with others, but are increasingly less attentive to others.”

·        Is vaccination in order to attain herd immunity the ultimate method to eliminate an ever mutating virus, or should there also be other curative therapies for the ails of humanity? Here, the yogas introduced by the Hindu traditions are worth considering, and I am not speaking about the body stretching exercises.

·        Finally, is pre-pandemic life with our usual ways of traveling, consuming resources, building cities, developing economies, and creating weapons what we are aiming to return to? Certainly, our religious resources would have many things to say about this matter.

In short, religious communication, in its true form, approaches the “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” questions differently from the other types of communication. It employs its own sources of information and inspiration, in addition to that available to the secular disciplines. As a result, religious communication should be able to present unique perspectives that are not facsimiles of other fields of communication.

The challenge, however, is for religious communicators to understand the particularity and uniqueness of who they are, so that they are able to fulfill their role in an appropriate manner. It is unfortunate when religious leaders and communicators express themselves without being conscious of their identity, leading to the sort of communication that should be reserved for other disciplines. Worse yet, it even instigates social division, heightens interreligious conflict, and perpetuates unfounded conspiracy theories.

We hope that this Roundtable organized by the ARC, our 12th Roundtable, will contribute fruitfully to the research and dialogue about the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic has shown us that we are all interconnected in how we can transmit the virus to one another, it should also affirm that we can be part of the solution, not only in addressing the immediate concerns of the pandemic, but all the woes in which humanity and nature are confronting now and in the future.

I thank you sincerely for your participation either as presenters or as listeners and discussion participants in this Roundtable. Due to the present special circumstances, there is no physical table for us to gather around this year. However, everything is connected to each other in some way. And in reality, there is nothing that is truly isolated from another thing in the universe. Space is one and all encompassing. We are fortunate that this pandemic comes at a time in the history of the world when, with the help of digital technology and the internet, we are reminded that we still remain interconnected and can still be one.

Thank you.


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