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.
