Recontextualizing Religious Dialogues: Effects of Mediatization and Politicization

In December 2016, an article from The Washington Post announced that a former Mormon church member, Ryan McKnight, had launched a website titled “MormonLeaks” with the goal of releasing internal documents and videos typically only available to leaders of the secretive Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints covering a wide-array of controversial issues including the policies of the church related to same-sex marriage (Chandler, 2016). “McKnight grew up in the Mormon church, went on a mission and got married in a temple. About three years ago, at the age of 32, he became disillusioned by aspects of Mormon history, including the polygamous practices of early church leaders. He stopped going to church in 2013 and had his name removed from the membership rolls. He got involved in online forums of other questioning former Mormons looking for a place to talk” (Chandler, 2016). This scenario is not uncommon as processes of mediatization are providing a recontextualization of religious dialogues by replacing the church as the sole distributor of religious content but also brings to light larger features involving the methods by which religion expresses opinions and influences the public sphere in political situations in an increasingly secularized rational society. This study thus asks the question: How is mass media affecting the LDS Church’s control over information and influencing how they process and integrate religious context in political situations? 

Concepts of Mediatization

Hjarvard’s theories of mediatization posit a framework by which the media can “not only present or report on religious issues; they also change the very ideas and authority of religious institutions and alter the ways in which people interact with each other when dealing with religious issues” (Hjarvard, 2008: 2). It is important to note, that as Fischer-Nielsen explores, an institutional approach to media may be incompatible with explorations concerning the internet due to the “more direct user involvement and interaction that engages lots of other voices than those of the traditional mass media” (2012: 46). It is also important to illustrate the interplay of mediatization theory from a meso-sociological level, as Hjarvard’s theories seek to highlight religious institutions, media communities, and culturally influenced states rather than examining the impact of mediatization on individuals or, in contrast, the impact on a macro or all-encompassing level (Hjarvard and Lövheim, 2012: 192).

Theories of media as a conduit are seen at work as the origin of religious content transmitted to users comes directly from journalistic media attention to the launch of the website and subsequent legal action as well as the website itself as a distributor of religious content; though presented critically and without authority or interpretation from the LDS church. An examination of the data collected regarding the internet mediatization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark sheds light on the ways in which “institutional boundaries are being challenged or transcended by the internet” (Fischer-Nielsen, 2012: 54). According to Danish studies conducted in 2009, Danish people are not only encountering religion outside of a religious context but specifically seeking religious information and answers to questions about religion from internet sources rather than a pastor or church run organization (increasingly true for younger populations) (Fischer-Nielsen, 2012: 51). McKnight hopes that those seeking answers to questions from internet sources rather than the church itself will use his website to provide that information “There is a hungry audience, though, among people who have left or are thinking of leaving the church. “For someone in the middle of a faith transition, such information is more fuel for the fire,” he said (Chandler, 2016). This raises issues about the content being transmitted and larger questions about whether the processes of mediatization are transforming the position of religion in society and for individuals.

Joshua Meyrowitz’s metaphor of the media as a language provides insight into the “various ways the media formats the messages and frames the relationship between sender, content and receiver” (Hjarvard, 2008: 5).  From this we can then examine the ways in which the media is influencing the religious discussion by molding information to fit the consumption of the audience of a particular medium.  This perspective can be seen in the presentations of the MormonLeaks issue in a multifaceted way.  Notably, the ways in which the mass media presents information into the public sphere and the ways in which new media and the internet frame a different discussion focusing on the individual.  Hjarvard suggests that “in contemporary Europe and North America, the media as languages first and foremost implies that religion is formatted according to the genres of popular culture. Formatted to mass consumption in the public sphere articles from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Salt Lake Tribune focus on themes of transparency, popular culture, political/social issues, the LDS church as an institution, and to some extent desacralization.  In contrast, new media outlets like Reddit, Ryan McKnight’s original podcast (created prior to the launch of MormonLeaks), and the MormonLeaks website distribute religious content from a critical perspective molding religious representations to fit more personal goals. Nevertheless, the leaked material drew public awareness into the interplay of religious institutions in modern society and drew a wider scope of attention to the matter by focusing on the church’s positions on issues such as “the homosexual agenda”, the sexual orientation of Chelsea Manning, baptism of the children of same-sex couples, piracy, marijuana, Islam, and even the subprime mortgage crisis (Stack, 2016).

Additionally, we must examine how media as an environment has played a role as the media has in some ways appropriated the traditional position of religion in “ritualiz[ing] social transitions at micro- and macro levels; provid[ing] moral orientation, emotional therapy and consolation in times of crises. As such, the media have in some respect taken over many of the social functions formerly provided by the church, but they are now performed within a predominantly secular discourse” (Hjarvard and Lövheim, 2012; 27). Thus through the use of new media, Ryan McKnight, has built an independent community of questioning believers or those who have left the Mormon faith who are using a multidirectional communication portal to shape their own experience and participate in a religious narrative. In this unique case, the information presented is originally a product of the LDS church with the intention of shaping the religious response of adherents but we see here that the same information being decontextualized and distributed is providing moral insight into how this community and individuals are dealing with social issues.

Another intersection of note in theories of mediatization, discussed by Lövheim, is the “importance of attending to differences in gender, ethnicity, age, economic and cultural capital to analyse how the tendencies of mediatization of religion described... apply to different groups of users in different contexts, and what this implies for how religion changes through mediatization. This also brings in the aspect of power, and whether the challenges of mediatization to previous structures of access to and control over the communication of religion also open a space for the religious expressions of groups that have previously been marginalised in religious institutions” (Lövheim, 2011: 161). MormonLeaks could arguably provide access to religious dialogues within the Mormon faith to groups commonly left out of the leadership discussions of the governing body of the Church, specifically in this case, The Quorum of the Twelve.  Access to new information through media could empower groups, such as McKnight’s targeted consumers: those questioning the faith and bring to light power structures within the Mormon Church previously unexplored.

New Religion in a Secular Society

An understanding of how religion is represented and defined must be central to any analysis of religion as it is difficult to differentiate what some would call religion, practice, observance, values, etc.  For the purposes of this exploration, religion will be represented as an institution, specifically the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, together with its values and practices prescribed by a common bureaucracy.  As with Enkvist & Nilsson’s article regarding the interaction between religion and law, a traditional understanding of religion “is built around the idea that religion belongs to a supposed private realm, whereas other spheres of human activity, such as economics of politics, belong to the public and secular realm. (2016: 105). This idea will become central to our debate as we see the institutional church as a player on the political stage, rather than privatized, taking a place to challenge the secular public order.

The Utah-based “modern” religious movement at the center of the MormonLeaks controversy, is neither a stranger to political engagement with social issues or struggling to coexist in an increasingly secularized modern society. “Based on the prophetic claims of Joseph Smith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in 1830. Utopian and millennial in outlook, theocratic in organization, and guided by belief in the authenticity of modern revelation, the new sect... soon came into direct conflict with the federal government over the issues of theocratic rule and the practice of polygamy. This struggle continued for most of the remainder of the nineteenth century until, under relentless government pressure, the Mormon Church finally gave in, relinquishing political power to the [U.S.] Federal Government (Shepherd and Shepherd, 1984: 30). This difficult origin would continue to influence the church’s position as a nineteenth century conservative movement in a secular society and lead to a long history of political involvement as the administrative functions of the church have adopted a bureaucratic nature with which to engage in a political dialogue. Lindberg examines in “Religion in Nordic Party Platforms 1988-2008” how changed relations between church and state in Nordic society has impacted positions of political parties and their approach to religion (2013: 121). In doing such, the author explores theories of secularization, religious resurgence, and draws parallels to how “connections between religion and political issues, such as “national identity, foreign policy, human rights” can change over time (Lindberg, 2013: 121-126, 135). Contrasting the European political and religious context studied with that of the United States; two issues relevant to the unique position of the Mormon church and politicization become clear. First, unlike some European countries, the U.S. initially established a separation of church and state with its inception. This is important to note as the power structure and influence in the changing role of a majority church within secular society has a large impact on how that religion may influence politics as well as how politics may influence religion. Second, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints date of establishment in the 1830’s places it in a unique position to, as Shepherd and Shepherd argue, respond to processes of secularization. This along with General Conference (a biannual series of sermons in which inspired doctrine is presented to believers via television satellite program), integration of media and technology, and the church’s position regarding continued modern revelation have in many ways been an asset to the Mormon church as we have seen an international rise in membership through globalization efforts and its “ability to adapt to rapid social change and to accommodate a wide range of personalized religious meaning (Shepherd and Shepherd, 1984: 40).

Political Discourse

The media focus on religious issues relating to the same-sex marriage debate and the rights of homosexual couples stands as a strong example of ways in which religion can enter the political sphere of a democratic secularized society. Ivanescu states plainly that “by entering the public sphere as both the subject and the object of controversy, religion is bound to attract quite a lot of attention” (2010: 312). It has become apparent, that despite secularity, religion has been at the forefront of these debates and has not adhered to notions of privatization. Religious adherents have been some of the more vocal groups in opposition to referendums and policy shifts to legalize equal marriage in the United States. “By participation in the political process, in the political debate and by being the subject of politics, both as a subject and an object, religion contests the strict boundary between the religious and the secular institutions they become engaged with. Furthermore, by becoming a collective actor on the political scene, religion is bound to have an impact which is larger than the private sphere of the individual. As religion enters the public sphere through policy discourse, it becomes a possibly equal voice to voices representing secular institutions (Ivanescu, 2010, 312). Thus we see that by the act of entering the public debate religion positions itself as a player capable of influencing policy as well as gaining a proverbial “megaphone” for its agenda beyond its institutional appeal to members. The dialogue between these actors, commonly understood as to have a strict separation between church and state, gains a useful example in the context of the LDS’s involvement with the California referendum, Proposition 8, also known as the California Marriage Protection Act of 2008 which strictly defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.  The New York Times presented the involvement of the Mormon Church in an article, reviewing the Church’s call to action to their members, canvassing efforts, large monetary donations, and aggressive ad campaigns (Johnson, 2008). Eventually the referendum passed to restrict homosexual marriage, with the direct involvement of the church shaping the outcome of political discourse of a government agency in what is perhaps the most liberal state of the U.S.: California. This being said criticism immediate arose as the Church’s position and involvement in the political sphere became apparent to the media. Legal actors took offense to the religious response stating “Any group that gets involved in the political arena has to be treated like a political action committee...You can't get involved in politics and say, 'Treat me as a church” (Kuruvila, 2008). Due to the extent of protests, church leadership has issued statements asserting that “people of faith have a democratic right to express their views in the public square without fear of reprisal” (Johnson, 2008). Further examination of the discourse between politics and religion, thereby, suggest that miscommunications regarding the role of either actor may be working against clarity on issues. However, it is certain that the resurgence of religion in the public sphere can have substantial influence on the political debate.

Conclusions

Certainly, more research should be conducted on how the media can politicize conversations or recontextualize religious voices entering the public forum.  This overview has examined how new media has redistributed religious context reshaping nature of the LDS church’s values and positions on public policy but also how that media exchange in a user-centric medium has taken over the role of the church as a distributor of religious content.  As Lövheim and Axner encounter in their analysis of Halal-TV in Sweden, parallels can be drawn as to how “mediatization may enhance a polarization where religious values are seen as incompatible with values fundamental for” modern society (2011: 74); Specifically by promoting democratic ideals of transparency to challenge church authority. Further, it is important to illustrate how religion enters the public discourse on social issues and examine whether or not concepts of secularization and the modern public sphere can accommodate voices for these values as political actors.  Habermas’s discussion of the “institutional separation between religion and politics, is based on the notion that the state applies strict impartiality towards religious communities… implying that religious arguments and convictions can be expressed in the public sphere as long as... religious convictions are translated into a generally accessible language relating to secular values (Lövheim and Axner, 2011: 60). What does this mean for a modern church bureaucracy?  It can be argued that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may have found both a partner in the media as an instrument to enter the political discussion and appeal to believers and a foe that may threaten the foundations of the Church in situations wherein they may seek to maintain control over the interpretation of their messages.

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