Chapter 4: Results and Analyses
4.4 Meanings and Significance of Religious Media Engagement
This section is about the meanings and significance the users place on their religious media engagement. Respondents were asked what they think the role of their faith is and whether or not they view media as a creative venue in their religious expression, answering the fourth research question, “What are the meanings and significance the users place in their religious media engagement?”
Through an analysis of in-depth interviews, this research reveals clear themes and
categories of practices. Using the method of online extraction suggested by Kendall (2007), this study uses respondents’ experiences of their faith online, and their re-creation of the real
religious world in a virtual hangout is extracted from their online, text-based communication tools. Along the same vein, a shift from bounded community to “networked individualism” is
traced (Wellman et al., 2003), and a new model of looking at technologizing religion is also drafted in this study (Hutchings, 2011).
The meanings and significance that the respondents place on their religious media engagement range from moral obligation, affirmation, to the simple necessity of going online to connect with the general body of believers, whether they are familiar with the respondent in person or just in the cyberspace. Online is considered different, with its own set of
communication idiosyncrasies compared to face-to-face, but better than nothing when physical communication is not possible as in the case of the respondents who are all
foreigners. Other themes that came up from the narratives that the respondents shared in the meanings and significance they place on their religious media engagement are the changing status of spiritual authority, credibility, linkage, companionship, accountability, and
anonymity.
Moral Obligation. As stated in the above narratives (4.3.1 prayer section), the
respondents express the moral obligation to pray for prayer requests seen online. “They need something so you pray for them, you don’t have to know them, but you can pray for them,”
shared one respondent who stressed that in praying over someone online, there’s no need to
establish the relationship first before one can pray for the person in need.
The attitude towards what is seen online and what is shared in person is different, however. When a prayer request if posted online on a Facebook group, it seems to be
weighed less than when it is shared in person. “If it’s said personally, it sticks with you a couple of times throughout the week but if it’s online you might gauge the seriousness of it before it really sinks in,” shared one respondent. The nature of the requests leans on the
general if it’s posted, so there is a tendency to pray for it later when time permits. Whereas, there are those who tend to sound more specific and urgent if the requests are sent directly to one person via private message.
Same but still different. Although prayer in real-time and the person on the other line is someone familiar, there is still a sense of difference to what was a usual habit. “It’s the same, but different,” shared one respondent, adding that you won’t know if the other person is crying inside. “Online and offline are different but it’s better than nothing. The Holy Spirit is still there, God is everywhere and is working in both of our hearts,” another shared.
Another challenge in real-time prayer is the quality of communication. For countries where the internet is not as accessible or advanced, respondents experience a lag or unclear
communication, affecting the quality of the prayer.
Affirmation. Online prayer gives a sense of affirmation. One respondent shared how
they used to pray for everyone at church even if they’re not there physically. Now that she’s the one who receives regular messages of “we prayed for you,” from her home church, she
feels assured that her physical presence did not take her away from the prayer cover. Another respondent who would post his prayers online reasons that they are the same people he goes
to for prayer in person. When he found himself soliciting prayers as an anonymous entry on an international website, he got feedbacks like “praying for you bro” and sensed the sincerity of it even if he didn’t know them personally. “Whether or not the prayer was answered, but the fact that somebody was praying gives me peace,” he added.
Spiritual Authority. Another area that the respondents shed meaning and
significance on is the authority of the church. Spiritual authority is challenged when it goes in
the realm of the offline as opposed to the traditional setup.
Spiritual authority means the power that unites human beings with the “redeeming ultimate reality”. In Christian tradition, God, angels, saints, priests, and spiritual guides hold
this status. Protestant traditions, as compared to Catholicism and Orthodox churches, however, also include each and every Christian as of spiritual authority. A negative attitude towards a monastic heritage, fear of religious authority, and the realization that Christ is the only mediator prompted this shift from a monopoly of power on a set of few men. Still, however, surrender to authority came to mean as a discipline and virtue in the pursuit of
imitating Christ who though the highest of all was also the humblest (Baier, 2010).
One’s attitude towards spiritual authority is reflective of the attitude towards online
religious content. One respondent shared how as a young boy he had been reprimanded for asking the pastor a question about God’s power. “It made me uncomfortable that I can’t be upfront and honest at church,” he shared, adding that “Christians in general are judgmental.”
He has lost motivation to go to church and explained that those who go online for spiritual resources are those who felt judged and “pushed away” like him.
Questions about the faith are natural for every Christian. How the internet opened up the gates to answers is a fundamental benefit that is helpful to say the least. Those who have a
more individualistic view of religion, prefer to go online for their questions instead of approaching a pastor or a spiritual authority. “I search for it (answers) online because I always feel like they (pastors at a physical church) are forcing a set of beliefs on me,” shared
one respondent whose religious immersion in her childhood has been mostly because of her parents prodding.
Another responded shared how he goes online for more answers because asking a pastor at the church he’s going to would prove futile as “it’s the same answer whoever you
ask, so I just go online, compare the sources, and then decide.”
Being in Taiwan deprived foreign students of the authority they are used to in their
home countries. One respondent uses the pastors who post sermons online as his virtual
“spiritual fathers” upon the absence of a physical one. On the other hand, one respondent who
upon seeing how some of the leaders at the churches she tried to attend here in Taiwan were not credible, opted to find answers online instead. “Sometimes we have concerns that no one
else can answer. Sometimes we just want to be validated by other people so we just ask and follow them,” she shared on those who rely heavily on the church leader’s advice. “Someone would say, ‘I will go left because the pastor says left’ not because that’s what God asked
them to do.” This is the trap of setting one’s hope on human wisdom instead of consulting the truth from God (Baier, 2010).
Feeding off from other people, even the authorities, is not what church is about, the same respondent related, sharing how she goes online and listen to different pastors for the truth. She also clarified that neither is she feeding off from people online, but from God himself through what she gets online. Her dependence on people was challenged when she
moved to Taiwan because she is alone and has learned to know God by herself. “Jesus is a person and hear him speak, don’t just depend on the pastor,” she shared. In John 15:14-15,
Jesus said that the disciples are not his servants but his friends because a servant does not know what the master is doing whereas everything is revealed to a friend.
When foreign students leave the comforts of their home church, their faith is tested in a way. A lot of times when the pastor or Christian friends disappear in a Christian’s life, faith
is shaken and takes a new turn. To some extent this pushes the Christian to evaluate whether he or she is a Christian without the social implications of being one. One respondent shared
how she doubted living a Christian life in Taiwan would be without the environment that she has before. “I find that I got closer to God because I depend more on Him and not on other people for growth.” She credits it mostly to going to the source herself and proactively
seeking answers and truth outside the paradigm of a church. “While God teaches the pastor in your country, He also teaches me,” she shared as she frowns on how easily churchgoers can be “brainwashed” if they depend on the institution or church to tell them what to do all the
time.
In Protestant Christianity, challenging spiritual authority takes a different role as compared to other religions. There is a “pronounced power of the religious institution” over the Catholics and the Orthodox, whereas in the Protestant faith, there is a “pronounced
voluntary, individualistic, and faith-oriented nature” of the belief, wherein spiritual power is
downplayed in comparison to other Christian denominations. Lavrič and Flere (2010) quotes an earlier work of Heidi Campbell that “the Bible is the final authoritative source of Christian teaching’’(p. 134), wherein voluntary interpretations and are not just accepted but welcome.
The greater individualism promoted in the new media age. Individuals see themselves as authority instead of the traditional institutions over what is religious or spiritual for them.
Media makes tools for expressing experience in everyday life. Similarly, it provides
individuals with a primary source for religious meaning-making. Spiritual seekers turning
into the marketplace of commodity of culture for the purpose of religious exploration, the marketplace has more materials, there’s market demand (Hoover 2002).
Information Vault. As mentioned in the narratives (4.3.2 teaching), several
respondents mentioned how their Internet use enables them to acquire sermons by certain pastors, to whom they previously had limited access. The vast resources available online with one click opens limitless possibilities of what one can hear, view, participate in, or simply choose from in the worldwide web of just whatever question they have in mind. Here,
respondents indicated that the increased connections to a number of religious leaders online were helpful for spiritual growth, and broadens their faith base.
While some approach the use of religious content online as a means to satisfy their answers, some use it as mere information or for research purposes. One respondent shared
that she approaches religious content online with an academic set, preferring to go to a particular theologian whom her father recommended. “I wouldn’t say I agree 100% but RC Sproul has a classical political science way in a form of a logical debate,” she shared.
Linkage. For all respondents, the Internet was used regularly to communicate with
others and for most to search for information, including religious information and instruction.
Similar to Cheong’s findings from Chinese Protestant immigrants in the United States, the
respondents informed that religion online presents functional advantages over older media connections in terms of religious information seeking (Cheong & Poon, 2009). The internet is perceived to be a great linkage mechanism, linking them with their home church, therefore reestablishing online versions of their previous physical relationship.
Credibility. Credibility online is a major issue even for non-religious use. The
respondents were more critical in their choice of web sources to go to and their choices are largely based on the doctrinal truths that they have learned from their home churches. “I have a certain view on what is right so I check if they have the same fundamentals, afterwards I will take the article and read it,” one respondent shared of how there is a need to make extra
effort to see if what the online party is giving the reader the right thing or not, an unnecessary screening offline because there is an opportunity to see if the source is living what is being preached.
The online selection of religious content is largely dependent on the religious belief
held by the respondent, and to some extent his or her spiritual maturity. Having an
established belief screens what is looked for online. “What I look for has to be in the same page as what I believe in,” shared one respondent whose thinking was challenged by his
pastors here in Taiwan as compared to the conservative background of his home church.
However, he now looks into what his pastors recommend and is on a season of transition to reevaluate what he believes in. “I’m not in the baby stages of the Christian life where I search for information, but accidentally I would open sources that will keep me thinking,” one
respondent shared who has been a Christian for 20 years. Other respondents are more open in
welcoming other content: “I choose based on what I believe in but when I hear a different interpretation, I would not just accept nor take it as a fact, but see if it’s inline with scripture,”
another respondent shared, adding how she would first check the website for the organization’s beliefs before going deeper into what is being taught.
However, on the other side of the spectrum, finding a new balance between what one already knows and a conflicting belief is also one of the challenges faced by the foreign students. One student who came from a rather conservative background was deeply
challenged by the practices of his church here in Taiwan, prompting him to look for more resources leaning towards this new thought. Another respondent shared how his online
religion selection is shaped by information-gathering and not only for what he believes in, comparing even conflicting content for the sake of finding what to believe in. “The end for
result is not what I want to believe in, but what I think is the most accurate for me to believe,”
he shared.
Constant Companion. The online function creates a mobility that transforms the pastor as more than just a person one sees on the computer but a companion as well. “Joel Osteen is like company because I don’t have anyone beside me,” she shared as she would repeatedly listen to the podcasts since she can’t get the message in one round anyways.
The New Testament Church as described in Acts 2:46 has the early Christians meet every day (The Holy Bible New King James Version, 1982). In the present age, meeting physically everyday may be a challenge for others, including students who are consumed with academic work. Respondents who often go online regards the media habit as more than just feeding off some spiritual resources, but is actually an innovative way of following what the Bible says. Going online for spiritual resources becomes an act of going to church and connecting with God within the week and not just on Sunday. A number of respondents expressed how the weekday online interaction are steps leading to the once-a-week going to a physical church.
Lesser Feelings of Togetherness. The respondents who have not been regularly
attending a church and those who have just started going to one shared that they struggle with the feeling of belongingness in the host churches that they have tried here. “In my country, everyone sings happy birthday to someone who’s celebrating, there’s a feeling of unity,” a
respondent from Saint Lucia shared, comparing her online church activity as having a “lesser feeling of togetherness.”
The lack of a similar sense of general community and the togetherness as experienced in their home churches is a contributing factor to their non-involvement in a physical church.
Compounded by the fact that it is difficult to find a group to which they could belong to, and that though people at church are friendly and welcoming especially to foreigners, still there is no deep connection. This prompts the respondents to just go online and connect with their friends for fellowship. They revealed, however, that it does not seem to be the ideal way since their friends in their home countries do not realize their need to be more connected because of their different setup. To begin with, they do not experience this feeling of being
uprooted from a Christian community as they are experiencing, therefore the weight put on online communication is not as strong as they feel. “Their concept of connecting via internet is not as tangible as I see it because they don’t need it, they have a physical church, they have each other. I need it but they don’t,” one respondent shared, stressing that no matter how
much she would have wanted her online fellowship with her friends back home to be more
consistent because “they have to want to do it too, it becomes hard because just like any communication, “online is two-way.” In addition, the fact that they don’t see each other
contributes to that still-incomplete fellowship.
Real-life Connection. Apart from feelings of belongingness which the respondents
put weight on is the real-life connection with real-life happenings. Being able to talk to people before and after church is important as it is deemed “more natural” and gives a sense
of continuity to what was just being preached.
“It’s different because you can’t react,” said one respondent who goes online for the streaming of her church back in Norway. “It’s difficult to share and you can’t eat together,”
she added. One respondent said that there is a possibility for discussion after church, but an
additional effort is needed unlike the natural flow of talking about what everyone just heard.
“Usually when you’re online you can share, but you have to compose an email, and I
wouldn’t do it unless I have a specific question,” the respondent from the United States said.
“After my church, we eat together, fellowship, chat, the whole Sunday is for the church,” shared one respondent from the Philippines. When asked about how long her church service is back home, she couldn’t give a definite period of time because everyone usually
hangs around after.
Similarly, another respondent from Saint Lucia who goes online for her spiritual resource mentioned that “we can’t eat something” and “it’s difficult to have long conversations because everyone has stuff to do.”
Under this theme of real-life connection is accountability and encouragement, or the degradation of it as Kendall (2007) noted.
Having accountability is giving another person the right to check on you, related
Having accountability is giving another person the right to check on you, related