‘Forced’ Online Religion: Religious Minority and Majority Communities’ Media Usage during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Lene Kühle,Tina Langholm Larsen

doi:10.3390/rel12070496

Abstract

On 11 March 2020, the Danish Prime Minister announced a forthcoming lockdown of Danish society due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shut down all public institutions, including the national church. Instructions for the lockdown of religious minority communities were issued a week later. The total lockdown of the Danish religious landscape is both historically unprecedented and radical in a global context, and it raises questions about mediatized religion and religion–state relations in a postsecular society. Building on quantitative and qualitative data collected during the lockdown and the gradual opening of society in 2020, this article examines the media usage of the Danish national church and of the 28 recognized Muslim communities. It reevaluates Heidi A. Campbell’s ‘religious-social shaping approach to technology’ by examining how religious communities sought to establish continuity between their offline and online practices to maintain authority and community cohesion. We conclude (1) that the willingness of religious communities to cooperate with authorities was high, (2) that the crisis affected religious communities’ organizational framework and societal position, and (3) that Campbell’s approach needs to pay further attention to the conflict-producing aspects of negotiations on digitalized rituals, the importance of transnationalism, and differences between minority and majority religion.

Highlights

11 March 2020 constitutes a landmark date in Danish history, as this is the date whenDanish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced a forthcoming lockdown of Danish society due to the COVID-19 pandemic that would close all public institutions including the national church
Focusing on how folkekirken responded to the lockdown of Danish society in spring 2020, this study reports on four major themes: the organizational alterations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital media utilized by the church to handle the crisis and uphold church activity, the theology of crisis disseminated offline and online during the lockdown, and the Danish population’s attitudes towards the church during the COVID-19 pandemic
This comment invites us to speculate about the ramifications of the extraordinary situation of COVID-19 lockdowns for religions in Denmark and evaluate them in terms of the light they may shed on dynamics, logics, and power relations of pre- and post-COVID conditions

Summary

Introduction

11 March 2020 constitutes a landmark date in Danish history, as this is the date whenDanish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced a forthcoming lockdown of Danish society due to the COVID-19 pandemic that would close all public institutions including the national church. From the perspective of the present article, the day after this historic announcement may be of greater importance, because on 12 March 2020, the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Joy Mogensen, quite exceptionally addressed religious minority communities in Denmark directly. In a one-minute video in Danish followed by an official written announcement in both Danish and English, Mogensen stated: In light of the latest announcements from the Danish government and the health authorities, I strongly urge all religious communities in Denmark to organize religious acts in a way to avoid rapid spread [sic] of Corona infection. ]. I strongly urge all religious communities in Denmark to cancel all religious activities, church services, Friday prayers, Mass, etc. This announcement is striking in three ways. When Mogensen’s video was filmed and posted, the Danish government did not have the legal authority to close the buildings of religious minorities—

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