You need ‘help for the journey’: Freedom and regulation in a ‘market-friendly’ megachurch

Abstract

One of the dominant trends in contemporary religion is a focus on individual freedom, choice and autonomy, all central tenets of mainstream consumer society. Rather than indicating a lack of religious regulation, we show how they can be the means through which regulation operates. Drawing on the theory of governmentality, which focuses on how power operates in discourse, we present a case study of a highly successful megachurch and global leader in Christian music – Hillsong – and show how this religious producer constructs a subject position for the consumer that promotes freedom and choice but nevertheless has regulatory implications by limiting what is thinkable and possible. Our findings show how Hillsong uses music and offers a worship experience that encourages continued reliance on the Church supported by its selective interpretation of the Pentecostal tradition. We trace how Hillsong claims knowledge of the religious consumer, identifying its central logic and contradictions. In doing so we show how religious regulation is taking new forms in contexts that may appear to be unregulated. We highlight the potential of this Foucauldian theory to not only enhance the understanding of current trends in religion but also to widen the repertoire used by critical marketing scholars to analyse how marketing discourse and practices are mobilized in specific contexts and with what effects.