Building community is at the heart of religious communities, including the Lutheran congregation I serve. We began livestreaming worship as the pandemic lockdowns began. While it’s no substitute for gathering in-person, online presence is an important way we continue maintaining community. Some people are only able to participate online. Through livestreaming we are reaching people who are homebound or live further away and still part of the community. Some people reported attending church more regularly as we increased our online presence. While we strive for excellence in music and worship, we don’t have the most elaborate or expensive livestreaming setup. It’s a plug and play camera controlled by an iPad that an audio-video tech once recommended for its simplicity. It is relatively easy to teach people how to run it. Having access to affordable and accessible online tools has helped lower the bar for us and others building community online. One drawback maintaining an online presence are the constraints hosting content with large for-profit internet companies. Whether it is popular video or social media platforms, at the end of the day we are at their mercy. Whether our posts are viewed by people we want to see them is controlled by an algorithm that is not accountable to those of us who use these online spaces. Increasingly social media algorithms push content that generates clicks, including whether such posts include harmful conspiracy theories or fuel hate against trans people or members of other marginalized groups. We are fooling ourselves thinking that privately controlled online spaces are truly public squares. We’ve witnessed the rapid deterioration of Twitter for example, reminding us we have little say in what direction these spaces take despite the fact millions of people depend upon them every day as communication tools. And yet there are few alternatives.
The internet, together with social media platforms, offer some great tools for sharing ideas. Imagine if as religious and non-religious groups we could build community online using platforms that weren’t owned and controlled by multinational companies. Companies our government is either loathe to regulate or can’t figure out how to do it effectively. Some may scoff at the idea of a made in Canada solution for access to the internet and online platforms. It was an idea recently floated on the Sandy & Nora podcast on the episode “Control and censorship in the digital age.” It got me thinking it wasn’t long ago that most provinces had their own public telecoms providing communication access. Saskatchewan still has one which is also a cell phone, internet, TV, and home security provider. Over time we’ve ceded too much space and profit to private companies, when we could be managing our own communications and creating platforms controlled by more transparent and equitable algorithms. Providing publicly controlled communications networks would also lower the bar for access, so all neighbours can get online. Now that the internet has become a necessary utility like water and power there should be public options.
Those of us in Christian churches are celebrating Easter, a story arc that leads from death to resurrection. There are so many parts of our public infrastructure and social safety net that are crumbling. We’ve learned through the pandemic that we can pivot quickly when there is political will. Let us dream about the transformation and new life of public services including digital communication. Building community locally will be strengthened by public access to online spaces to share ideas, events, and celebrate the beauty around us. Billionaires won’t save us. Working together as neighbours and governments we can build communities where everyone flourishes.
Lyndon Sayers is co-pastor at Lutheran Church of the Cross, Victoria.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, at https://www.timescolonist.com/blogs/spiritually-speaking
* This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday, April 8th 2023
