FAITH, SPIRITUALITY AND THE INTERNET

Peter Fletcher

April 28, 2009

IntroductionPastoral power - what it is and how it works

Community on the Net

Faith on the Net

Jehovah’s Witnesses on the Net

The case of xJWs

The Net as a space for resistance to pastoral power

How is online confession used to resist pastoral power?

A few words on pastoral powerFrench philosopher Michel Foucault (1982)

“Pastoral power” is a form of individualising power

Lifetime care for the soul

Requires a full and intimate knowledge of the conscience

Confession must reveal all their is to know

Confession to power both creates and individualises subject

Underbelly exampleFoucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry, 8(4), 777-795.

Agonistic struggle

Power relationships involve a never ending struggle

Confession creates the self

Confession is a tool of individualising power

Confession is a means for creative resistance to power

Defining communityTraditional ideas of community include:

A common interest

In a geographical location

Sharing lived experience

“Being together...living together...working together” (Tonnies as cited in Cahnman, 1971)

Cahnman, W. J., & Heberle, R. (Eds.). (1971). Ferdinand Toennies on Sociology: Pure, Applied, and Empirical. Chicago: The Universtiy of Chicago Press.

Community and the Net

The Internet disrupts “traditional” notions of community

No longer bound to a geographical location

Rheingold (1998) - VCs need passion, feeling, connection

Since Rheingold - emergence of social networking

Communities form around narrow focus topics

Rheingold, H. (1998). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Retrieved April 15, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html

Communities of faithInternet as outreach programme - SEO optimised e.g. Roman Catholic, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventists.

E-sangha forum for buddhists

XT3 social networking for Catholics...

...and commercial off-shoots including dating

MuslimSocial.com for Muslims

Covenspace for pagans

Community governance

The tree and the rhizome - Delleuze and Gattari (1987)

Hierarchies - Armed services, dictatorships

Anarchy - riots, social disorder

And all places in between

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). Introduction (B. Massumi, Trans.). In A Thousand Plateaus (pp. 3-25). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Jehovah’s Witnesses on the web

How the Internet is used by the organisation

The tree and the Ivy (and he spoke by way of parable: Matt 13:34)

The tree - the Governing Body

Two officially sanctioned sites: http://www.jw-media.org/index.html and http://www.watchtower.org/

Unsanctioned Facebook groups

...then there’s the Ivy

Anti-JW sites

Social networks

Blogs

Forums

Discussion boards

Facebook groups

xJWs - a mini-case studyxJWs - discussion board for ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses

Community formed (common interest, passion, human feeling)

Share a common purpose of mutual support

Interaction through basic bulletin board software

Anonymous and pseudonymous personae used to create intimacy, forthrightness and compassion (see Reid, 1999)

Intimacy shown through terms e.g. friends, lifesavers and familyReid, E. (1999). In P. Kollock & M. Smith (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace (pp. 107-133). London Routledge.

The Net as a place of resistance

The Net as self-creation - blogs, SNSs, forums, DBs

Allows individuals to creatively play with alternate identities...

...free from the working of “pastoral power” (Foucault, 1982)

Provides a subject position from which to express an inappropriate subject form (Phillips, 2006)

And creatively articulate a viable subject form within society

Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry, 8(4), 777-795.Phillips, K. (2006). Rhetorical maneuvers: subjectivity, power, and resistance. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 39(4).

Conclusion

Religion uses the Net for outreach

The Internet provides a space for resistance to pastoral power

Resistance takes the shape of self-creation through confession

Communities form around resistance

Hierarchical organisations are especially vulnerable to resistance