Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media
Abstract
:1. Introduction and the State of the Art
2. Methodology
- A1: responsibility;
- A2: opportunity;
- A3: importance of faith;
- A4: safety of churches;
- A5: discrimination of the church4;
- A6: religious freedom.
- A1: closing the churches is required to protect public health/not required;
- A2: the pandemic is an opportunity for believers/not an opportunity;
- A3: faith is important and useful for the life of human beings/not important nor useful;
- A4: from the epidemiologist perspective, churches are safe/not safe;
- A5: churches are discriminated against as a result of the ban on worship in favour of other institutions/other institutions are discriminated against in favour of the churches;
- A6: closing churches is an infringement of religious freedom/is not an infringement of religious freedom.
3. Findings
3.1. A1: Responsibility
- positive: closing of the churches is necessary to ensure public safety,
- negative: closing of the churches is not necessary to ensure public safety.
3.2. A2: Opportunity
- positive: closing of churches brought about interesting challenges for spiritual life,
- negative: closing of churches has not brought about any positives, just negatives.
3.3. A3: Importance of Faith
- positive: faith is necessary and useful for life,
- negative: faith is unnecessary and useless.
3.4. A4: Safety of Churches
- positive: churches are safe in terms of virus transmission risks,
- negative: churches are dangerous in terms of virus transmission risks.
One after another‘Tis clear we shall easefirst wave was a breezeUnder just and proper orderMasses first, without disputefunerals shall follow suit.
3.5. A5: Discrimination
- positive: churches are discriminated against in favour of theatres, restaurants, stadiums, schools, etc.,
- negative: churches are unjustly favoured to the detriment of theatres, restaurants, stadiums, schools, etc.
3.6. A6: Religious Freedom
- positive: religious freedom is infringed by the ban on public worship,
- negative: religious freedom is not affected by the ban on public worship.
3.7. Overview of All Arguments
4. Discussion and Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1 | According to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, the religous composition of the population is as follows: Roman Catholic (62.0%), Lutheran (Augsburg Confession) (5.9%), Greek Catholic (3.8%), Reformed Christian (1.8%), other minority churches (2%), unregistered churches (0.5%), no religion (13.4%), not stated (10.6%). Thus, based on the above figures taken from the latest census (2011), some form of Christian creed was professed by 75% of population. |
2 | According to the Czech Statistical Office, the religious composition of the Czech population is as follows: Roman Catholic (10.4%), Evangelical Church of Czech Brethen (0.5%), Czechoslovak Hussite Church (4.0%), other minority churches (0.4%), believers with no religious affiliation (9.1%), no religion (34.5%), not stated (44.7%). Hence, the share of self-identified ‘believers’ was 20.8%; however, only half of them were affiliated to one of the Christian churches. People with no religion represented one third of population, and almost another one third of population did not state their religious affiliation in the most recent census (2011). |
3 | The ban on public worship was in place until 19 April 2021. |
4 | The terms ‘church’ and ‘churches’ are used in the context of religious composition of both countries (please refer to notes 1 and 2) to denote institutionalised communities of Christians (Catholics, Protestants). The church (sg.) is a general term denoting a community of believers founded by Jesus Christ; the term ‘churches’ (pl.) accentuates various institutions existing within the framework of such communities. The term ‘clerics’ represents people engaged in spiritual services (mainly priests, bishops or members of orders), and is used herein as the opposite of ‘lay’ persons. |
5 | |
6 | Given the standard significance level of p = 0.05, zero hypothesis was rejected (H0: variables are statistically independent); hence we arrived at H1: variables are statistically dependent. |
7 | An abbreviation which stands for the document of the International Theological Commission, part of the Roman Curia: Theology today: Perspectives, principles and criteria (2012); article is provided instead of the page. |
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Medium | Country | Type | Profile | Number of Texts |
---|---|---|---|---|
Denník N | Slovakia | Online + print | Secular-liberal | 38 |
SME | Slovakia | Online + print | Secular-liberal | 41 |
Postoj | Slovakia | Online | Christian-conservative | 24 |
Štandard | Slovakia | Online | Christian-conservative | 11 |
Hlavné správy | Slovakia | Online | Christian-conservative | 13 |
Křesťan dnes | Czech Rep. | Online | Christian-conservative | 33 |
Konzervativní noviny | Czech Rep. | Online | Christian-conservative | 5 |
Christnet | Czech Rep. | Online | Christian-liberal | 24 |
Echo24 | Czech Rep. | Online | Secular-conservative | 6 |
MF Dnes | Czech Rep. | Online + print | Secular-liberal | 53 |
Deník N | Czech Rep. | Online + print | Secular-liberal | 11 |
Forum24 | Czech Rep. | Online | Secular-liberal | 15 |
12 sources in total | 274 |
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Rončáková, T. Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media. Journal. Media 2021, 2, 225-243. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia2020013
Rončáková T. Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media. Journalism and Media. 2021; 2(2):225-243. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia2020013
Chicago/Turabian StyleRončáková, Terézia. 2021. "Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media" Journalism and Media 2, no. 2: 225-243. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia2020013