Taking Advantage of the Internet
Spontaneous Interfaith Support: Using Social Media
by Sherry Fohr
In 2017, Rev. Jason Loscuito and I launched the Interfaith Studies Program at Converse College with the help of an Arthur Vining Davis grant and the Interfaith Youth Core. After following and sharing interfaith social media posts on my personal Facebook page for the year prior, I decided to create a separate Facebook page, Interfaith Politics (linked to Twitter). I have continued to share previously unprecedented amounts of interfaith political activity. Witnessing and taking part in this history in the making is an honor and privilege. What follows describes some of this social media activity as related to solidarity, support, refuge, and hospitality.
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One of the most powerful demonstrations of interfaith solidarity through social media in recent years came during the Standing Rock protests in 2016. This action was part of the interfaith, indigenous revival of traditional religiosity in protecting the sacred environment and sacred natural sites. Members of various First Nations tribes (from different religious traditions) sent, shared, and provided support to the Standing Rock Sioux via Facebook and Twitter during the non-violent prayerful protests to block construction of the North Dakota Access Pipeline. The millennial “Seventh Generation” at the Oceti Sakowin camp broadcast news of their ongoing struggle as Water Protectors, including photos and video footage of the dogs, rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons used against them.
Photo: Wikimedia
Members of other First Nations traveled there in support. Spontaneous solidarity through social media came from as far away as New Zealand, with Maori sending videos of Hakas to support this non-violent struggle. The Seventh Generation also shared posts and articles explaining sacred beliefs and practices connected to sacred environmentalism and prophecies, using hashtags such as #7thGenRising, #WaterIsLife, and #ProtectTheSacred. As a result, mainstream national media outlets began to report on what can be considered a pivotal event in United States indigenous history.
In speaking for themselves, these indigenous groups promoted a true interfaith understanding with those who would become non-indigenous supporters. These posts described the pipeline as the predicted “black snake” from the Black Snake Prophecy, the snake that would come from the north and devour the world unless stopped.
Posts described this protest as part of the fulfillment of the Seventh Generation Prophecy, in which the seventh generation of indigenous Americans (since Europeans came to this continent) would rise up and save their people and the world. These posts also hailed Standing Rock as part of the fulfillment of the Eagle and Condor Prophecy that various First Nations (with different religious and cultural traditions) would unite in interfaith solidarity and action.
Interfaith support also came from non-indigenous religions, especially after Sacred Stone Camp, United Religions Initiative (North America), and others shared a video of Chief Arvol Looking Horse requesting an interfaith day of prayer to help their cause. Standing Rock Episcopalian minister John Floberg used Facebook to organize more than 500 clergy from various religious, spiritual traditions to travel there and participate in, among other events, the burning of The Doctrine of Discovery (Bismarck Tribune). (See TIO’s backgrounder on the Doctrine of Discovery here and its editorial on the Doctrine here.)
These religio-environmental, non-violent prayerful protests started before Standing Rock and are now ongoing, with interfaith support from various First Nations shared via social media. The most recent (as I am writing) is mainland First Nations tribes sharing support for indigenous Hawaiian protests opposing the construction of a telescope on sacred Mauna Kae. After centuries of religious suppression and colonialization, First Nations are experiencing increasing interfaith support for their religious freedom, rooted in sacred environmentalism, from other indigenous and non-indigenous religious, political, and ethnic groups. Along with interfaith organizations such as the Parliament of the World’s Religions, social media has been an important fulcrum allowing for such spontaneous support.
Responding to Violence
Photo: Wikimedia
Spontaneous interfaith social media support in the aftermath of shootings at houses of worship became intensified in October 2018 with the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg. Postings in support and solidarity included those by Parliament of the World’s Religions, Muslim-Jewish Brotherhood, The Voice of Salam, Fezana (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America), The Sikh Coalition, and many others. Sadhana (Coalition of Progressive Hindus) shared a statement from Auburn Seminary calling on peoples of various religions to reject bigotry and violence, including anti-Semitism.
This was one of the first cross-religious “re-shares” I witnessed that was not indigenous, with a Hindu organization re-sharing a post from a Christian organization. It turned out to be the first of many such re-shares about different events and issues. In Pittsburgh and elsewhere interfaith vigils were organized and shared on social media, offering refuge and support to Jewish communities.
As such shootings and bombings continue in the US and abroad, the spontaneous interfaith support on social media keeps growing.
In March 2019, posts in solidarity with Muslims targeted in the Christchurch mosque included over 25 religious and interfaith organizations. To counter the perpetrator’s expressed extremist leanings at Christchurch, there was increased interfaith support from Pagan/Heathen groups and sites, including The Troth, Alliance for Inclusive Heathenry, and Heathens Against Hate. Interfaith vigils were announced and shared via social media. The American Muslim Advisory Council shared an interfaith vigil from Tennessee. The Muslim Americans for Compassion shared videos of an interfaith vigil from Kentucky. Justice for Muslims Collective re-shared a video of supportive Maori Haka.
Faith Forums in the UK shared a video of one of the first Interfaith Islamic calls to prayer, making history. Likewise, the church attacks in Sri Lanka in April 2019 resulted in solidarity and support being posted by over 25 of religious and interfaith organizations, including No Spiritual Surrender (Indigenous), Religions for Peace, URI, Repairers of the Breach, A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, Micah Institute, and others.
Spontaneous interfaith social media concern, support, and organizing for asylum seekers at the southern United States border has been ongoing from various religious, interfaith, and political groups starting in late 2018 and has included a mix of indigenous and non-indigenous groups from the start.
The connection between hospitality and interfaith organizing related to the above attacks on indigenous, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian minorities and their sacred spaces was not often directly addressed in social media. Instead it could be found in hashtags such as #solidarity and the increased frequency of religious organizations sharing each other’s concerns through posts, thereby symbolically offering safe refuge.
Photo: Fibonacci Blue, C.c. 2.0
Hospitality towards migrants and immigrants has been expressed by Abrahamic religious groups through hashtags such as #LoveTheStranger. Some Jewish groups posted exegetical references to Sodom/Gomorrah and Exodus as prophetic warnings against targeting the vulnerable outsider instead of offering hospitality. Online indigenous groups, such as One People One Continent: Eagle & Condor, posted videos and articles about prayer vigils held by First Nations in the US at the border. These were efforts to welcome and provide refuge to the large numbers of their indigenous “brothers and sisters” attempting to seek asylum, but who have been incarcerated and separated from their families instead.
The Poor People’s Campaign also organized vigils at the southern border, highlighting the value of hospitality in videos they shared via social media. This on-going spontaneous interfaith organizing and support, especially against the separation of children from their families, has become one of the most consistent, widely shared religious and interfaith concerns.
While some lament the use of social media for spontaneous or impulsive trolling and cyber-bullying, the opposite is also taking place. Spontaneous support between, and for, vulnerable ethnic and religious groups is shared daily. Although social media affords trolls and bullies a safe distance from which they may abuse and dominate, it affords others a safe way to voice their concerns, to protest domination, to assert solidarity with those targeted, and to organize financial, legal, and physical refuge.
It is becoming more and more common for social media sites from one religious or ethnic group to share the concerns of other religious and ethnic groups. This spontaneous interfaith solidarity between religious and non-religious social groups takes place daily. That it occurs so frequently on social media among Abrahamic traditions, especially between Jews and Muslims, is unprecedented in light of the decades-long tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The increasing interfaith support for indigenous concerns is also unprecedented.
In short, with the invention of social media, indigenous voices can no longer be silenced. Minority traditions are finding their rightful place in the aggregate religious, spiritual community in the US and the world. In times when tragedy haunts the evening news, there is also cause for thanksgiving and hope.
Acknowledgements: My appreciation goes to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard from Sacred Stone Camp for reviewing this article.
Header Photo: Unsplash