Interrogating the Church’s Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes

Through this thematic categorization, we observed that memes served as a dynamic visual-textual language that enabled individuals to articulate multiple-level stories of social and spiritual meaning-making around the COVID-19 crisis. From this, we analyzed how memetic discourse can simultaneously serve as a communal space for defusing emotions, expressing catharsis, and sense-making for individuals. Specifically, we noted that memes served as a tool for crafting and affirming distinctive understandings of the relationship between organized religious communities and churches and digital technology during the pandemic. This paper explores how studying memes can reveal popular narratives that people hold about the relationship between technology and the church, informing perceptions of the move from offline to online worship services during the COVID-19 global pandemic. I suggest that by approaching memes as multi-dimensional, storytellers invite consideration of the ingrained assumptions many church congregations and leaders hold about digital media in contemporary society and its potential impact on church culture. Over the past eight years, I have dedicated much time to memetic research, considering the role that internet memes play in revealing popular assumptions about religion in contemporary society. 1 From this research, I assert the unique visual-textual language of internet memes can house complex layers of meaning about a variety of social-cultural issues.


Methodology
The aim of this study was to identify and study the religious narratives and content that internet memes revealed about specific beliefs regarding the relationship between religious groups and technology.I argue that religious pandemic memes showcase a variety of responses to church engagement with technology and through this, we are able to unpack the key discursive narratives that memes reveal about the perceived relationship between the church and technology.

Sampling
Memes were collected primarily through a specific Facebook Group called "Holy Pandemic!Encouragement & Memes." 2 I created this group in March 2020 initially as a way to cope with the stress and anxiety created by the uncertainty of the coronavirus, while I was temporarily quarantined in Germany.Starting with an initial invitation of 80 Facebook friends, the group has grown in one year to over 21,000 members from around the world.Together, this group has shared over seven thousand memes with each other on a wide range of topics related to the pandemic.Thus, this meme-sharing group has provided a dynamic and growing collection of memes telling a variety of stories about the pandemic.
Of most interest in this article are the stories that memes tell about religion and religious groups during the pandemic related to technology.I argue that this provides a unique insight into the Digital Theology that is emerging out of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the dominant theological assumption about technology widely circulate online and promoted via memes.In the first three months of the pandemic, we collected 327 pandemic memes focused on religious themes.Overall, these 78 memes told stories about how churches and religious leaders used or perceived of the internet or other digital media during the early days of the pandemic.
It is this population of memes that this article focuses on.

Analysis
While the Facebook group from which the meme samples are drawn from began in mid-March, it was not until mid-May when I began to approach this work as a potential site of research.In early May, two research assistants and I began to systematically identify and categorize memes shared on the group.Memes were initially recorded in an Excel-based database, which was then transferred to database specifically for this project.Meme images and data were collected and the stored in a specially designed App meme database.The App Database enabled me and my research team to categorize, tag, and sort these memes for further analysis of core themes and narratives about religion emerging from this collection.
Religious-focused pandemic memes from mid-March to mid-June were first categorized in terms of the core themes that they engaged with or topics they depicted.These memes mostly focused on the Christian tradition with the majority of references being made to American or British religious groups or contexts.These memes covered a variety of themes that will be discussed more below.Memes in this collection were then categorized in relation to the religious frames used.This analysis draws on the work of Aguilar et al. 2016, whose study identified the dominant ways that religion in general is framed in memes.This includes categories such as: depicting religion in playful terms, promoting religious belief and practices, questioning religion, mocking religion, or suggestion religion is irrational.

Theme Identification in Meme Sample
A total of twenty-five separate themes were identified in the collection of religious-focused memes.Themes included: memes depicting religious holidays that fell during the early days of the pandemic such as Easter and Passover, church reactions and practices related to social distancing, church leaders such as the Pope or Biblical characters such as Moses or Mary and their imagined responses to the coronavirus, and finally, fictional verses about with pandemic.Although some memes could easily be grouped into two or more of these themes, each meme was identified with one as its dominant representative category.In general, all of these memes dealt with some aspect of religion, one of these twenty-five themes, and the new or religious social practices that emerged related to health and safety measures advocated during the pandemic.Several prominent themes included creative depictions of quarantine and social distancing practices that forced modifications pf traditional religious practices.This is exemplified in ten playful memes about how the religious sacrament of baptism would have to be modified due to social restrictions.This is seen in the meme depicting a "Social Distancing Baptistry" that shows a photograph of a carnival dunking booth that playfully suggests that dunk tanks could now be used as a social distanced form of baptism.
Another prominent category were memes used to re-present Biblical characters and stories, retold in the context of pandemic-related practices and restrictions.Over 20 such memes were found to match this description from this sample.This is seen, for example, in several memes that make connections between the pandemic and Israel's exodus from Egypt.For example, one meme shows a cartoon of Moses saying: "Let my people go" as Pharaoh responds "#StayHome," suggesting his denial of the Israelite Exodus could be seen as a preventative health and safety measure.Another meme shows a photograph of a condescending, scowling Pharaoh from the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments with the text, "Ramses watching you complain about just one plague."A personal favorite category of mine is "Church Signs" memes which involves humorous church signs focused on the pandemic.Over 15 memes showed photographs of real church signs or signs that had been remixed for comical effect that tried to frame pandemic practices with a touch of humor.One purported sign from an Episcopal church said: "Let God get closer than 6 feet, but still wash your hands…" This meme seemed to encourage people to practice good hygiene and strengthen their relationships with God.
Other signs were silly; seemingly trying to add a touch of humor to the seriousness of the growing pandemic, such as a meme showing a Methodist Church sign that read "I don't like this virus.I wanted zombies for the apocalypse."Memes such as these brought lighthearted and comic relief to a situation of much uncertainty that required significant and swift changes of religious institutions not known for their abilities to be flexible or willing to embrace change.Yet the external conditions of the pandemic intruded into many areas of society and culture, and churches were not immune from the adaptations that were required, and while digital technology enable churches to adapt and modify their practices it also became an object on which to focus their anxieties and apprehensions about the conditions created by the global pandemic.Indeed, many of the memes that emerged in the first few weeks of the pandemic presented a more positive view of the swift shift to church online than I initially expected.A number of prominent memes captured this change in the perspective of seeing the internet as innately immoral or problematic to leaders describing technology as a godsend gift during the pandemic.This is captured by a meme showing two pictures of the same Chihuahua side by side with very different expressions.On the left side of the meme is a photo with the dog growling and baring its teeth.In the right photo, the dog looks as if it is posing with a big smile on its face.
The meme reads: "Pastors in 2010 'Facebook is from the devil!' 2020 'Follow our LIVE services online.'"The meme captures how many church leaders publically changed their opposition towards social media and the internet during the pandemic, some almost overnight.Transferring traditional liturgical practices online was no small endeavor for many churches.This created challenges for both pastors and the church members responsible for running various aspects of these services.
While livestreaming video content is in no way a new technology, the idea of moving from an offline to an online worship context was a radical idea and foreign territory even for churches that already had media or technology teams of volunteers in place.This anxiety was illustrated by a meme with the text: "Everyone: No and critical evaluation of technology were totally erased.Indeed, internet memes studied here reveal several common concerns and hidden tensions digital media engagement raises for churches and religious leaders.
In the remainder of this article, I focus on memes that tell stories about how churches used digital tools, framed the internet, and understood the roles and implications of technology during the pandemic.This is done by exploring three narratives about religious reactions to technology that are depicted through meme images and texts about online and mediated worship experiences.I argue that through surveying and analyzing these memes, we see three dominant stories about the relationship between digital media technologies and the church that are worth paying attention to.

Technology as a Disruption to Tradition and Established Practices
The first clear narrative presented by internet memes about technology used by churches during the pandemic is that it seen as a disruptor, interrupting "business as usual" for church leaders and congregations.Memes This is exemplified in several memes that appeared in late March and early April of 2020 right before Easter which predicted or reflected on how holy celebrations would be disrupted by moving from offline to online.
One popular theme were the "Last Supper" memes, which often used remixed versions of classic paintings of Christ's last meal with his disciples to illustrate how the introduction of forced social separation and digital mediation would alter our perceptions and the meaning of this holy gathering.
One such meme shows a deconstructed painting of Leonardo da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper" entitled: The Last Supper 2020.We see Jesus siting alone at the  While the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting global health crisis, and social distancing practices that were required for health and safety were the actual disruptors of the normative practice of religion within churches, the unexpected or forced engagement with digital media through online worship was often too framed as the main culprit for creating new problems for churches.

Technology skills and knowledge framed as outside pastoral/priestly remit
The second narrative about technology that emerges from the sample of memes studied focused on the internet and media technology as being framed as a foreign territory for pastors and churches.Memes used irony and preparation of pastors for such a situation that, required them to modify their performance as pastors to uncomfortable new roles.For example, this meme shows many pastors do not even have knowledge or experience with mass media broadcasting, such as the way that Dr. McCoy refers to livestreaming a church service as a videography skill.
Until last March, many church leaders had been able to ignore the idea of engaging more with the internet or the need to consider the possibilities online worship services might offer their congregation or church ministry.
In 2020, they were faced with the reality of the limitations of their actual technological skills and knowledge.
Many congregations assumed that their church and its leaders should and could quickly adapt to the technological requirement needed to run online worship services during the first wave of lockdowns.From having to decide what social media platform to use to host sermon feeds to figuring out how to set-up video equipment to record sermons for livestreaming, pastors faced a myriad of technological choices upfront, which heightened their anxiety.They found themselves in a situation of forced engagement with technology, and often were very much out of their depth in the technological skills and knowledge required to make a fast and smooth transition from traditional to online worship in such a short period.
As lockdowns and the global pandemic dragged on and more health regulations and social distancing policies were put into place in most countries, pastors began to realize that in many cases, online worship services were not a short-term emergency strategy, but a long-term reality.This heightened many religious leaders' anxieties, as they realized creating a digitally mediated worship experience is not a solo endeavor; it often required a team of people to prepare for and successfully execute online worship service.This meant not only personally taking on a new role and learning new skills, but the recruitment of volunteers to help.Other staff members had to take on re-defined roles to help with service digital production or moderate online interactions between the pastors and viewers during service livestreaming.Pastors had to identify and recruit media savvy congregation members to assist in running cameras or monitoring sound quality of broadcasts.
This is exemplified by a meme showing a black-and-white photograph seemingly of the United States Space Technology or media teams have been a common part of many non-denominational and evangelical church services for several decades, where a substantial emphasis is often placed on production values such as the strategic use of lights, graphic backgrounds, and contemporary music performances.However, this has not been the case for most mainline and traditional churches, where microphones and sound systems constitute the height of their technological engagement.Thus, like the meme above suggests, doing church online is a move into an unexplored, other-worldly space with new rules.This endeavor requires new practices, which need full support teams and carefully monitored technology to make sure the mission will be a success.This mediated multi-person driven worship event is new for everyone, even the congregation members.
Members too find themselves in a new territory.Times of lockdown and quarantine mean that they are barred from the church building, solemn traditions are broken, and liturgical rituals from communion to call-andresponse recitations are reinvented.Members were themselves forced to engage with new technologies, as overnight, embodied worship became a mediated and distanced experience.Pews were exchanged for living room sofas as they now engaged with church from television or computer screens in their homes.Even more surprising was the image of their pastor transformed from a preacher into a television presenter.
For some, seeing their familiar and respected pastor broadcast through TV evoked imagery of a "televangelist" and all of the negative stereotypes associated (i.e., dodgy theology, greedy or money focused, performative rather than pastoral, etc.).This surprise and bewilderment were captured in several memes, all using images from the movie Forrest Gump.In one meme, we see the character of Forrest leaning forward with a look of amazement and the text reads: "Just like that, all pastors are televangelists." Another shows Forrest Gump leaning back on a bench with a stunned look on his face.The meme similarly reads: "And just like that, my priest turned into a tele-evangelist!"These memes use tongue-in-cheek humor and sarcasm to mock the idea of their leaders as taking on a criticized religious role in culture.While many pastors and priests were forced into these public performances online due to community rules and governmental policies that banned face-to-face religious gatherings, there is still a sense that many members in mainline denominations and the Anglo-Catholic tradition found this as uncomfortable as the leaders themselves did.The pandemic created new social conditions that required religious leaders to act and perform outside of their typical duties, skill sets, and training they had received when preparing for religious service.Therefore, the religious training, so framed as outside their required remit.This sets up pastors to have a hesitancy, fear, or even adverse reaction to the idea of digital media engagement, which quickly became a requirement of pandemic ministry.Thus, even if they embraced the need to incorporate media into their worship services, the assumption that their attitude towards technology quickly changed is simply flawed.

Concern technology may create or encourage consumeristic practices in Church
The third theme we see arising from these memes inspired by the move from offline to online church during the pandemic comes from a fear in the potential cultural impact of congregational media engagement.One of the rally cries used by religious leaders since the age of television promotes the shunning of popular media tools because of the anti-religious values media is seen to promote.Media is not just seen as exposing people to immoral or secular content, it is seen as promoting problematic cultural values and practices.
One such set of values that underlies a number of the internet memes in this study is the assumption that digital media use encourages consumeristic practices.Specifically, it is the fear that as people engage church through the screen, it becomes a user-focused experience.In the digital age, it is understood as engaging with the screen that also becomes a consumer directed experience, where individuals personalize their engagement to meet their own needs and desires, rather than those dictated by what the experience creates.This concern about online church creating consumeristic individuals focused on their worship preferences, rather than congregationally-focused communal encounters, was a clearly articulated in a number of memes For example, in one meme, we see a drawing of a family of four in the 1950s.They are sitting together in a pew at church.Above his head, the father has a talk bubble revealing what the father is thinking.Internally, he says: "I am glad we are able to attend to church again, but I do miss being able to fast forward and mute."This suggests that church online offers people a more personally directed and controlled experience.The first is that when church services are transferred into a familiar environment, it will mean people will turn this sacred gathering that contains set ritual practices of spiritual significance into a mundane, everyday experience that becomes treated like one is watching just another YouTube video.
The second concern is that online worship services will be stripped of its communal context.Digital services could be viewed as an opportunity to create a new family-focused religious event where digital media provides a time and space to engage with each other and God.Instead, they fear digital worship will encourage people to engage via personal digital devices and therefore seen as an individual activity to be done further disconnecting family members from one another.

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Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 4

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Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 10 Such memes highlight not only these surprising shifts in opinion about technology by some religious leaders, but also their willingness to engage it hands on.Other memes addressed how church leaders tried to use technology during the pandemic, which required them to adapt and change in unexpected ways.New forms of church worship such as livestreamed services and online ministry via Zoom technology were envisioned and implemented at a speed that most churches were not accustomed to.
problem, we'll just stream church online.Tech Crew and Pastors:" with an image showing a man with sweat This transition toward online church was especially momentous for pastors from small churches who did not have the technology infrastructure in place to make such a move, or any experience in digital technology or highlighted how church congregations and leaders were pushed out of long established, embodied religious traditions, into a time of reinventing weekly gatherings and modifying rituals in ways that still met the expectations of what a church community is and does.Digital media was presented as essential to meeting these new challenges and attempts to re-establish some normalcy of religious patterns of worship and gatherings.
summer" meme further emphasizes this concept by showing Jesus alone in the da Vinci painting, with seven of the disciples in boxes or streaming in from separate locations to the virtual event.The meme text Gone are the social constraints and expectations that help people focus on the church service, especially young people.This is further emphasized by a series of memes created by a family to show how certain in-church social behaviors can still be replicated at home during the online worship experience.Yet, it is the more problematic social behaviors of being late, talking during the service, or sitting in the back row not paying attention to the service which are spotlighted.Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 18 This is exemplified by a remixed version of one of these same memes that shows a family of four sitting on the couch behind two other rows of empty chairs.The family sits as far away from the TV screen playing a sermon

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Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 20 sarcasm to question any assumptions and expectations that pastors and church leaders would have some technological knowledge or any skills related to preparing to move offline service to online platforms.One meme that speaks to this shows Dr. McCoy from the original Star Trek series proclaiming with tears in his eyes: "Darn it Jim, I'm a pastor not a videographer!"Cursor_ Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 21First, this meme emphasizes the challenge and stressors that many pastors experienced during the pandemic as they were forced to take on technological tools to continue services safely.Next, it shows the inadequate Program's mission control room from the 1960s.The meme includes text reading: "Church in 2020 be like, ground control to Pastor Tom."The text is a direct reference to David Bowie's song Space Oddity that describes an Astronaut exploring the new frontier of space.The meme communicates that like the picture, the church is hesitantly entering a new territory and engaging new technology that in reality is dated and wellestablished in the culture.The technology team seeks to support and guide the pastor into the unknown frontier of the online worship service.This team-based exercise with the pastor still being placed as the center of the technological endeavor.Cursor_ Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 23

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Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 27In the nostalgic depiction of church, it is the pastor and/or worship leader that sets the order of service, selects the songs, and dictates the focus and length of the sermon.In a digital service, the pastor relinquishes the

Meme-ing Reactions to Conducting Worship Online
table as if he were hosting a virtual Zoom meeting, with his place setting, a computer, hand sanitizer, and an Amazon box in front of him.Above him, we his disciplesedited from the original images and placed into separate squares, to mirror them Zooming individually into the gathering.The meme reads: "Jesus: Judas sent me a text saying he had a business meeting at the temple and would check in late.So let's go ahead and get started.Amazon has delivered each of you a box.If you've all washed your hands, open the box.It contains your bread, your wine and your hand sanitizer."The meme makes playful reference to what was (at the time) the new hygiene habits encouraged for people's health protection, as well as how this traditional celebration might have to be reimagined under the lockdown requirements.It also shows how Zoom technology both enables Jesus and the 12 disciples to be connected for this sacred event, yet demonstrates the ways in which it disconnects them by making it a much more individualized rather than communal encounter.This meme shows how the pandemic and especially Zoom upsets shared experience, presenting digital media as something that interrupts religious tradition.
Cursor_ Zeitschrift für explorative Theologie • Theologies of the Digital II Interrogating the Church's Relationship to Technology Through Pandemic Internet Memes 26 belief that technology skills and knowledge are not an essential part of contemporary ministry is a belief held by both congregations and religious leaders.Indeed, very few seminaries or Divinity faculties offer any theoretical courses on religious engagement in popular culture and media analysis, let alone any practical training in digital media use and technology implementation for contemporary ministry.If church leaders do have these skills, it is often because of their previous work, career training, or personal hobbies related to computers or digital media.Therefore, engagement with digital media is seen as a non-essential part of