[Photo courtesy of the South American Division]

South America

Study Shows Performance of Brazilian Churches in the Pandemic

How has church communication been during COVID-19 times? Brazilian research speaks of this. Find out details in the interview with the responsible journalist.

The dramatic moment associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide reality. It is characterized by deaths, patients, and other effects in health, as well as social, economic, and educational areas—all these dilemmas faced by organizations in the world. Everyone tries to react, in some way, to minimize the pandemic effects.

This is the case of some Christian denominations, the Seventh-day Adventist Church among them. Journalist Renata Paes conducted a survey on the work of these organizations, based on their institutional communication, to see what their role has been in a given period of last year.

Scientific Work

The Adventist South American News Agency (ASN) spoke with Renata Paes about the issue. She has a Bachelor's Degree from the Faculty of Advanced Studies of Pará (FEAPA), a specialist in Business Journalism and Press Advisory (Estácio - MG), and a Master's degree in Environmental Sciences (University of the State of Pará - Uepa).

Her article was written in early January 2021. It is the result of her work concluding the specialization in Business Journalism and Press Office. The journalist decided to address this issue because there is still no approach to this theme focused on the communication of diverse and predominant religious groups in Brazil.

The article is available in the publication Teologia em Revista, from Instituto Adventista Paranaense (IAP), starting on page 34:

In your research, present in the article, you analyzed, between March 15 and April 4, 2020, 487 publications, including from the adventistas.org website. In all this material, you found that there was strong institutional communication, especially in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic. But what did you notice about the communication related to humanitarian aid from the religious organizations surveyed?

The theme of social projects reached third place in the most published content. Of the six religious groups analyzed in the survey, only three gave visibility to actions of social projects. Among them, Seventh-day Adventists.

Of all the journalistic content published by adventistas.org , news about humanitarian actions comes first and represents 38.1% of publications. A significant number, given the increase in poverty, lack of food on the table[s] of Brazilians, and the need for information on how and where to seek help.

Communicating social actions in a period when people were most isolated reveals the institutional effort to make a difference in the community, helping families to obtain information [regarding] from where and who[m] to seek help. When communication and humanitarian projects go together, the impact and social relevance that the churches exercise gain more notoriety, and the information reaches more people. After all, even in a pandemic, food and communication remain essential services.

These results were obtained from the analysis of journalistic articles published one week before, during, and one week after the date of the highest level of social isolation on the part of Brazilians: March 22, 2020. It is known that the more workers at home, the greater are the challenges to acquiring family income. I refer to those workers without a formal contract, who work independently, for example.

Guidance

In your assessment, did religious organizations demonstrate, in their institutional communication, support in order to guide people regarding the prevention against pandemic disease?

Yes. Although these are organizations with different doctrines, an effort was made to emphasize the need to attend services online due to the cancellation of religious celebrations. [This was] in addition to taking due care as indicated by the Ministry of Health and Sanitary Surveillance on the use of alcohol gel, mask[s], [and] social distanc[ing]. Such guidelines represent 23.80% of all content published by the adventistas.org portal.

In Adventis[m], it was also noted that the approach to the themes was based on science, [with] physical and mental health professionals as sources of information, as well as content that sought to create alternatives for the faithful to live well physically, mentally, and spiritually in the midst of isolation.

It is true that there was a certain religious segment that chose to approach the theme in a questionable way, due to sensationalism, when relating the coronavirus to the end of the world, the Apocalypse, and even taking a stand against isolation measures.

Care

At the conclusion of the article, you imply that churches need to be very careful with their communication, as there is an effect on behavior, especially of the faithful. Tell us a little more about it.

The news and social media showed some examples of "believers" who, with the Bible in hand, denied the pandemic and the importance of social isolation measures. There were religious leaders, from a certain Christian group, who clearly said on the national network that they were against social isolation and the closing of churches. As a result, we saw crowded churches [and the] faithful denying the pandemic and its effects.

The church has the power to mobilize volunteers to donate blood, collect food for joint efforts in basic food baskets, and rescue people despised by society. By adopting positions on issues that impact the lives of the faithful, religious organizations influence people's way of thinking and acting.

The faithful believe in what the church communicates, as they are institutions that carry the concept of truth very strongly. For those who are Christians, it is difficult to think of Jesus Christ/God and to relate his representation to a lie. Faith has a lot to do with the truth! Therefore, when a church or a known leader stands, for example, in favor of social isolation, clearly the church is saying that it believes in the discourse of health, the preservation of life, [and] science as a means that God uses to care for humanity.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site

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