PålRepstad Chapter 10 Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? Local Christian Publications on Asylum Seekers

Abstract: ’sChristian leaders have been directingastream of almost unanimous criticism at the present (2017) Conservative and populist govern- ment’sincreasinglyrestrictive policyonrefugees and asylum seekers.Some have claimed that the criticism from Christian leaders is an elite phenomenon, and thatlocal Christians are more positive to the adopted restrictions, as well as to proposals for an even more restrictive policy.This chapter presents results from astudyoflocal Christian publications from August 2015 to April 2016.Pub- lications online and on paper from 52 local organizations and congregations in a region in Southern Norwayhavebeen analysed. The results indicate that local Christian congregations and organizations welcome and support arriving refu- gees and asylum seekers,and to the extent that they comment on political is- sues, they support the criticism comingfrom theirnational leaders. The local publications studied can be seen as akind of counter-information to national right-wing populist politicians and media trying to create ‘official fear’.

Keywords: refugees, migration, local publications, local Christianity

10.1 AMoreRestrictive Policy

After the general election in autumn 2014,Norwaygot aso-called blue–blue gov- ernment,acoalition between the Conservatives(Høyre) and the (Fremskrittspartiet). The Progress Party in particular,has placed scepticism to- ward immigration very highontheir agenda (Fangen and Vaage2014). Progress Party memberSylvi Listhaug, serving the government since December 2015 as Minister of Immigration and Integration, has been criticized for using harsh lan- guageagainst immigrants and asylum seekers.¹ While still MinisterofAgricul-

 From January 2018, Listhaug was no longerMinister of Integration, but Minister for Justice, Public Security and Immigration. In March 2018 she resigned from Governmentafter heavy criti- cism from the opposition.

OpenAccess. ©2018, Pål Repstad. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commerical-NoDerivs4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110502060-015 172 PålRepstad ture and Food, she told the press that she,aChristian, considered leaving the Church of Norwaybecause she disliked the bishops’ criticism of the govern- ment’srefugeepolicy.Inaninterview in the Christian daily Vårt Land on 4No- vember 2015,she criticized the bishops directly, referringto‘atyrannyofgood- ness’ haunting Norway. Later,on5February 2016,she followed up on her criticism in the newspaper VG,stating that the church is not for everyone, as it has become apolitical actor for leftists, aplayerlikelytodestroy the welfare society duetoits stance in favour of freeimmigration. In response to another bout of criticism from bishops, she said in an interview with the weekly Morgen- bladet on 8April 2016: ‘It is not for the bishops to define who is aChristian and who is not,orwho has the right form of Christianity and who does not’.Further- more, in an interview with the newspaper on 7January 2016,she ex- pressed concern about the future of her children if immigration to Norwaygets out of control. When presentingsome restrictive reforms in Norwegian refugee policy in an interview with the newspaper VG on 29 December 2015,Listhaug used an old Norwegianmetaphor,stating thatrefugees cannot expect ‘to be car- ried into Norwayonachair of gold’.² According to the Atekst software program for retrieval and analysis of newspaper material, Listhaug’sstatement about the chair of gold was quoted and commented on 360 times in Norwegiannewspa- pers and magazines in paper format from the time when it was published until the end of 2016.She even gotinternational attention, for example in the Independent on 21 October 2016,after posting astatement on Facebook the daybefore attending aconferenceonintegration that Norwegians ‘eat pork and drink alcohol’,and those who come to Norwayshould adapttothat. Clearly, SylviListhaug,has been acentral figure in the immigrationdebate since she took over as minister,but it should be noted that the government has been standing behind her proposals,and thatsome of the restrictions have been supported by some of the political parties outside the government as well. On a less rhetoricaland moreconcrete level, SylviListhaug,onbehalf of the govern- ment,sent for consultation several proposals for amorerestrictive policy toward refugees and asylum seekers in December 2015 (Ministry of Justice and Public Se- curity 2015). The proposals included astricter policy on familyreunion, and lim- itations concerning unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.Accordingtothe new proposals,instead of apermanent permission, minor adolescents would onlyget atemporary permission to stayinNorway. The consultation process resulted in protests from severalorganizations, lawyers, and even administrative agencies

 It should be added that all the newspapers quoted so far are independent of political parties and considered mainstream media in Norway. Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? 173 under the government.Manyofthe consultation responses claimed thatsome of the proposals contradicted international lawand human rights conventions. However,the governmentdecided to maintain almost all the proposals (Ministry of Justice and Public Security 2015–2016). When presentingthe news in media interviews,among them in Aftenposten on 6April 2016,Sylvi Listhaug expressed as apositive qualityofNorwegian immigrationpolicy that it would be the strict- est in Europe. The proposals werediscussed in the Parliament in June, and many of the proposed restrictions wereformallyadopted, such as permission for the police to stop asylum seekers at the border in times of crisis. However,the most controversialones, concerning unaccompanied minor asylum seekers and amore restrictive familyreunion policy,werenot.³

10.2 ProtestsfromChurch Leaders

Five or six decades ago, manychurch leaders,especiallyinminority churches, argued against Christian involvement in politics, recommending individual Christian conversionsand Christian upbringingofnew generations as better strategies for abetter world, rather thanpolitical efforts. Exceptions from the rule of political non-involvement were Christian ‘coreissues’ such as abortion and financial state support for Christian schools. GraduallyNorwegian church leaders have approached the political field on abroader scope of issues, such as socio-economic equality, climate, and pollu- tion. In the 1990s, churches found on their literal doorsteps the politics of refu- gees and immigration, as several asylum seekers responded to their cases being rejected by seeking asylum in churches. Most of these refugees and asylum seek- ers wereKosovoAlbanians. During the peak year of 1993, about 140local churches of various denominations had asylum seekers in their church buildings for short or long periods, apractice that church leaders generallyaccepted as le- gitimate in acute situations (Vetvik and Omland 1997). In 1997, 25 Norwegian church leaders from various denominations presented acommon statement warning against fear of Muslims (Haugen 2010). Todaygeneral warnings against political involvement are almostnon-exis- tent in churches,except among Jehovah’sWitnesses and afew small faith com- munities. Reservations against direct church support for specific parties are still widespread, but for the past three or four decades,church leaders in Norway have often placed themselvesinacentre-to-left position in manysocio-political

 See the newspaper Dagsavisen,11June 2016,for an overview of the Parliament’sdecisions. 174 Pål Repstad issues. They are concernedwith climate and environmental issues, as well as equalityand justice, nationallyand globally. Manyalso claim that public immi- gration policies are too restrictive.Leaders are more conservativeinmatters of familypolicy and sexuality,aswell as in bio-ethical issues. Thisisshown in an interview studyofNorwegian national religious leaders from 2011 (Furseth et al. 2015,153–157). However,especiallythe Church of Norwayhas seen arecent liberalization of attitudes, includinginthe matterofsame-sex marriages. In April 2016,the Church of NorwayGeneral Synodaccepted same-sex marriage ceremoniesinchurches, and in February 2017,anew liturgy was introduced. Asimilar centre-to-left socio-political profile is documented in aprevious studyof118 nationaland regional leaders in the (Gulbrandsen et al. 2002). This studyshowed thatthe church elite turned out to be the most politically radical group of all Norwegian elites.They preferred environmental concerns to economic growth, they werethe strongest proponents of increased wageequality,and they opposed regulation of immigration based on labour market needs. Manyindividual bishops and other church leaders have issued criticisms of Norwegian asylum politics. The websiteofthe Church of Norway, as well as the websites of manyminority churches and umbrella organizations, like the Council for Religious and Life Stance Communities (STL)and the Christian Council of Norway, show acentre-to-left engagement in manycurrent socio-political issues, includingcriticism of the present government’srestrictive immigration policies. Togetherwith severalhumanitarian and political organizations, the Christian Council of Norway, with most Christian faith communities as members,takes part in the so-called Forum for Asylum Politics, ameetingplace for organiza- tions involved in asylum politics. In November 2016,this forum issuedajoint statement,strongly criticizingrestrictive decisions maderecentlyorplanned by the government.The forum protested against initiativessuch as plans to re- moverefugee status for Somalian refugees, reduction of economic support for families with children in refugeereception centres, and an increasingnumber of returns of refugees to Afghanistan (Asylpolitisk forum 2016). The involvement by Norwegian Christian leaders was summed up by colum- nist Sven Egil Omdal some years ago, in the newspaper on 1 March 2014:

Christian leaders have turned into ahumanitarian vanguard.When someone feels cold, weeps or is afraidofNorwegian state power, moreand moreoften abishop or Christian general secretary is nearby,offeringwarmth, comfort and vigorousprotest. Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? 175

10.3 Criticismfromthe Churches – An Elite Phenomenon?

As we have seen earlier in this chapter,Christian leaders have been overwhelm- ingly critical to governmentpolicy.In2016,however,afew Christian leaders voiced scepticism towardthe profile of churches and Christian organizations in these matters.One of them was VebjørnSelbekk, the editor of the conservative Christian newspaper Dagen. In an interview with the newspaper VG on 6Febru- ary 2016,hestated that he sympathizes with SylviListhaug,claiming that the question of immigration must be solvedpoliticallyand that the churchhas no special competence in the field.Erik Furnes, general secretary of Indremisjons- forbundet, aconservative,low-churchinner mission organization, expressed similar views. In an editorial in the organization’smagazine Sambåndet in April 2016,Furnes reminded readersthat it is the politicians who have arespon- sibility to ‘take care of the totality of concerns’ and criticized churchleaders for having voiced statements that weretoo specific against the policyofthe govern- ment.Inaninterview in Vårt Land on 6February 2016,Furnes warned against one-sidedness from the church, stating that he, to some extent,understood SylviListhaug. In early2016, Vårt Land published acouple of interviews pointing to an al- leged cleavage between Christian leaders and the local grass roots.Alocal pol- itician from the Christian Democrats, Torolf Nordbø, claimed in an interview on 2 February thatthe lack of immigration control is worry number one among many people at grassroots level, and author Lars Akerhaug told ajournalist on 1Feb- ruary that,while visitingsome local Christian communities to present his books on extremism in Norway,henoticed an undercurrent of scepticism towardMus- lims. Akerhaug quoted statements like ‘all Muslims can lie; it is part of theirre- ligion’,and ‘the Muslims have come to take over Norway’.Asthe Christian lead- ers have adifferent view,these opinions are seldom voiced in public, he said, adding thatthese views come from the grass roots members and from visitors who maynot be members of the congregation. So,myquestion is whether the Christian criticism of the government’srefugee policyisjustanelite phenomenon, whileSylvi Listhaug and thegovernmenthave broad supportatthe localand grassrootslevel in theChristian communities. 176 Pål Repstad

10.4 AStudy of SixMunicipalities

My studyisbasedonlocal Christian websites, Facebook pages, parishmagazines and local organizations’ publications in the town of in the south- ernmost part of Norway, as well as in five surroundingmunicipalities: Birkenes, Lillesand, Søgne, Songdalen, and Vennesla. In total, these six municipalities, sit- uated in the region, have about 130,000 inhabitants and is part of an area sometimesreferred to as Norway’sBible Belt,known for its vital and diverse Christian involvement in the majority Church of Norwayand in awide range of minority churches and Christian organizations. Christian faith and participa- tion in organized Christianity are more widespread here than in other areas of Norway(Botvar,Repstad, and Aagedal 2010). Although asofteningofthe strict- est and most pietistic religious traditions has been observed in recent decades, active Christians still seem to be more conservative and restrictive in matters of moralityinthe region of Agder than elsewhereinNorway(Repstad 2009;Mag- nussen, Repstad, and Urstad 2012; Repstad 2014). Hence, it is not unreasonable to believethat if Christians in this relatively conservative region are critical to- wards the government’srestrictive policy against refugees and asylum seekers, the same will be the casefor Christians in other regions. Ihavesystematicallystudied websites, Facebook pages, and printed publi- cationsfrom 52 local congregations and Christian organizations, using acombi- nation of countingand amorehermeneutic qualitative analysis. There is no com- prehensive overviewofthe number of such publications available in these municipalities, but IbelieveIhave reviewed most of the material published from August 2015 to March 2016.Not all local faith communities and organiza- tions publish electronically, but most of them do, so Iwould dare to saythat my studycaptures the general sentiment in local Christian publicationsinthe area duringthe period in question. Like manyother European countries,Norway experiencedaconsiderable increase in the numberofasylum seekers during these months, followed by amarked decrease. At some point duringthis time frame, there seemed to be amarked national changeinrhetoric about refugees and asylum seekers,inthe media as well as in public opinion. From October to Novemberespecially, there was ashift from empathyand care to moreconcern for strictness and control. It will be interesting to note whether this shift is re- flected in the local Christian publications as well. Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? 177

10.5 AWidespreadand StableLocal Christian Concern

What did Ifind?Publications from 28 of the 52 congregations and organizations – over half of them – mentioned refugees and asylum seekers duringthe eight months analysed. Most statements are connected to local humanitarian efforts, and there are manyrecommendations to takepart in such volunteer work. These projects are sometimes organized by the congregations or organizations them- selves, sometimes in cooperation with others, either municipal bodies, other Christian communities,orhumanitarian organizations likethe Red Cross. Amain finding is thatnot one single statement from the 52 local Christian organizations expressed support for the government’sasylum politics and its proposals for amore restrictive policy. Thisdoes not mean thatmanyofthe pub- lications explicitlyobjected to the restrictive policy,but some did voice aprotest. An employee in the Salvation ArmyinKristiansand was invited to speak at an event in one of Kristiansand’slargest minority churches,the EvangelicalLuther- an Free Church, and accordingtothe report in the magazine of this faith com- munity, Frikirkeaktuelt, in November 2015,she had ‘much to sayabout what, in her opinion, is an unsuccessful policy’.She criticized several concrete propos- als for amorerestrictive line of action. Apastor in the Pentecostal congregation Filadelfia in Kristiansand quotedAngela Merkel’sstatement that fear is apoor adviser.Heconcluded by asking whether we in Norwayare meant to be only five million inhabitants: ‘Could we not be seven?Wehaveenough space, and we have an economyenablingustomeet the challenges of our continent’,he wroteinFiladelfiamagazinet,March 2015.The local congregation of the Church of Norway in Søgne some miles west of Kristiansand encouraged its members on its Facebook pageinSeptember to take part in ademonstration outside the town hall to show the politicians that they ‘welcome the refugees to Søgne’.This was before ameeting wherethe local council was to decide how manyrefugees (if any) the municipality should receive.The Christian social welfare organization Blue Cross housed manyasylum seekers in Kristiansand during an acute period in the earlyautumn of 2015,when severalrefugees arrivedonthe night ferry from Denmark. Twice that autumn, the Blue Cross organized benefit concerts for ref- ugee help, and awell-known singer-songwriter in Norway,, was inter- viewed on the Blue Cross website, encouragingpeople to turn theirbacks on the attitudes of the Progress Party.Onthe websiteofthe Pentecostal congrega- tion Betania,wefound before Christmas2015 afeature article on BudgetHotel in Kristiansand, which served as atemporary home for 82 refugees. Herethe au- thors took issue with the oft-used term lykkejegere (fortune hunters): ‘Had we 178 PålRepstad been in the same situation, we too would probablyhavestopped at nothing in our hunt for happiness and abetter life’.Finally, City Mission pastor Bjarte Leer-Helgesen in Kristiansand has amuch-read Facebook pagewherehe, on 16 December 2016,wroteironicallyabout SylviListhaug and her use of the term ‘tyrannyofgoodness’. There are some more statements with apolitical sting, but most of the 28 congregations and organizations writing about asylum seekers mention various humanitarian initiatives, inviting members and others to take part in these. Ex- amplesare refugeecafés with low-threshold languagetraining and social con- tact,football for youngasylum seekers,collection of clothes for asylum seekers living in temporary emergency centres, and organized systems of refugeehosts. As mentioned, manyinitiativeswerethe resultsofcooperation, such as the wel- come centres for refugees in Vågsbygd Church and in the parish hall of the Ca- thedral in Kristiansand. Christian social welfareorganizations such as the Blue Cross,the Salvation Army, Christian Intercultural Work (KIA), and the Church City Mission in Kristiansand are doing their share, and so are several minority churches,such as the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church and local Pentecostal congregations. The lowest level of activity was found among low-church organizations often associated with so-called ‘prayer halls’ (bedehus). These have along tradition of being ‘within, but not controlled by’ the Church of Norway.Onlytwo out of 13 organizations in this category mentioned refugees or asylum seekers in their publications. This part of the Norwegian Christian landscape has shrunk in num- bers and resources recently. Furthermore, they have areligious tradition charac- terized more by words and dogma than by afocus on ‘good deeds’.However, there wereexceptions:Accordingtotheirwebsite, the local branch of the Norwe- gian Lutheran Mission established acafé with languagetraining and homework assistance for immigrants every Tuesday. The minority churches are at least as active as the Church of Norway,possi- blybecause active members in the minoritychurches are used to taking initia- tivesthemselves. They have less bureaucracy and ashorter distance between thoughtand action. Idonot have direct evidence of such an explanation in my empirical material; it should be considered as ahypothesis for further re- search. There is no significant changeinfrequencyorcontent of the texts about ref- ugees duringthe period analysed. Neither is there anyindication thatthe efforts to help are akind of disguisedmissionary or conversionist project.Here, the ac- tivists at the local level seem to follow the recommendations giveninastatement from the Christian CouncilofNorway (2009) about baptism of asylum seekers, whereitisstated that ‘no one should be manipulated to adopt afaith through Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? 179 some exploitation of their vulnerable situation or theirwish for protection’.Such exploitation mayexist,especiallyinsome charismatic milieus (Stene 2016), but there werenotraces of it in the publications analysed. The reasons giveninevery case for encouragingpeople to help wereacombination of general ethics and the occasional reference to Biblical recommendations to help people in need, such as the Pentecostal congregation Betania’sreference on their website to Mat- thew 25:35 – 40⁴ when asking people to bringwinter clothes for asylum seekers to Betania’soffice for further distribution. How are the refugees and asylum seekers presented?Ingeneral, these pub- lications are rather modest and ascetic in their use of pictures and advanced lay- out.That said, Norwegian helpers are presented more oftenthan the asylum seekers with namesand pictures,and thosewho are quoted in the text are nearly always Norwegian helpers. However,the texts are dominated by care and respect for asylum seekers,presentingthem as human beingsinneed of help, and char- acterizingthem more as motivated people with resources than as pitiful, calcu- lating or selfish creatures. How valid are the findings? The studycovers alimited area, so the potential for mechanicalgeneralizations to Norwayislimited. However,unsystematic vis- its to websites in other parts of Norway(includingOslo and the county of Horda- land) seem to confirm the tendencies found in the south. And, as mentioned be- fore, Agder is acomparatively conservative region in Norway, both politically and religiously,soitisareasonable hypothesis thatwemay find even stronger criticism of the government’simmigration policy elsewhere. We cannot rule out the possibility thatthere is some informal and hidden support for arestrictive immigration and refugeepolicy among grassroots Chris- tians. The same can be said about apossible scepticism against Muslims. Most of the texts that Ihavelooked at werewritten by employees or volunteers at the local level; some might call them members of local elites,oratleast local opin- ion leaders. Be thatasitmay,there are no indications of such scepticism in the analysed material, and Ican add that the threshold for member response on the organizations’ Facebook pages does seem to be quitelow.Supportfor my conclu- sions can also be found in the fact that very few Norwegian priestsorpastors in local congregations have expressed negative attitudes against asylum seekers and immigrants (Haugen 2014).

 ‘ForIwas hungry and yougavemefood….’ 180 Pål Repstad

10.6 AChangeofSentiment

Ihavenot found amassive and unanimous, explicit support for amoreliberal policy.24ofthe 52 organizations,mainlyinthe low-church milieus, weresilent about asylum seekers and refugees, and most of those who mentioned them rec- ommendedlocal humanitarian projects without political comments. However, all the statements within the field of politics clearlywent against restrictions pro- posed by the governmentand/or criticized government rhetoric, especiallyfrom Immigration Minister SylviListhaug.Furthermore, the strongrecommendations to help can also be interpreted as indirectlypolitical in the heateddebate in 2015–2016,when Christian leaders werestigmatized as ‘tyrantsofgoodness’,al- though my interpretation here should not be stretched toofar. The studygives no indication thatorganized Christianity at the local level followed the changefrom generosity and empathytocontrol and fear that took place some weeks before Christmasin2015 in some media, among some politicians, and in parts of publicopinion. Manyindications of this change can be mentioned. Achangefrom aconcern to help to asceptical attitude seems to have been ageneral European phenomenon. Researchers behind acon- tent analysis of newspapers from eight European countries (not includingScan- dinavia) summarize their findingslike this:

Temporal trends:the narrativesofthe coveragechangeddramaticallyacross Europe during 2015.The sympathetic and empathetic response of alarge proportion of the European press in the summer of 2015 and especiallyinthe earlyautumn of the same year was replacedby suspicion and, in some cases,hostility towards refugees and migrants,followingthe No- vember attacks in . (Chouliaraki et al. 2017,2)

Astudy of regional and local newspapers and regional TV in the south and north of Norwayshowed asimilar shift,although not as dramatic as the European study. The authorshaveanalysed 10 local and regional media from August 2015 until July 2016.What they call the perspective of help was the most prom- inent one, but the relative number of items with this perspective decreased from November2015.The totalnumber of articles about refugees also decreased sig- nificantlyfrom January 2016 (Hognestad and Lamark 2017,12). Asimilar changetook place in the Liberal–Conservative Aftenposten,Nor- way’sbiggest newspaper.Charlotte Åsland Larsen (2016) has conducted aquan- titative and qualitative studyofthis newspaper duringtwo periods of time, Au- gust–September 2015,when manyasylum seekers started to arrive,and January 2016,when Norwegians looked back on ayear with alarge influx of asylum seek- ers, and before it was clear that immigration was on the decline. Solidarity and Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? 181 care for refugees dominatedthe newspaper’snews coverageduringthe first pe- riod, while what Larsen calls adiscourse of burden became more frequent in the second period. There was also asharper focus on refugees as individuals during the first period. Forexample, refugees were more often presented by name and picture duringthis period. During both periods, Norwegian journalists, politi- cians and experts were the chief speakers rather than the refugees themselves. Discourse about refugees as threats was also present in Aftenposten,but in very few cases. This approach was presumably more widespread in other media, not least in social media.

10.7 Influential Media – But Thereare Countermoves

Some politicians, especiallymembers of government from the Progress Party, have tried to triggerworries about uncontrolled immigration and radical Islam after the relatively large number of refugees that came to Norwayin2015.As for the media’smoregeneral role, they no doubthavethe power to influence popularopinion, especiallyinalliance with national politicians. In the terms of Zygmunt Bauman (2016), the fear that is ageneral trait in all human existence can be translated into official fear,wherethosewho are different are marginal- ized through anumber of mechanisms, such as stereotyping, scapegoating, and moral paralysis. On amore concrete level, media studies often conclude that reports about refugees tend to be stereotypical, and that they feature in the news in connection with negative topics and events (for an overview,see Fig- enschou,Thorbjørnsrud, and Larsen 2015,129).These threeNorwegian media re- searchers have analysed several Norwegianmedia’spresentations of asylum pol- itics and asylum seekers from 2011 to 2014.Their picture of the media coverageis ambiguous. They claim that Norwegian politicians and bureaucrats getalot of space in the media to promotewhat they call astrict,but fair immigration and refugeepolicy.Atthe same time,they note that concrete narrativesabout specific individuals are often told as well.⁵ Atypicalexample is when individuals are introduced and encouraged to tell theirdramatic stories,oftenwhen they are refused refugeestatus by Norwegian authorities. Accordingtothe researchers, these narrativescan function as criticism of astrict policy,asthey resonate with and appeal to an intuitive,common-sense morality. However,atthe same time, the events narrated are presented mainlyasisolated single events, and

 See also Chapter3. 182 Pål Repstad not related to anypolitical context.Therefore, these stories can contributeto greater division between those who deservetostayand those who do not. Thus, they mayend up as slightlyidealizednarrativesabout people who deserve to stay, without anycritical searchlightonthe rules and their interpretation. The results of my study maybeconceivedasasign of the limited power of national media and national politicians.The profile of the local publications can be considered akind of counter-information, stressinghumanitarian and Chris- tian responsibility.Such counter-information can probablybeofmore signifi- cance if individuals relate to each other thanifthey are more isolated media users. Moreover,direct contact with refugees – something manyofthe local Christian activists have – willprobablydismantle some stereotypes about Mus- lims and refugees in general. The old contact hypothesis formulatedbyGordon Allport (1954), claimed exactlythat: Personal encounters will reduce prejudice and increase mutual understanding.The thesis has oftenbeen criticized, but it seems robust,especiallywhen the situation is not strongly conflictual to begin with. Alarge meta-studyincludingmorethan 500 studies confirmed this some years ago(Pettigrew and Tropp 2006). In the words of the famous composer and record producer Phil Spector’sfirst hit: ‘To know,know,know him is to love, love, love him’.More recent studies from Denmark have alsostrengthened the contact hypothesis: Personal contacts at work and in neighbourhoods in- crease tolerance towardethnicminorities, as members of the minorities appear less threatening,and majority members who gain more concrete knowledge of minoritypeople alsounderstand their situation better (Thomsen 2012; Rafiqui and Thomsen 2014). Local media seem to be quite vital and important in Norway, possiblybe- cause of ageneral ideologyinmanyregions in the direction of decentralization.⁶ The media thatIhave studied fall in the category of religious journalism, that is publications edited by religious institutions (Hjarvard2012; see also Chapter 3). This probablylimits the scope of influencetoChristian in-groups.Onthe other hand, such publications tend to spread their own messagewithout necessarily following trends in the national and more secular media, and maybeimportant for the identity-forming in the groups. So, if thereare worries among Christians in and around Kristiansand about Islam and immigration, such worries seem overshadowed by asimple Christian ideal of helping those who need help. It is interesting that this moralcommit- ment is found in very broad parts of the Christian landscape, not onlyamong mainstream and comparatively liberal adherents of what Nancy Ammerman

 See Chapter1on the territorial dimensioninScandinavian politics. Moral Involvement or Religious Scepticism? 183

(1997) in her studies in America called ‘GoldenRule Christianity’,but also among conservative Evangelicals. The main findingsinthis studycan be discussed in abroader class perspec- tive.Active Christians in Norwaybelong mainlytothe middle class(Repstad 2010,384). In an interview studyofmiddle class morality and values in Norway, the researchers find that representativesofthis class state ‘thatthey dislike rac- ists, the intolerant,the dishonest,thosewho are judgmental etc.’ (Skarpenes, Sakslind,and Hestholm 2016,14). The authors claim that such statements reflect avalue hierarchyculturallyrooted in Christianity and humanism. The hero in this Christian–humanist repertoire resemblesthe Good Samaritan, they claim. Another hero is the socially responsible citizen. The discourse in the local Chris- tian publications thatIhave studied, is in accordance with this middle-class moral profile. Afinal point:atrend towardamoresensualChristianity,anaestheticization of religion in awide sense, is reported in severalrecent research reports from Norway(Repstad and Trysnes 2013;Løvland and Repstad 2014). These reports point to an increasingsignificance of religion’sexperientialand emotional di- mension, and less weightondogmatic and theological aspects. Processions are getting longer,sermons are getting shorter.Inpreparation for confirmation, young people learn fewer commandments and light more candles. Sometimesan interest in aesthetics is read as asign of superficiality and of anoncommittal at- titude. Søren Kierkegaard’scriticism in that direction still has some influencein Scandinavia. However,aesthetics in awide sense – that which appeals to the senses and the emotions – can be important resources to form sentiments and encouragepractices. Our studyindicatesthat this shift in livedreligion does not necessarilyempty Christianity of its immediate ethical content.

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