During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Head of MIT’s Social Analytics lab Sinan Aral observed, “the day the offline world stood still, the online world ignited like a digital forest fire.” In recent years, people around the world have grown in their experiences of new digital platforms that hold the potential for both promise and peril. Social media analysts have highlighted that fake news – especially political news -- spreads faster than it can be corrected, and remains hard to rectify, even with a healthy dose of the truth.  Faith communities in different contexts have adapted quickly to the information age, and yet the challenges of disinformation and misleading theologies remain a constant threat.   

This webinar seeks to address the following questions: What is the responsibility of faith leaders at local and national levels? How can we collaborate with like-minded citizens in countering falsehood by promoting media literacy and truth-telling? 

Speakers: 

• Bishop Prof Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, President, The Evangelical Church in Germany, theologian and contributor to the field of social ethics and public theology.  
• Prof Anita Cloete, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Head of Department for Practical Theology and Missiology (2014-2017), Editor of ‘Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Interplay between Religion, Film and Youth’  
• Dina Zaman, IMAN Research, Malaysia, Journalist, researcher and author of ‘Holy Men, Holy Women: A Journey Into the Faiths of Malaysians and Other Essays’ 

Moderator:  

• Rev Dr Sivin Kit, Program Executive for Public Theology and Interreligious Relations, Lutheran World Federation.  

Closing Remarks:  

• Bishop Gilbert Filter, Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (Cape Church) 

Organizers: 

• The Lutheran World Federation
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (Cape Church) 
• The Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, Stellenbosch University

Register for the Zoom webinar