Lockdown has turned Christianity into a winner-take-all business
Religion seems to be as susceptible to this effect as sport
GOD HAS had a good lockdown. Attendance, like Jesus, is risen. When the Archbishop of Canterbury preaches his Easter sermon this Sunday, Canterbury Cathedral will be almost empty, but his online reach will be vast: he is expected to win a combined audience, online, on radio and on television, of more than 5m people. That is around 2,500 times the usual Easter audience, around a thousand times more than watched Jesus performing the miracle of the loaves and fishes and about the same as watched Elton John performing “Rocket Man” in an online concert this winter.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “God the rock star”
From the March 31st 2021 edition
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