A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
"The Cult of Greta Thunberg": De-legitimating Climate Activism with "Religion"
Authors: Kyyrö Jere, Äystö Tuomas, Hjelm Titus
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
Publication year: 2023
Journal: Critical Research on Religion
Journal name in source: CRITICAL RESEARCH ON RELIGION
Journal acronym: CRIT RES RELIG
Volume: 11
Issue: 2
First page : 133
Last page: 149
Number of pages: 17
ISSN: 2050-3032
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174208
Web address : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20503032231174208
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/179755039
Contemporary climate activism has often been called a "religion" or a "cult." We investigate what is done with climate religion discourse (CRD), by whom, and to what ends. Our case study concerns Finland, one country out of many where forms of climate activism are regularly dismissed by equating them with "irrational" religion. We find that political parties and newspaper columnists use terms and phrases such as "millenarianism," "prophet," "Messiah," "cult," "apocalypse," "Virgin Mary of climate religion," and "children's crusade." We argue that these are examples of strategic othering in the Finnish context. We observe that this religionizing stems from the activism's incompatibility with prevalent economic rationality, and that gender is a significant theme in CRD use. An unintended consequence of CRD is that it constructs those forms of religion, which do not disturb modernity and the capitalist order as more legitimate than others.
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