“GOD HAS GIVEN WOMEN ALL KINDS OF OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE”: HOW MEDIA DISCOURSE ON THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN CONSTRUCTS UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CHURCH AND SOCIETY

The representation of a particular topic in the mass media not only forms the understanding of this topic at a particular moment of time, but also contributes to the cultivation of values and norms in a particular culture that go far beyond this topic. The discourse in media establishes relations of power between particular social groups and (re)structures the way people see the roles of those groups. This is why discussion of a particular case of denying ordination to women in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCL), the biggest church in Latvia, is determined by and has an impact on understanding issues related to sex, gender, and connected concepts of social equality and justice in post-secular Latvian society. The paper¹ provides an insight into the formation of neoconservative arguments for understanding gender roles in society through discussions of women's ordination in ELCL in the most important Latvian printed media (“Diena” and “Latvijas Avīze”) and weekly newspaper published by ELCL “Svētdienas Rīts” (Sunday Morning) in two particularly significant periods of time: from 1993 to 1998 and from 2016 to 2023. We used critical discourse analysis (CDA) to trace the main arguments and discuss them in the context of the sociocultural history of Latvian society and ELCL. Contrary to the post-secular turn of contemporary public sphere that would allow an inclusive and equality-safeguarding perspective on modern women in the Lutheran church, the main findings of the research show that the media discourse on the issue is dominated by: “naturalizing” conservative view, marginalizing opposers of the view and women in general by representing women pastors as disappointed and foreign or leaving Latvia, and constructing the role of women as less powerful and dependent on men in the context of a traditional family setting. Consequently, this contributed to pushing religion outside the public sphere again. The variety of opinions expressed in “Svētdienas Rīts” was not transferred to secular media.