The blog of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture (January 13), which offers an annual forecast for the upcoming year, is predicting for 2022 such “megatrends” as a turn to authoritarian government and religion and a virtual reality-based “metaverse,” where online “spiritual experience entrepreneurs” will seek to usurp the role of in-person and lived religion. Aside from such speculative forecasts, the blog reports on how racial justice initiatives and funding may be waning and how a “new buzzword will fill the air: healing justice.” Healing justice is defined as “a spiritually informed framework developed by Black radical feminist organizers to sustain and empower communities impacted by state violence.” The blog anticipates that this concept will be increasingly separated from its black activist context of social justice and co-opted by mainstream institutions: “Has your local megachurch issued a statement on healing and justice? Have you attended a corporate meeting that begins with a ‘grounding’ exercise or Indigenous land acknowledgement? Has your local law enforcement agency attempted to organize a ‘healing justice commission’ with community and clergy?” The piece goes on to assert that “[h]ealing justice networks across the United States will continue to grow and contribute to the flourishing of communities directly impacted by state violence in the movement for Black lives. Organizations like Dignity and Power Now, The Nap Ministry, Harriet’s Apothecary and Generative Somatics have been on the forefront of creating this trend.” However, rather than being acknowledged and supported in their work, these organizations “will experience increased competition and co-optation from many of the very institutions that their work has critiqued.”
(Center for Religion and Civic Culture, https://crcc.usc.edu/pandemic-year-3-predictions-adjusting-to-a-new-normals-in-2022/)
