Abstract
Norway’s Christian leaders have been directing a stream of almost unanimous criticism at the present (2017) Conservative and populist government’s increasingly restrictive policy on refugees and asylum seekers. Some have claimed that the criticism from Christian leaders is an elite phenomenon, and that local Christians are more positive to the adopted restrictions, as well as to proposals for an even more restrictive policy. This chapter presents results from a study of local Christian publications from August 2015 to April 2016. Publications online and on paper from 52 local organizations and congregations in a region in Southern Norway have been analysed. The results indicate that local Christian congregations and organizations welcome and support arriving refugees and asylum seekers, and to the extent that they comment on political issues, they support the criticism coming from their national leaders. The local publications studied can be seen as a kind of counter-information to national right-wing populist politicians and media trying to create ‘official fear’.
