I'm a sociology PhD and ARMY who has published work on religion and religious organizations. Here is what I think about the parallels between BTS/ARMY and religion. 1/

First, capitalism has destroyed our ability to understand what any given entity or organization actually is. Organizations that say they are “grassroots” are often funded by rich elites. Influencers pretend to be authentic but are being paid to sell products. 2/

So there are a lot of people who are confused and want to reduce BTS/ARMY to some capitalistic consumer phenomenon where people are duped by marketing into worshipping a product (idols) like gods. When I say BTS/ARMY is like a religion, here’s what that does NOT mean. 3/

It doesn’t mean ARMY view or worship BTS as actual, literal gods. Idols are simulating gods but they are not actually claiming divinity in any way. It is not at all a contradiction for someone to be a fan and to be part of a religion like Christianity or Islam. 4/

Academics are always arguing about how to define religion. If your definition of religion mandates that there is a divine God that the institution is centered around (this is referred to as a “substantive” definition), then BTS is NOT a religion. 5/

That way of defining religion excludes a lot of spiritual belief systems that people think of as religious though (Buddhism, witchcraft, etc). If your definition of religion is about what a religion does and what social functions it serves (a “functional” definition)... 6/

then I personally fail to see any meaningful separation between BTS/ARMY and religion. But, it might help some people to understand BTS as a kind of spiritual movement that helps reinforce their main religion. So what does it mean to say that BTS/ARMY is like a religion? 7/

BTS/ARMY promotes an entirely different worldview and approach to life than is currently offered by other belief systems. We have created this new “universe” together through our interactions over BTS’s music and other artifacts. 8/

How would I describe this worldview? The message of BTS is countercultural. It contains strong critiques of dominant narratives in society that resonate widely because, as Bong Joon-Ho put it, “We all live in the same country now: that of capitalism.” 9/

BTS’s music is full of anger at the way the world is, even their bright pop hits have a bite to them that a lot of Western publications don’t seem to be able to identify. They encourage fans to discard the worldviews that are forced upon them by society. 10/

Like, “work hard and you’ll make it” is complete bullshit and we all know that at this point (unless you are a “silver spoon” in which case your view is distorted). Capitalism wants us to view ourselves as lesser than so that we buy products to fill the void. 11/

“Love yourself” is a deeply revolutionary message to tell to women of color who are bombarded by the opposite message from white supremacist patriarchal media and popular culture every day. 12/

There’s also the fact that most BTS fans are not Korean and so part of what it means to love BTS is to immerse yourself in another culture. That in and of itself is enough to shake people out of their existing mental frameworks. 13/

Becoming part of ARMY is thus fundamentally a spiritual experience of being integrated into a new community with a countercultural worldview. 14/

I have seen so many testimonies from ARMY about their personal journeys w/ BTS that are basically conversion narratives, like the kinds of stories people tell when they convert to a new religion or worldview. 15/

I’ll speak for myself. I am a changed person because of encountering BTS. And it’s not just about the lyrics in their songs, it’s also about how BTS conducts themselves in public, how they provide a model to us all for how to navigate hostile political territory and win. 16/

I see how BTS crafts their public personas as a model for how I would like to be myself. For me, this means I am inspired to figure out how to be a scholar on my own terms, advancing through the sheer excellence of my work and not compromising to fit into oppressive systems. 17/

BTS fandom is spiritual because when you are ARMY you are involved in a regular practice of integrating your personal and political life in a way that is aimed at “loving yourself” and “speaking yourself” (community organizers talk about this as pursuing your “self interest”).18/

There are all kinds of things ARMY do that are direct parallels to religious rituals, activities, and organizations. I study faith-based community organizing and basically everything they do, ARMY does too. 19/

That is a separate topic that I don’t really want to go into exhaustively here but could probably write an entire book on (maybe I will) but I’ll go ahead and end this here for now. Thank you for reading my first Twitter thread (i think this is my first haha)

@LilyBorahae @Ella85630934 @ssecijak these are some initial thoughts based on our conversation earlier... i am not good at twitter so i'm still working out how to write threads and things like that but would be curious to know what you think