Jason Thacker on how AI is shaping humanity

Learn how AI is shaping humanity, biblical principles for navigating new technology, and how pastors and ministry leaders can wisely guide their congregations in the age of AI.

Technology has always shaped the way we live and think with AI rapidly evolving. The question is an if it’s shaping us. On today’s episode, we’re joined by RaShan Frost, director of research and senior fellow at the ERLC and Jason Thacker, director of the research institute at the ERLC. Together, they’ll walk through the ERLC’s new AI guide for churches, sharing the principles behind it and how it can help pastors and leaders think well about who God is, what it means to be human, and how we understand the nature of the world around us. 

Episode Transcript: Jason Thacker on how AI is shaping humanity

Narration:

Welcome to the ERLC podcast, where our goal is to help you think biblically about today’s cultural issues. I’m Lindsay Nicolet, and today we’re continuing our conversation on artificial intelligence and the Church. 

Narration:

Technology has always shaped the way we live and think with AI rapidly evolving. The question isn’t if it’s shaping us, but how. On today’s episode, we’re joined by Rashaan Frost, director of research and senior fellow at the ERLC, and Jason Thacker, director of the Research Institute at the ERLC. Together, they’ll walk through the ERLC’s new AI guide for churches, sharing the principles behind it, and how it can help pastors and leaders think well about who God is, what it means to be human, and how we understand the nature of the world around us. Now let’s turn to Rashan’s conversation with Jason.

RaShan Frost:

One of the questions I have for you, Jason, as we’re talking about the emergence of AI and this guide that we have coming up is how have Southern Baptists thought about AI as an emerging technology over the years? 

Jason Thacker:

I think it might shock some to think that Southern Baptists have been kind of leading on this area, especially within faith and questions of AI. But back in 2017/2018, I was at the ERLC full-time. I started working and writing on some of these things, especially some emerging technologies, but it was actually the summer of 2018 when Google actually released a Statement of Principles around an infamous debacle at this point called Project Maven. The short of it, many of the employees were kind of revolting against the company working with the Department of Defense. As they were kind of navigating some of those tensions within the company, the company Google actually released–or Alphabet as the parent company–released a Statement of Principles. It was about that time that I was working on a lot of these things, thinking about a lot of these things as many of our leadership at the time were as well.

Jason Thacker:

And so we proposed an idea to put forth what we called “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles.” This principle document we started working on in 2018. We meet with a number of scholars, technologists, policy makers, theologians, ethicists, philosophers, get together and draft this initial statement of principles that was released in April of 2019. That kind of becomes part of the ongoing work at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission focusing on a lot of these issues way before a lot of the hype that we see now, which is kind of interesting, especially because as we look at the issues prevalent with AI, especially those affecting churches and pastors and ministry leaders, many of the questions that we’re asking as a society today aren’t all that new. So a lot of people will ask, well, that statement came out in 2019, how does that really shape the conversation today, everything’s different? 

It’s actually my contingent that they’re not. We’re asking some of the same basic questions we’ve always asked as a people, as humanity, namely who is God or what is he like? Is there a God? What does it mean to be a human being? I think that anthropological question of being human is actually at the very core of almost every central ethical, social, political debate today, especially with AI. And then how do we relate to the world around us? How do we think through not just the world, but also our neighbors and thinking through some of those types of issues? AI really isn’t asking new questions per se, or at least the challenges. The questions we’re asking in light of it aren’t all that new, but in many ways are the same age old questions just asked in light of new opportunities.

Jason Thacker:

It seems like every day, even by the time this podcast released or even by the time the church guide released or a new addition to my book or something to that effect, that everything would be woefully out of date. And it’s not because you’re hitting some of the core issues of what does it mean to be human, that we’re fundamentally different than that of these machines. They’re a crazy advance, getting better and better every single day, but they’re not like us. I think we need to really center on some of those ideas, especially who is God? What does it mean to be human, and how God calls us to relate around us. So Southern Baptist really from really April of 2019 and on, not only with the Statement of Principles that was signed by over 70 evangelical leaders from across the nation, and then adoption of the first ever denominational statement back in 2022 at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual meeting in New Orleans adopted a resolution the convention did in 2022 on the ethics of AI, some of the issues surrounding plagiarism and different things like that.

Jason Thacker:

But that also, again, some of these fundamental core issues. And then Southern Baptists in many ways have continued to lead out on these things, especially with a number of our state conventions adopting resolutions even in the last few years, many coming up in this next season, thinking through, again, AI is not something we can keep at arms length in many ways. I think all of us now know that, but we’ve long been saying that it isn’t something you can keep at arms length to deal with 5, 10, 15 years from now. We’re already surrounded by these technologies and they’re inevitably shaping how we see God and how we see ourselves and as we see the world around us.

RaShan Frost:

That’s great. You mentioned something about the questions that we’re asking about AI are age old questions, anthropological questions, ethical questions. I remember a conversation we’ve had about what technology does to us, and so can you help us bridge that gap as to why would a technology like AI be similar to other technologies, but at the same time it’s a technology that is probably going to revolutionize a lot of how we see the world as we know it.

Jason Thacker:

That’s what, even my book that came out in March of 2020 called “The Age of AI,” what I was really trying to articulate and what we’ve really done at the ERLC, especially in a church guide like this, is these issues are already facing us. We’re in the midst of, in many ways, a societal revolution, the way that these tools shape us and form us. And this isn’t unique to AI because technology, I often hear, “Oh, it’s just simply a tool. It’s just the way you use it that all that matters.” And there’s some truth to that. There’s some reality that we are not only responsible for how we develop and utilize these tools, but we carry a sense of agency and responsibility before God. We will be judged by how we utilize these technologies. Are we using them for the love of God, for the love of neighbor, recognizing that common dignity or not?

Jason Thacker:

But as we think through the way that AI shapes us and forms us, it’s again, no technology is neutral. While it is a tool they’re forming and shaping us. It reminds me of Romans 12:2, where we’re reminded by Paul, “Do not be conformed to the passions and the ways of this world, but be transformed. Have your mind transformed by the renewal of your mind so that by testing you may be able to discern what is true, right, and good and faithful.” To understand that we are being shaped, we are being formed, we’re all being discipled. The question is not if you’re being shaped and conformed to the patterns of this world, but how and to what purpose or to what end. Technology has always formed us and shaped us. I’m getting a little older in some sense. We do a lot of yard work going out inside.

Jason Thacker:

There’s a famous comedian who would talk about digging a hole and how it’s one of the hardest things in the world at times if you’re not used to it. Why? Because you’re using a tool and it’s physically shaping your body. Your muscles hurt that you didn’t even know existed. That physical analog tool shapes your body physically, but it also shapes your mind and your perception of the world. It’s not shaping the world itself, but it’s shaping how you perceive the world around you. What do you think is possible, what you think is good and right and those types of things. You see that, especially with the printing press. The famous sociologist, Neil Postman once said, “You didn’t have old Europe plus a printing press. You had a whole new Europe.” And I like how he uses this illustration of what’s known as an ecological change, just a fancy word to say, kind of changing the entire ecosystem. 

And he uses this concept of a bowl. My wife is a big baker, she loves cooking. And so we have all of these kind of clear Pyrex bowls. Some listeners may have one of those in their home as well. And you take a clear bowl and you fill it full of water. Well, you have a bowl of water. Well, what happens when he says you take a little bit of food coloring and you drop a drop or two of food coloring in it? What do you have? He says, obviously all of us know you don’t have a bowl of clear water and a couple of drops of food coloring. The food coloring dissipates. I’m not sure of the fancy term here, but it kind of, it dilutes into the water. And instead of having a bowl of clear water, what do you have?

You have a bowl of pink water. Or if you use red food coloring or the kind of corresponding color, the idea here is that there’s an entire change. You then can’t take away the food coloring and leave the water. It’s very difficult to do so. Similarly, Postman notes that’s what technology does when we introduce technology into our lives, whether that’s the internet, whether that’s the personal computer, whether it’s our iPhone, social media, or even especially in terms of AI. You really can’t pull away and say, well, we’ll just kinda segment these things. No, it changes everything. And how we think. Again, it’s not changing who God is, it’s not changing who we are as human beings. And it’s not changing the world itself. But it changed how we perceive, where we start to think of ourselves as gods. You think of a hyper individualistic culture that we all live in.

Jason Thacker:

We already, in many ways saw ourselves as kind of many kings and queens. We were kind of gods of our own domain. Well, AI kind of exacerbates that because we now have tools at our disposal that are incredibly powerful and it can dilute us into thinking that we’re like God or that we’re creating like God creates, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s God. And we’re not. He’s the Creator. We’re the creature. You think through how it shapes our view of human beings. So often, and even of the last few decades, we often have defined our own value in that of our neighbors based on usefulness, based on what they contribute to society or contribute to our families. And so when someone starts taking and not giving, we start to say, well, maybe that life isn’t a life worth living or it’s expendable in some sense.

Jason Thacker:

Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth. From a Christian ethical perspective, our worth isn’t based on what we do, but who we are as image bearers. Well, AI distorts that in some ways. And so what we see here is that technology, and this is true of all technologies, but especially in this age of AI that we live in, technology’s forming us. It’s shaping us. It’s shaping what we value. It’s mediating values to us about what our culture values, what we ought to value. And so these tools aren’t neutral. And I think we need to be aware of that, especially in ministry. I serve as an elder, my local church. This shapes how I preach and how I teach, how I equip my people to think through this. Not just in terms of sermon prep and different things like that, but even this wider kind of expansive worldview that affects their nine to five job throughout the week.

Jason Thacker:

How they shepherd their families, how they think through their neighborhood, how they think through all these different types of things is that technology is shaping us, it’s forming. It’s not adding to a complex set of issues; it’s shaping the entire tenants of the debate. And I think we need to recognize that, especially for those in ministry, because this is in some sense a new world. I don’t want to overplay that, but we do live in a very unique time. But again, I’ll say this is we have to be reminded, not only is technology not neutral and everything’s forming and shaping us, but God’s Word is more than good and sufficient for the task at hand. We think of what Paul exhorts Timothy reminding that, “All Scripture is God-breathed, useful for correcting and training and righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.” God’s Word is sufficient for the task that we have. We don’t need to have something novel and new. We need to apply these age old truths to these ever-shifting realities before us. And do so committed to the inerrancy of God’s Word, committed to seeking after Him, seeking to be complete, being wise and virtuous people. And I think that’ll actually help us to navigate this kind of unique age that we live in today.

RaShan Frost:

That’s good. And I can tell you as a preacher, and so many other preachers and pastors can definitely identify with the bowl and the food coloring analogy because most of us have used it or seen it in some capacity. So the practical matter by which you’re seeing that technology shapes us like that I think really resonates with a lot of us, especially those who’ve seen that illustration, have used that illustration maybe in different contexts. But definitely understanding the power of that illustration pointing to that is not just us being formed and discipled by the work of the Holy Spirit, but that the world is doing a counter formation, if you will. But I want to dig a little deeper into the church guide. You spent a lot of time obviously working on the principles and the processes to form this church guide. And so what was the process by which you shaped, and you’ve alluded to it already, but what was the process by which you developed in the principles that shaped this particular guide?

Jason Thacker:

Yeah, in many ways, they’re very similar principles that have shaped other guides in the past. Simply because they’re these principles of who God is, what it means to be human, and the nature of the world around us. I know I’ve said that a few different times, but when we start to have a more expansive, holistic view of a Christian worldview philosophy, whatever kind of language you want to use, it shapes everything. And so a lot of the principles, even if you look through the church guide, they’re at some sense on face value. They just seem very kind of basic principles of the Christian faith, that God is our Creator, that he’s infinite, that he knows all things, that nothing catches him off guard. Well, that’s true of all of life, but especially with emerging technologies. So we take some of these basic, fundamental realities of God and what does it mean to be human, and how do we then shape that and interact with some of the pressing challenges and questions that people are asking today.

Jason Thacker:

Because it’s our contention even from back in 2019 all the way up through today, that people of faith, especially Christians, need to be involved in these conversations. Not just at a personal level, not just in our communities, not just in our churches, but even on the national and international stage to be part of the conversations as they’re happening. Because many of the questions that are being asked today, as I said, are not all that new and novel, but often are deeply philosophical or even deeply theological at nature. And I think we have a unique aspect, a unique voice that we can bring to that to navigate some of those. In terms of the principles, many of the principles are very similar, kind of drawn from the statement of principles drawn from a number of SBC resolutions or state resolutions, kind of putting those types of things together, together and being grounded in the Scripture.

Jason Thacker:

One of the things that we wanted to make sure is that we had the Scripture references there, not just tacking on at the end, but really letting these principles arise from Scripture, knowing that it’s good and sufficient for the task at hand. So kind of those foundational wants and then starting to peel back the layers and go deeper and deeper and deeper. When we talk about what does it mean to be human, we say that we’re image bearers, but what does it mean to be an image bearer? And we press in a little bit, especially admist some of the challenges that yes, you are an image bearer, but your value, your dignity and worth isn’t based on that. You’re just a reasoning rational creature. That’s part of it. It’s not just that you’re a relational creature. Yes, that’s part of it.

It’s not just that we have a job to do, this functional mentality that’s true as well, but a more holistic picture of just what does it mean to be human? So many of those principles are drawn first and foremost from–Scripture is our highest authority in all things–but then drawn out from many of the challenges, the questions back from the Statement of Principles and things like that to say, let’s summarize and simplify some of these things to be more approachable. And that’s our heartbeat at the ERLC, especially when it comes to these church guides, is to serve the local church. The local church is plan A. We come alongside to assist our churches, and we want to do that with this church guide to assist our pastors and ministry leaders assist our churches and small group leaders to say, okay, what are the basic non-negotiable truths? And then how do we start to apply those? And that’s really what those principles are, some of the basic core principles of the Christian faith that we’re seeking to apply to this age of AI. And especially some of the pressing questions and challenges we face today.

RaShan Frost:

That’s really good, and it’s amazing how AI, it impacts every aspect of our lives. There’s not an industry, even family relationships. We’re seeing the impact of AI. That’s one of the things that we try to address in the church guide is from a pastoral level, counseling level, parental level, just the different spheres, even economics, the industry, how AI impacts those things. But I want to ask you a specific question. It’s related to the AI guide, but kind of in a narrow sense in the idea that you’re an educator, you’re a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. You actually came and spoke at the institution that I teach at, Charleston Southern, about AI and education. We have people who are listeners who may be homeschool parents. So we know that AI has presented some unique challenges to education, not just education, but all kinds of other avenues as well. But just speaking to education and that continuing theme of formation through education, what were some of the nuggets, if you will, that could help us as educators, whether we’re parents homeschooling our kids or professors at an institution of higher learning? What are some nuggets that you have for us about AI in that particular field?

Jason Thacker:

Yeah, I like the way you put it. I mean, it affects everything and everybody. Again, it’s not just a separate set of issues. And that’s one of the reasons that the ERLC, when we think about our portfolio of what Southern Baptists have asked us to focus on, especially the pressing moral and social challenge of the day, AI is part of a lot of different conversations where we’re talking about human dignity and human life and the value of human life, the sanctity of human life, issues of religious liberty, issues of sexuality and gender, issues of justice and human dignity issues more broadly, even thinking through the purpose and role of government. These are aspects, there’s an aspect of that that’s deeply technological. We live in a digital world and we see that not just playing out in terms of our ministry assignment here at the ERLC, but we also see that in just terms of everyday life. This isn’t just a Sunday morning conversation because on Monday morning at 9:00 AM many of us in our professions have our bosses asking or at least pushing us to say, well, what about AI?

Jason Thacker:

Or, I saw this new thing or how that’s affecting our jobs and we’re not just talking about blue collar jobs. That was one of the things that back in 2019, we were kind of foreshadowing to say, this isn’t just coming for manual jobs and manual labor, and that’s part of it, but also white collar jobs or jobs that we’re using a little bit more of the intellectual aspect, kind of the reasonable aspect. Not that that’s opposed to the blue collar jobs by any means, but nevertheless to say this is affecting everything and everyone. I don’t know of a single person who isn’t either wondering about artificial intelligence, utilizing artificial intelligence, or at least having people ask them about how to think about AI in their jobs. This affects our schools and especially I think Christian educators. My wife and I, we homeschool our boys.

She also teaches a couple days at a homeschool co-op. There’s questions there because we see these tools and they’re incredibly powerful. I mean, you ask it a question and you get an answer. Sometimes the answers are better than others, but they’re even becoming better and better every single day in many ways, more advanced, more nuanced, pulling up different sources, different things like that. The thing that I have to push us on a little bit is what is the purpose of education? That sounds like an abstract question when we’re dealing with these more symptomatic things about AI in the classroom or AI in our homes or in our churches. But we have to step back and say, what’s the purpose? Why are we doing this? What’s the purpose of education in general? Well, it’s not about simply transferring information. I think often, especially over the last few decades, education has become about transferring information.

Jason Thacker:

You know, you hear a lecture, you take notes, you write a paper, you take a quiz, whatever, you gain this information and then you get the grade, and then you ultimately get the degree so you can get the job. Or we’re transferring not just information, but even skills. Well, let me teach you how to do this. And what that meant is let me just show you how to do this. See you do it a couple times. I know that you know how to do it. And then we move on. But that’s not really the ultimate purpose of education. It’s not simply transferring information skills, but actually about more of a holistic whole person transformation. And there’s a difference there. It’s never less than the information, it’s never less than the skills, but it’s a more holistic picture to say, and I tell my students this every single semester, that I want you to be a different type of person. I want to see that you’ve changed, that you’ve grown in wisdom and virtue, that you are more Christlike from the first day of class to the very end of class. 

It’s not simply about what we get to in the sense of transferring information or skills, but it’s actually more this whole person transformation. Where many have said the process is part of the point of education. Many have gone as far as to say the process is the point of education about learning the skills, learning how to do these things on your own. But also, as I tell my students, I can’t equip you and answer every single question that you have now much less that you will face into the future. My goal as an educator is to help you become the type of person who is wise and virtuous and mature to say, when you encounter a new situation that you’re like, oh, I need to think through these type of questions to develop some of those critical thinking skills, those analysis skills. What happens is that we tend to use these tools in ways to short circuit that process.

Jason Thacker:

Let me just get to the answer. Well, sometimes the answer is not really the point. It’s actually the process is the point. You need to learn the requisite skills and how to think, how to slow down, how to be humble in what you know and what you don’t know to develop some of these virtues about the type of person you’re becoming. I don’t want my boys to just be really smart boys who know a whole bunch of answers. I want them to be wise and virtuous young men. And there’s part of you even think of 1 Corinthians 13, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I acted like a child. But when I became a man, I gave up those childish ways.” Well, part of that is a transformation and it’s not fast. This isn’t like an overnight thing that you become wise or you become virtuous overnight.

Jason Thacker:

And the same way is that our bad habits with technology, those didn’t form overnight either. That it’s a process, it’s a habitual kind of process that happens over time. So the goal is to slow down in the midst of the speed, efficiency, and convenience of our day, to slow down, to develop some of that character, develop some of that virtue and wisdom to think through to be the type of person when encountering a new situation. Well, what’s my gut telling me to do here? Well, if your conscience has been trained properly and it’s not malformed well, you’re gonna be, oh, this is what I should do in this given situation. Well, that’s true. Not only in the classroom, think of a college classroom that I teach in that’s true at high school and elementary school. That’s true even in our families. My goal is to raise my children up in the way that they should go.

Jason Thacker:

You think of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, that we are to raise them up to teach them these truths, but also that they live in light of those truths, that their beliefs and their actions actually correspond that they’re not hypocrites. That the Proverbs reminds us not to be a hypocrite, to say one thing and do another. The goal is to have that more holistic worldview formation because you are being formed, you are being shaped, you are being conformed to the patterns of this world, Paul reminds us. The goal is to be transformed through that renewal of our mind so that we can be able to test, we can have those critical thinking skills to navigate the world as it is, not just the way we want it to be sometimes.

RaShan Frost:

That’s good. It’s interesting because I was posed the same question and there was so much overlap between what I said and what you said because the role of Christian education is so different than in the heart that you know, part of Christian education is transformation because it is part of the Great Commission to go and make disciples. And so we cannot afford to separate the intellectual cultivation of the student versus the formation of Christian virtue within them and Christian wisdom in the student as well. You can’t separate it, especially we’re teaching the, not only the Great Commission, but the Great Commandment to love the Lord your God with your heart, mind, and soul. And that is something that has to be cultivated. So I really appreciate your wisdom there. But I do want to end with one last question, and this is, again, how do we go from the 30,000 foot view to the three foot view, if you will, and that would be for this church guide or even the employment of AI. What would you say would be the overarching idea as being the most important thing that we need to consider when we think about using AI or employing it?

Jason Thacker:

I think the first and foremost, and you kind of alluded to it, I remember years ago I was thinking through what is the point of the Christian life? And you know, I know that on a very personal level, but in just thinking through, well, what is the point of the Christian life? What are we here for? Why do we do these things? Some of these types of kind of, not existential type of questions, but in many ways summarizing and putting into words. And you know, through my daily Bible reading, I was reading through Matthew 22 and Matthew 22:36-40, we see one of the lawyers come to Jesus. He’s already seen that the Pharisees have failed in many ways. They failed to kind of trap him in his words. And then the lawyer raises up and says, you know, in some sense, I got him I know what question to ask.

Jason Thacker:

Jesus, especially throughout Matthew 22 has been challenged over and over and over, whether it’s the resurrection or marriage or paying taxes to Caesar, you come to verse 36, you see this lawyer come and say, teacher, what is the Greatest Commandment in the law? And Jesus’ response, he’s the master teacher. I mean, he’s God after all, you have to remember this, He’s 100% God, 100% percent man. He knows the intentions of their heart. And the lawyer says, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?” And we all know this in many ways by heart at this point. Jesus says, “Well, the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, with all of your mind. That is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

Jason Thacker:

When we think through one of the basic, kind of just basic ideas of how we navigate any challenge in life, but specifically those posed by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, I think that that ought to be the grid through which we make every decision. How are we loving God with every fiber of our being, our mind, body, soul, and strength? And to remember here, friends, that Jesus isn’t introducing a new commandment, we see back in Matthew 5, he says, “I didn’t come to abolish the law and the prophets.” He’s not, you know, bypassing one jot, one tittle, one aspect of the law and the prophets, but actually to fulfill them. But he’s not introducing a new command in Matthew 22, he’s actually going back and quoting part of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5. And even in the second commandment, which is like it, he says, is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Jason Thacker:

That’s actually quoting Leviticus 19:18. He’s quoting, he’s fulfilling, he’s showing the whole purpose of the law, which was always not simply about our actions, but this holistic perspective, a matter of the heart. What do we love? What are we pursuing? What are we seeking after? Are we seeking the glory of God, seeking to love him with every fiber of our being, but also how are we loving our neighbors ourselves? This is a fundamental reality that I think we must grasp in this age of AI. These machines are not like us. I just saw a story recently. The title was, “Not a Person.” And it was funny to watch many of the technologists and kind of philosophers of our day in some sense kind of catching up to the reality that while these machines may mimic, they may imitate, they may even function in many ways, or we at least treat them as if they’re like they’re human.

Jason Thacker:

When we seek to humanize these machines, there’s a deep irony. We seek to humanize these machines as if they’re persons, give them names and faces. And there could be a plethora of reasons on why we do that. I’ve explored that in our article that’s coming out here soon of why we do that, the motivations. But it’s interesting, while we humanize these machines, what do we end up doing? We end up dehumanizing ourselves. The great irony here is we humanize these machines or try to, or seek to humanize these machines. And then we dehumanize ourselves in the process saying, you know, you’re just the sum of your parts. That’s all you really are. You’re just simply a really fancy machine, an organic machine, but a machine nevertheless. Well, that is antithetical to a Christian worldview. That’s antithetical to a robust understanding of what it means to be human.

Jason Thacker:

You are not the sum of your parts. You’re not just a material being. God has created you, made you, and known you from your mother’s womb, Psalm 139, through the end of your natural life and on into eternity. He has made you and created you. Your value, worth, and our dignity isn’t based on what you do, isn’t based on your output. It’s not based on your usefulness or perceived usefulness. It’s based on who you are. And once we start to grasp that we are fundamentally different than these machines, I think it changes everything. Think of chatbots and teenagers. Think of work issues, think of education, think of the family, think of pastoring and ministry. Well, when we start to look at people and realize that these are people created in the very image of God with infinite value, dignity, and worth, that changes the entire perspective. Ultimately, how we love God, but also how we love our neighbors ourselves.

Jason Thacker:

Because Matthew 22, the Great Commandment, goes directly into what you alluded to Rashan, the Great Commission in Matthew 28, “to go therefore and make disciples,” not simply just transfer the gospel information, but to make disciples teaching them all that we have been commanded, all of it, which ultimately, at least in my own mind, draws me back to Matthew 22. Well, what have we been commanded? We’ve been commanded to love God and to love our neighbors ourselves. You start to see that more holistic picture, that the whole purpose here is to love God and love your neighbors as yourselves as you therefore go. I think when we start to grasp on those fundamental realities, much of what we do in the principled section of this church guide, it starts to flesh its way out in how we approach these scenarios or, and these aren’t just abstract scenarios that we think of sitting in our offices and our bedrooms and our families, but these are questions that pastors are facing.

Jason Thacker:

Many of the questions in the church guide, I know personally pastors who have been asking me those questions or have said, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about this, or this came up recently, or I had a young man or a young woman in my church come up and are asking this and I’m not really sure how to answer it.” And that’s what we’re trying to do here, is to take those theological ethical principles and apply them to everyday living, which ultimately the goal of that is to love God and to love your neighbors as yourselves as you therefore go. And so I think having that more holistic picture, these machines are not like us. We’re created like God, but we don’t make things like that. We are not gods. We don’t create as God creates. That fundamental difference in reality, I think will shape the entire conversation, the very important and vital conversation about how we develop, how we utilize, and how we deploy many of these AI systems, not just as technologists and developers or politicians, but as moms and dads and pastors and ministry leaders and friends, to how do we equip our people, make disciples to equip them to navigate the world as it is not just the way we want it to be.

Jason Thacker:

And I think that’s really the heartbeat of this church guide, but really the heartbeat of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission as well. 

Narration:

As AI continues to change. It’s important to consider how it shapes not only the way we live, but how we see those around us. Too often our culture is tempted to humanize AI in ways that actually dehumanize people in the process. As Christians we’re called to a better way, one that prioritizes God’s good design and affirms the dignity of every person made in his image.

Narration:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the ERLC podcast. Join us next time as we highlight important issues Baptist State conventions are facing across the country.