A Note

From Pastor Ryan

Faith, Civic Life, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

I want to share my thoughts with you, this month, on a topic I have been wrestling with for a couple of years now. A topic I know some you have also been wrestling with, and that is the positives and negatives of the rapid profusion of AI and its uses.

As you know, my faith deeply informs how I live and move and act in this world, and the issue of AI is no different.

I’ve heard countless stories of how youth and young adults are using AI to write their papers and complete their homework for them. We’ve already seen how AI has become so advanced that we can no longer trust what we see in a video or photograph. And just as important, I’ve become aware of how damaging data centers (the facilities required to house and power the computer servers that generate AI) are to our environment. Data centers require massive tracts of land to be cleared for construction, many rely on fossil fuel powered grids and diesel emergency generators which means they end up emitting incredible amounts of carbon emissions. They use millions of gallons of water to keep the servers cool, stressing our already diminishing water sources. And the list goes on.

But I have also witnessed some incredible benefits to using AI. I have seen people who struggle with words, write incredibly articulate letters. I have seen it used to help a person understand the jargon of legal or insurance documents. I even heard that it may be used to analyze voting districts in our nation to help identify places where independent candidates would stand the best chance at victory, meaning AI could have a role in ending the damagingly deep divisions in our nation’s political leadership.

I think the point of all of this is that we must be very careful and discerning in our use of Artificial Intelligence. Geoffrey Hinton, “The Godfather of AI,” during his Nobel prize acceptance speech gave a stark warning that we must be careful with AI, stating that as AI systems become smarter than humans, we may no longer be able to maintain control over them and that it (as we’ve already seen) can be used for malicious hacking, autonomous lethal weapons, and the spread of misinformation.

I felt prompted to address this issue now because Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical on May 25 of this year, entitled “Magnifica humanitas (On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence).” It is a timely and powerful statement.

In short, Pope Leo XIV addresses the urgent ethical, social, and spiritual challenges posed by AI. He asserts that, while digital technologies are not inherently evil, they are never neutral because they carry the moral architectures of those who build and finance them. He warns against a growing technocratic “culture of power” and deceptive ideologies that risk reducing the human soul to data points and treating vulnerable populations as mere objects to be optimized. Ultimately, he calls for a global commitment to the common good, insisting that algorithms must always serve human dignity and that true progress must be measured by how technology protects the weakest members of society rather than mere digital efficiency.

I truly appreciate his words and want to commend the whole encyclical to your study.

Our own church body has some resources related to this issue. I want to share with you some points made in the ELCA Social Statement, “Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All.” from 2025. Here are some excerpts from that document that give us a lens through which we can discern how to engage with the systems and structures of this world, and provide some insights into how we should approach the rise of AI.

“God’s intention for joyous well-being is too often not enacted or experienced in the world. The Lutheran tradition speaks of sin in various ways but fundamentally understand sin to be the condition of human existence in which we fail to love and trust God above all else. Martin Luther understood sin to be an excessive focus on the self at the expense of the neighbor. Human sin distorts a right relationship with God and others, damaging the well-being that God intends for all creation. Sin is expressed both personally and collectively.” -Article 4

This article goes on to reference examples such as slavery and both historic and current forms of White supremacy as examples of times we are called to act on behalf of oppressed and endangered people, bringing to mind the ways AI could bring harm to vulnerable populations through job insecurity and/or climate change.

“Lutheran’s teach that people of faith come to know both sin and God’s grace as God comes to us. In Christ, God reveals and gives God’s divine self to restore or foster right relationships with God, with neighbors, and with our very selves. The Scriptures teach about two different strategies God uses to achieve this, and Lutherans call these “law” and “gospel.” -Article 5

This article goes on to explore the civil and theological uses of the law. God uses the law to sustain life and the good of all through different functions or uses. The bottom line for us is that we have a duty, as followers of Christ, to keep God at the center of what we do, err on the side of compassion and care for the people and creatures of this earth and our selves. AI, if misused, diminishes our creativity and learning, threatens to disrupt our connectedness and community, and take our focus away from God.

“While God’s people are called to do justice and love kindness (Micah 6:8) it is not always clear what that means in any particular situation. God’s people approach the present world with watchfulness—that is, with abounding trust in God’s reign and future and, at the same time, with measured realism and humility about human efforts, always fallible, to create a just society. -Article 6

“Our church teaches that God also provides human reason as a gift to be used for seeking justice and social harmony. Lutherans [believe in “natural law,”] an inherent principle that God is to be worshiped, the good is to be done, and the bad is to be avoided. The Lutheran tradition appreciates human capacities as God’s gifts. These include, for example, reason, emotion, experience, imagination, and scientific fields of study. The Lutheran approach to thinking about civic life, then, employs principles of ethics and political concepts such as mutual self-determination and the common good.” -Article 8

We may not be able to exert our individual influence over the major corporations that control and develop AI, but we can (and should) make a difference by being selective and sparing in our use of the technology. Likewise, we can be good stewards by favoring more ethical AI companies. When discussing AI, most people think immediately of ChatGPT, but there are much more ethical platforms out there such as Ecosia and Claude. Being selective about how and when we use AI is the first step.

Care for God’s beautiful and wondrous creation and care for our neighbors are two of our most critical callings as Christians. As the world around us evolves and advances, we will continue to face new frontiers and new challenges. Our faith is the lens we should use to determine how we will react and adapt. AI is perhaps the most significant and influential development of our time and we must be thoughtfully cautious in our approach, and ask ourselves, “How would God want us to respond in this situation? What would Jesus say?”

Pastor Ryan

email Pastor Ryan at pastorryan@sotpmail.com