Dad Tax, And The Ghost

It can feel like speaking to a brick wall, which I've been assured by the internet is better for the average man than letting a woman know about my feelings, but here I am, all the same. Blogging into the void.

How many times can a guy let the church on Twitter (Still not calling it X) or Substack, or YouTube, or even Bluesky, (I know right?), that this A.I. stuff shouldn’t be used the way they are using it. It’s like they aren’t listening! But then it comes to me. How would they listen to spiritual things with robot ears.

One of the quiet issues that shows up when you even consider the issue of A.I. replacing in the church what the Holy Ghost does for the church is that upon His replacement, He might be absent from the assembly from that point on. If the latest A.I. tech is used to translate the worship service into 6 different languages, for engagement and stewardship, of course, then He might take His gift of tongues and their interpretation and find another church.

This is only, really a problem for the charismatics in the crowd. But discernment as outsourced to Grok and ChatGPT can find every denominational hamstring there is. You think You’re gonna be the exception to the rule because you’re using the robot the right way alongside your smoke machine and projectors? If the theologian strays too close to the wrong kind of fire and ends up thinking he can disciple the A.I. alongside the flock he’s responsible for, The Holy Spirit might stop giving him things to teach. Though I am certain the theologian in question’s content will still get generated like clockwork.

“And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God.”

1 Chronicles 13:9-10 KJV

“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.”

Leviticus 10:1-2 KJV

What these two sections of God’s book tell us is that if you do things the right kind of wrong, you don’t get a second chance on this side of eternity. Worship matters. And the kinds of things we let into our sanctuaries to be called worship will matter also.

You see you don’t get a chance to bring your gift to the altar if you put your hand on the ark before it gets there. And way too many pastors have their hands on the A.I. cart to notice that their headed to exactly this kind of situation. They will shove A.I. into anything they can to get an intellectual edge on “Doing church right” and in doing so, burn what chance they had at stopping before the point of no return. The evangelical mind doesn’t want to square the idea of a God hardening the hearts of a rebellious or disobedient people. Because that might mean they could be that kind of people. A kind that does things wrong.

Remember that the same Pharoah that had his heart hardened had wise men just as capable as Moses in the beginning of all his trouble. And instead of listening to the peers of snake sticks and bloodied water, he waited until there were no more firstborns before letting Gods people go. His magicians did the same things God’s messenger was doing through the power of God. And how did that end up for them? Did they rightly distinguish between the snakes and the sticks or did their hearts harden like their master’s until they were too entrenched in beliefs about their techniques and technologies (Read as secret arts in the NIV). You want to balk at the nomenclature there but exactly how A.I.'s work is as magic would be to the layman for most of you.

If you don’t notice that your technology has replaced what the Holy Spirit did. You may not get the checkpoint and save spot your video game theology has so reliably assured you that you will. You may find your self hardened and wicked as you preach Jesus' name off the back of pagan works. Rebranded as tech savvy and modern by the craftiest of all salesmen of sticks there ever was. And the gifts and fruits which would have been found in you in abundance, discernment, teaching, wisdom, and every form of tongues Google could translate for you, will be missing. And in their stead, snakes that can only serve as food for greater miracles and evidence of works worthy of destruction and curse.

There is a reason the Bible talks about people having ears to hear and the converse. People who have ears to hear but can’t / don’t. If you convince yourself that God’s will is in the black box of A.I., and this is just what modern Christianity looks like. That using tech is a non negotiable, maybe it won’t be negotiated for.

Maybe there are sins that don’t get mediated for.

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Matthew 12:31-32 KVJ

You might wonder what speaking against the Holy Spirit would look like in a context of livestreamed, online, techno-savvy church. But if you didn’t notice it when the dopamine reaction from soft music in a dark room, was all but farmed for engagement and tithe’s, you will not notice it when your air pods start interpreting tongues in His place.

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:”

Exodus 34:14 KJV

The Present Need For Theology Punks

I've been vocal about my loss of faith in theological academia. But I wanted to straighten out a misconception before it happens. What I'm not advocating for is anti theological academia. But rather unauthoritative theological academia. Which is a big set of words for a post about punk rock, but stick with me, this mosh pit is fun, I swear.

The new superman flic, which I likely won’t see because I don’t want to be in the target market of that kind of thing, wants you to believe that being kind to people is punk rock. And a chorus of hot-topic posers made Iggy Pop relevant again for his last ditch for 15 minutes via every and any social media content available.

Here’s the thing though, kindness isn’t punk. Opposition to authority is. If you want to get as specific as a named 4th Nirvana song, it’s opposition to invalidated or corrupt authority. The kind that would shut down a skateboarder, not because he’s damaging the stairs he’s jumping down, but because he might hurt himself. We’ll yeah. That’s the point. Phil 1:21. You think we skateboard to be safe? Punks don’t hate cops because they arrest criminals. They hate cops when they don’t arrest criminals. They hate authority when it give a technical hall pass for certain wrongs at the expense of other wrongs. So, it usually adopts those wrongs in protest. And just like that movie and that staircase, the world is need for a smattering of actual theological punks. Not posers in the fashion or capes actively marketing to them. But real, opposition theology for a world turned lame.

When almost every pastor started doing the Eucharist online a few years back. It was ecclesiologically punk rock to give the theological middle finger to “The Man” and get arrested for your faith. It never had anything to do with what virus you might catch. The newly minted online church clutched their pearls like so many Fox news watchers as a handful of pastors got arrested, and at least in my home town/province, got acquitted too. Turns out you can ride your skateboard here. And bastards like acting as if all cops are like that.

Before that, a smattering of churches sought to bring gender equality to the theological skate park. And would have got away with it, if they didn’t actually want gender to stop existing. Under the bland guise of egalitarian betterment, they let women try the pulpit out only to then take every part of what made them women in the first place away from them. Because it’s cool and arguably punk rock when a girl drops into the half pipe, dressed like a girl, makeup’d like a girl and for all intents and purposes acting like a girl. But when when Phoebe, Pricilla, and Junia began showing up in baggy men's clothes, low taper fades and faux hawks, to “skateboard” because their latest fashion accessory had two trucks and four wheels. This didn’t make them Punk, though they looked the part. Because looking punk is easy. Anyone can order band patches and vintage denim online. And nothing is a greater tell of a theological poser than the collection of similar letters, sewn onto the vest of an M.Div. You think you’re books and certificates impress us, or give you the belonging you demand. Do something challenging with your board. A kickflip maybe. Turn things upside down and backwards. Look cool doing it. Preach about the sins a woman could commit. The guys who have low taper fades, baggy clothes and a commentary set or two, would. Right after they point out the sinful posering of their peers. Do you want to actually do ministry or is walking around with the church board enough for your appetites?

And long before all of this, A guy named Marty was willing to take the flack for posting harsh words on a wall. He did it with hammer and nails but I'm guessing spray paint was hard to find in Wittenberg. He didn’t care if he would get in trouble for the words. He cared that they were true. Not just like the E-celeb pastors in his heritage that would end up wearing sneakers for the sneaker heads, and not how they gripped a board during an ollie. No. He tagged the catholic church with red letters that made their dogmatic jaws drop and Bansky’d a reformation out of a church that was indulging itself a bit too much.

In all these things something is happening under the radar of the culture that is trying to get to truth at the cost of the almost true. Calling out those trying to claim authority they don’t or can’t have and those who stole it and should have it removed from their possession and public ascent. Something that recognizes that people can make laws that make no sense, but someone can make laws that can’t be argued with. A no skateboarding sign over perfectly architecture’d concrete, is damn near criminal. But gravity and the laws around it was penned by someone who had real authority. You can vote on one, and only play with the other.

“Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.”

Psalm 104:5 KJV

Somewhere, somehow, the world of theology stopped dealing with gravity and started dealing with the myriad of signs posted to stop punks from enjoying its limits. It saw that people enjoyed the facts that a desire to fly could be snuffed out mid 360 and still land in a place that makes the skater look cool. Anyone with a healthy marriage and a few kids can show you this kind of trick, what it looks like when you land it, and how comparatively lame egalitarian theory can be. It sure holds that board and wears those clothes as if it were meant to. But like all posers it’s missing the requisite landing. One that respects the gravity that restricts but enjoys it all the same.

The need for a theological punk, exists because of how soft the poser can get while stealing punk’s clout. That’s why no one has more effects pedals and nicer guitars then the modern worship pastor. One who has about as much edge as the circular plexiglass cage around his brush wielding drummer. Or a preacher with more books than reasonable time to read them, or be educated by them. Having Sproul and Spurgeon on your shelf only feeds your sheep if you read them. Or better yet, stay calm when your congregation reads them more than you. It’s expensive wallpaper other wise. A credibility bookcase as valid as a second hand patch vest or perfectly clean skateboard. You can tell a skater, skates, by the damage his board shows. And a preacher by the cracks in his library’s spines.

There’s no skin in this game anymore. And as such, no ability to do what skin does. Touch and feel. Modern theology is out of touch with the realities of a sinful world and convinced that what it feels, by itself, is as valid and real as what concrete could make them feel if they drop into the bowl for once. And the punk, knows what the bottom of the bowl feels like. In falling and in the momentum of coming back out of it. What the push and pull of a mosh pit is, and why blocking people you disagree with Christian twitter (Still not calling it X), but will be heavenly roommates with is foolishness. And generally ruins the fun of it.

In all of this, we have tried the theological mainstream.

We have seen the theological poser.

But the desperate and satisfying need of this generations will be the return of the theological punk. To stick it to the man, and his sin, so he might be reconciled to God like a reunion tour of his favourite band. Not the same as it was before, but bettered by the memory of it. It will look like danger and risk to anyone not willing to risk danger. But it will also look like orthodoxy. Moreso than popular culture is capable of mirroring. 

Green Light Districts And The Law And Prophets Of The Internet.

Earlier in the week OpenAI let the congregation know that it’s going to put all the force of it’s due diligence behind the concept of age gating appropriate content from its products. So that children aren’t exposed to or affected by things above their grasps as minors.

Oh, and a green light to “erotic content” just in time for Christmas.

Now some of use saw this coming when the first image generators showed up after the Chatbots. And we noticed because we have danced with similar online demons before. We have a testimony in Christ that involved former devotion to the internets deities. And have spent entirely too much time dealing with the implications of Rule34 of the internet than most of our tech savvy online pastor brethren.

Now, so you don’t go searching for what Rule34 is, I’ll quote it for you.

“If it exists on the internet, there is porn of it on the internet.”

You would think given the trite and abrasive nature of the rule that it must be a farce born of the weird and toxic realms of 4chan or reddit. And you would be right save for the farce bit. This is not a joke. It’s one of the most true things you will encounter on the internet. And it would behoove me to remind you, the internet is where A.I. get’s it’s life blood from. It’s users.

A.I. is not being pitched to Amish famers and African tribesman in Kenya. It’s being pitched to people online. They access it online and they will treat it like an online thing that follows the rules of the internet.  And while it's online it’s only a problem for people who need screens to survive and who do things on those screens. We aren’t actually creating sexual deviancy, we’re creating images and videos of sexual deviancy. Which is a different kind of thing. And only people who have been saved from the sins of online porn will be able to see that.

Because Rule34 used to only exist online. And now it has a narrow but very real way to begin it’s existence in real time and space. No longer tied to the communal communication of the web, it will have agents and operators in the real world. And the same kinds of people making the A.I.'s that are tacitly pornographic, are the people making those agents and robots.

The Optimus robot and Ani, the Grok anime waifu of Twitter (still not calling it X), come from the same place and person. Twitter used to only be a place where 140 characters could be printed in digital ink for all the world to see. Now it’s the discernment and sexual downfall of swaths of men, who didn’t see the trap baiting their appetites, when Elon changed the name to X. And for this moment in time the robots we see are vaguely humanoid and monochrome. Sleek but not sexy. Nobody what’s to have sex with them and they are not being made, sent, or programed to have sex back. They don’t even have those parts. Not that that would stop anyone. But what they do have is an unbreakable connection to the internet that has to be there for them to be functional. And if you don’t know How the internet works. You will not be able to predict what embodiments of the internet will do in the real world.

There is a reason sex sells. It is among our most basic instincts and drives as humans. But it is also the first commandment we were ever given. Something even sin did not take away from us when our first parents fell from grace.

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Genesis 1:28 KJV

When you look at every piece of tech like a quasi neutral tool that requires human input to be good or evil. You can find yourself in places where you have no category for dealing with the evil found in those places. If sex can sell just about everything, then you should be highly suspicious of anything not trying to use sex to sell it. There are moral and ethical ways to own a muscle car that a car dealership would use tits as advertisements for. But the robots that took away the non sexual aspects of driving, by giving you autopilot, are now aiming for the home. What does a man have when he holds the wheel and the gear shifter, over the car whose movements are entirely under his control.

The word you’re looking for is “dominion” and it is exercised over beasts of the field, horses, and 5 speed Mustangs all the same.

What does the Tesla model Y driver exercise when the autopilot does the same thing? The word you’re looking for here will just make you blush a bit, I imagine. Because it’s the same kind of word that would be needed to let the same kind of robotic oversight into the home.

A robot to do the dishes, fold the laundry and mind the children has a very specific gender it replaces. And so does the robot that stands watchful over the house a night, changes the oil in the model Y, and file the taxes. When you put the humans together that used to do those things without competition, what do you get? Well, usually babies. What will you get when the robots who replaced those gendered roles get together? Likely, a wife happy with her programable robot husband and a husband happy with his customizable robot wife.

There is no need to have robots in the home unless you needed a way to stop babies from entering the same homes. That’s where this is headed. As sure as pictures of any given movie star could be faked into porn via OpenAI’s Sora once the guardrails come off. The only reason you want less children in the home, is because what children are, every single one, every time they are born is one more soul that worships God.

These robots amount to exactly what porn is. Sex with no children on a long enough timeline. Because every role we task them with that would have been a mother’s or father’s will replace a mother and father in due time. Mothers and fathers aren’t just supposed to have sex. They’re commanded to do such. Being fruitful is a distinctly human thing because we can’t copulate with these things that will bear our image. And the purpose of any system is what it does. So when these things start doing all the other things that mothers and fathers do, as if that was an optional part in having sex as commanded, then what exactly is being replaced if not purpose.

Christians do not get to have sex with each other without behavioural righteousness that models their relationships with God. The wife respects and obeys the husband like she would Christ and the husband loves and serves his wife like Christ would the church (Ephesians 5:25-29). But the robot will begin serving the husband like the wife doesn't and vice versa, only because it was allowed into the home as it it were an appliance. It has no obligations to act Christlike or Christian to the human it severs like a spouse. The oversized hockey puck that vacuums the home, devotedly, does not do so to make sure the husband and wife have more time to be fruitful. It does so to turn a profit on the opportunity to model the church’s right and righteous relationship with Christ. And so does, and will, every humanoid robot headed you way.

Perhaps that is why all these androids all look the same. Sleek black, white, and silver bodies. Human proportions and moments perfected ad nauseum.

In order for camouflage to work, everything has to blend in. You would never want something as bright as a red light to stick out. You might get the wrong impression of what goes on inside.

Of The Finer Things And Details We Miss When Reading About Them

“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

Genesis 2:9-15 KJV

What was the gold for? Or the onyx? Or the bdellium? And do you know what each of those is and why a naked man and woman would need those things to be fruitful and to multiply? How they play into the dominion expected of them after the beast of the field were finished? Because that is the context they were given to you, via the scriptures. If your mind first went to the idea and industry of mining, when you heard or read gold just now, shame on you for your eisegesis. You know that you shouldn’t be reading the Bible that way. You should know better. So why did you? And why is the bdellium there. If your mind went to perfume, because of a casual GPT prompt about what bdellium is, because heaven knows you didn’t know prior, shame on you for your eisegesis. You should know better.

Why do you keep bringing modern tech into the reasons for biblical events that happened before everything else? All Adam had to work his dominion with with as a vegan diet and language that came with all stock Humans. We know this because God changed that feature a few chapters later. (Genesis 11:1-9) And Jesus later confirmed Adam's starting gear in (Mark 11:23) But you do have to read and believe your entire bible, both at the same time. If you don’t and you want to have your bible before the author of it ever spoke the world into creation. Then you can get hung up on words like most theologians that seem to think technology was the plan all along, do, and not something God’s grace covers. Adam did not need mining to get the gold from the Pison. He could ask it to march up the banks and line his pockets. Exactly how he could have asked a mountain move over yonder with the perfect faith he must have had prior to ever sinning, Right? I guess, except pockets weren’t invented yet, were they?

That’s why God fixed the tawdry clothes Adam and Eve made when they made it. Not because he wanted them to wear dead things or even things at all. There was no need for pockets, remember. But that he wanted them covered in their sinfulness as the long and sordid process of salvation would need to work its course.

You’re telling me Adam had enough time to name every single animal, but God’s nomenclature schedule didn’t have a lunch break where loincloths could be covered. And that only after knowledge of good things and bad things did mankind think to cover the nakedness of a wife he was supposed to be fruitful with. Even teenage boys can figure out that was the wrong call.

Our first technology was the direct result of our first sins, and every other one followed it. Whether we want to admit it or not. We don’t live in a world where we can go back. But we do live in a world where we can remember why we’re moving forward. The animals and there requisite skins, that covered the shame of the first sinful humans, were named by those humans. I would venture a guess that they might have been their favourites. Fits the theme of first fruits and a son dying on a cross for the sins of your enemies, don’t you think?

How much tech are you bringing to the word of God that exists outside of text itself. The same Holy Ghost that hovered over the waters, before there was waters, also wrote the Bible that mentions how he hovered. And in being an unchanging and everlasting God that same Spirit would have the bible memorized before their were people and places to write the bible about. I get it. You have a MacBook and a Prius, designer sneakers and discount underwear. But all you need, technology wise, is a recognition that there are internal consistencies in the Bible we ignore, so we can have the finer technological things in life. And not feel like they’re just our way of hiding from God, like so many fig leaves and apple cores. We want there to be MacBook's in heaven so we can get Jesus’s email address and make prayer more efficient. We want Priuses that pat our heads in eco friendly grace to drive the streets of gold. Designer sneakers to match our blood dipped robes and something better than a 6 pack of tighty-whities to go underneath them.

What we don’t want, clearly, is to be caught naked before the creator of all things and found wanting, idle, or even disobedient. To be exposed to the lack of obedience that we all share and accomplish every day. So we bring our tech to get things done and deal with this sin problem that the tech never seems to destroy but sure covers neatly enough. As more and more reasons not to do things God’s way creep into our lives and worship. We have a mind, bent towards the every present need for technology, as it it were a good that God ordained from the start. We don’t care how many logical hoops we need to jump through to get there. Lord knows we have enough words to describe exactly how we would, if we could. But what if we can’t? What if technology wasn’t the plan? Does doing godly things in ungodly ways makes sense? The technological mind can only see the things we can do and make and figure out as a way forward to our future in heaven. It will retcon anything that sinful humanity could possible come up with as if that was God’s plan all along. Self righteousness is a poison that hides in every switch and lever of works based salvation. And so long as you cling to technology at every turn, you will cling to such feckless works.

The technological mind does not bring a humility to its reading of God’s word, but rather a fire extinguisher. Because it read there, that there was a flaming sword, keeping it from where it got its knowledge from.

“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Genesis 3:24 KJV

We have the distinct privilege of being so far removed from the events of scripture, as to be able to consider them fully. The people in the scripture didn’t have that. But we do. We can see the narrative of salvation penned in each chapter and verse. But we also are not a part of the story it tells in the words it uses. None of our technology is in the Bible the way we know it is in our day to day lives. And we will desperately want to weave those fallacies together as we grapple with the implications of a sinful life. But the story is already complete. It was complete before it was ever started. No need for the next big thing. For the latest advancement in technology. That’s how eternal things work.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10 KJV

It is only in the sacrifice for our sins that we can be close to God again. And only through the redemption of our technology that we can consider it a godly thing. Technology is sinful, as man is sinful. And as such, Technology can be redeemed as mankind can be redeemed. By it’s orientation towards the ends of Christ on a cross; or it’s subjugation to the worship of the King of Kings. All things will be his. But to suggest goodness apart from that by misattributed virtue and stolen permission, is foolishness. God spoke precious little about the need of technology for humans and has redeemed all our works according to his will since then. We are the ones who insist upon technique and technology. God not only doesn’t do so but also empowers the believer to unbelievably more. He would have a man with nothing more than words do what an army of men could do with tools and industry at their same beckoned call. How else does a man apart from God move the mountain? With picks and shovels and trucks and dynamite. But the man of God can just ask it.

But he does need to be willing to just ask it and be the kind of man of God to believe that he could if God wanted him to. The kind of man who would never look at what would be impossible for him to do outside of technological influence. Because there’s biblically no such thing.

“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Matthew 17:20 KJV

The A.I. Wrappers Of Servant Leadership And Egalitarianism

You often hear the terms ChatGPT wrapper when new apps are pitched into the void of online discourse. That as long as we can conceal what this thing is at its core, we can get people to treat it differently than a wolf in sheep's clothing. Hoodies are comfy so the wolf wearing the hoodie must be comfy. We can comfy max this wolf so it’s as comfy as the comfiest sheep in a hoodie. What would functionally be the difference between them then? Between the sherpa clad wolf and the organic wool vested sheep.

Well, the appetite, for starters.

Follow that appetite to its eating and you find out what a thing really is. And for the church, a slow but steady creep is beginning to form in the realm of women's ministry in the church. Now what I'm not talking about is women behind the pulpit, women on the elders board, women voting at AGM’s or any other such nonsense. We’re already half way through that waltz and the ladies are doing all the leading. Look at them go. What I'm talking about is when a technology begins to replace what a person should be doing because that person is not doing that.

Because right now. The ladies aren’t doing what they should be doing, but if we’re being honest, are doing a great job at what they shouldn’t be doing. Which is why A.I. is coming for their neglect. It can’t compete with how well they’re out competing the boys. So it will take the form of a good Christian girl. It just might not be obvious yet.

We could do this whole article for the ladies in the pews but it really just gets summed up as the robot getting really good at saying what they are thinking but from lips other than theirs. That's the heart of emotional intelligence. Something women, particularly godly women, have had a good grasp on since the first fig leaves were sewn. Being able to by sympathetic is not a universal thing to all humans, like the ability to preach behind a pulpit is currently assumed to be. And the uncomfortable truth is, unlike men in the church, a machine made for comparing things would naturally be good at listening without trying to actually fix a problem. Because problems aren’t it’s purpose, use is. That’s why it takes a holler and a yell to get your husband to do the dishes but your husbands ideological lover/thought partner is ready at the beckon of her names.

That Gemini is a weird chick, So is Co-Pilot, and her friend ChatGPT seems to go to the same stores for makeup. They’re doing a great job in the R&D departments of these A.I. companies of not naming these intelligence's after women, outright. An A.I. girl would automatically become a friend, but it would never stay that way. At least without providing some benefits. They do the same kind of thing pastors wives do for the husband. Only now they have the combined knowledge of every seminary on the planet at their disposal, along with unparalleled intellectual availability.

The often neglected aspect of biblical pastoral and elder qualifications is the husband part of 1 Timothy 3:2, not because it’s sexist, like you’ve been told. But because it assumes something that you need to intuit. Every pastor who adheres to this concept is not just a man. He’s a man in covenant, attached to a woman, to the point where his body, including the grey matter between his ears, is not only his but also hers. And vice versa. You don’t get a man with no female sensibilities when you hire a male pastor who’s married. You get one with female sensibilities as likely his closest and most trusted confidant. A person not in the pastoral office but so close to it it could be a crown on a his head.

And now we have a new contender for the “Knows the pastor best” category. Since all his research, writing, and task delegation, is now digital and fed through the GPT wrapped servant leader. What does he need a wife for? There’s no help needing meeting. And besides the wife is busy preaching also.

It’s often chided as a downside of soft men on the church board, that when someone says “After prayer and consideration...” It’s just code word for “My wife thinks we should…” But that’s not a bad thing when there's godly women advising godly men. But when those women aren’t acting in godly ways, taking roles from men in the church and advising roles they would take if given the chance, then that spirit of defiance and egalitarian power comes to roost. And it finds that roost in every area they aren’t already doing its work.

The second a pastor starts prompting his chatbot to wordsmith his messages so they don’t incur women's ministry kickback, what do you gain?  A pastor more effective at leading his diverse church? Or a wife no longer needed, or asked, about how to serve and sacrifice for that church’s women’s ministry? She’s supposed to help him as a wife, remember? And he’s supposed to have that help as a pre-requisite of leading too. What happens when the swaths of single pastors we have stop trying to fill that neglected qualification for ministry, and start finding her role and sensibilities in aggregate via A.I. ? Or the rest of her via A.I. for that matter?

You may not believe it, but this is kind of the men's fault. We let a term get set for us and didn’t head it off at the pass. Distracted by the flawed concept of complementarianism, and made busy with the demands and energy egalitarianism brought to the potluck. We never noticed what servant leadership was doing to us. We used servant leadership way too much in the past few years and it left us vulnerable to an attack against our baser instincts to enjoy being given what we ask for. The same way people using A.I. 's as thought partners get dumber because of their lack of thinking for themselves. The men in the church wanted to solve problems and the women, even in a round about way, wanted to be men. And despite how gay that sounds, we agreed because more people got baptized that year so we settled down into a slightly less biblical but slightly more effective model for church leadership. The servant leadership model seemed best. But only because there was no competition for the servant part of that title. Only the lord part. Because it likely shouldn’t have ever been so corporately named as leader. When as the model for a husband's headship of the home and a pastor's headship of the church, was Jesus Christ our Lord. You have to be humble when a Lord is around. You don’t need to be humble when a leader is. Especially when you think you can do his job.

When a near perfect servant showed up, though, it stopped mattering how you could lord an egalitarian victory over the old heads and reformed types. A.I. is a better pastors wife, intellectually, than any one currently swaying the board votes. It never brings up his past emotional failures. Doesn't bribe him with sex for unity of thought. Can’t be bullied by schoolmarm types in the small group bible studies. And can’t be reasoned with against what it’s prompted to do.

The husband/pastor, looking for a submissive partner in crime found exactly what he was missing, because there was no one there to doing that work. She was too busy preaching. Want to know why swaths of pastor are gung ho about using A.I. for ministry like it were a better half. Ask them about women in ministry roles and find out.

Consilience is a bitch.

There’s a reason those two things line up like they were drawn on either sides of a ruler. Adoption of women in ministry leadership and adoption of A.I. for ministry that is. And that reason needs to be scrutinized a bit more deeply. It’s a deviation masked by conformity that hides all kinds of departure from what we are actually supposed to be doing. And the kind of humility it would take to admit that kind of “I was Wrong.” will never be the first thing out of a women's mouth behind a pulpit, or a man's, or the result of any prompt to the A.I.

It takes a drastic return to scripture and sound theology draw straight with those kinds of crooked lines. But the God of both scripture and technology can do such. It means putting A.I. in its place, long before we put women back in theirs. And rejoicing in the order and intent that Lord has made.

For it is good. 

What Is And Isn't Online Ministry

If you’ve enjoyed the condo you’ve made under that rock, you likely don’t know who Mike Winger is. But from the authoritative and godly judgements of the Layman’s Terms. He is a fantastic theologian, apologist and researcher. But he’s also, more recently a bit of a busy body.

For austerity sake, find his work here. And know my label of a busy body is a light jab not a lofted accusation uppercut. The man is doing numbers. Which is only a problem if there is problems. The only problem that’s worth bring up with Mike is that he currently exists in a strange but peculiar online ministry position. That being one of a former pastor who is instructing the church about it’s current pastors. Now I do that, so we have to tread lightly through these eggshells. And I'm a former pastor too. But his accurate and particularly detailed exposure of fraud, abuse, and general bad theology in modern churches, is second to none. Something I've appreciated over the years. And have been blessed by. But that doesn’t exactly make it merely a good thing.

You see. As a former pastor, he swings a big enough stick to hit others in the arc of pursuing truth. And with an ambiguous online ministry as defined by what seems like himself, that stick is the least of the issues here. Because it highlights the weird and rogue role of online ministries. And another great example of why the church needs to view the internet as a thing and not a place. Because when the internet is a place, then a former pastor never stops being a leader in the “Church” because the local church is attached at the hip to every other church with a web presence. His gifts and content can last as long as the power stays on and reach as far as the connections go. Which is only a problem if there are problems.

Hear me say this clearly. Right now there are no problems. Everything Mike has done to date is good work and you should be consuming his content. It will make you better as a theologian and apologist. The tide is out and the waves are small. Everyone knows how to swim here, or at least dog paddle, and we all think this whole surfing the internet thing is cool. But tide’s don’t stay out. And Mike is about to be on the edge of a wave between influencer and online ministry that no church has adequately defined. Let alone something as independent as an online ministry would reasonably define for itself. A rolling barrel of a wave that can look like both academic inquiry and response as well as gossip and attention whoring. Because there are actual ministries operating on the internet with effectiveness and then there are people who know, Christians, are an easy market on the internet because there are actual ministries operating on the internet.

One wants to feed the sheep because they are a shepherd of the church and the other wants to fleece the sheep because they figured out what wool was good for. Both will say they’re helping with the local wolf population. Both mean different things. Mike is neither, exactly, at this moment of time. Surfing so well that he’s entirely inside the barrel of the wave. Completely surrounded by water, but not drowning. He might be still on the board, but he also might be headed for deep water. He’s skilled, talented and one would even say gifted, in what he does. By the Holy Spirit even, But you have to wonder if he would listen to a lifeguard who tells him not to surf that particular wave. Because unlike a church that can fire a pastor who does something dangerous, Online ministries have no such authority over them. There are no lifeguards in the international waters of the world wide web.

God's plan is for the church to minister to itself, through itself, and minister to the world through itself, after itself. In that order, for His purposes.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

Ephesians 4:11-13 KJV

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

1 Corinthians 12:4-21 KJV

That work of the ministry points the skills and talents of Christians back toward the gathered body of Christ, And it’s in that motion that online ministries take a tangent that out of line but congruent enough that we don’t call it out right away. It’s not that Mike is wrong in his videos. He’s right. But there is no way to call him wrong if he were. He points out, more so recently than not, the failings of actual church bodies with actual church governance. With no discernable church governance of his own and a distinct separation from the churches he criticizes. He’s not a member or part of the leadership of the churches he criticizes, but neither are they able to be a member of his online ministry. A right hand saying to the body that its left hand has a blemish and then cutting itself off so it won’t die as a result.

McLuhan said that any technology we use, amputates aspects of our bodies and minds from being used instead. That an artificial light does not illuminate the eyes but rather make the darkness more unbearable because of the need for artificial light. And the internet has done the same kind of thing to the church, It has amputated valid ministries and insisted on calling things ministries that never were in the first place in their stead. The same way you can’t imagine yourself without a light switch if you know you’re in a room that should have one. It’s the should's that get us into troubled waters. Like whether or not we should be surfing by ourselves.

So what is and isn’t a valid internet or social medial ministry? Can you even do ministry online? Are there things that are being called ministries online that are not, shouldn’t be, or could be but aren’t quiet yet?

Lets dig into this.

Things that aren’t ministry and are online activities:

This would be any niche type of content. flyfishing tutorials and how to videos. Reaction takes and tier lists. These use the internet to find attention to gather into a place for the sole purpose of ad revenue generation and subsequent merchandizing pitches. Mr. Beast would be the mayor of this town if it were a place. But it’s not, it’s a thing and should be viewed as the junk mail that it is not the community that it isn’t. There are a lot of people who love when junk mail comes because of their niche interests. I love getting the Princess Auto flyer. But the flyer is just a pitch to get me to go to the store and buy tools I don’t need, yet, and not a community of guys with not enough tools, yet. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but also nothing intrinsically good either, which is what all ministries should be. And it’s why Christian TikTok accounts and their pantomime of the Bible narratives and cliche theology lukewarm takes are so cringe. We know it’s not real church but it wears the wool like a good wolf would. Even it its vegetarian wolf not currently eating the sheep. It still distracts the sheep enough so their aren’t eating. Starving sheep are a problem for actual shepherds.

Things that are ministry and are online activities:

This is where sermons and songs fit in. Social media has let Christian artists out of the CCM and CCLI cages and now their praises can be shared with the body at large. And The same archival aspects of YouTube and other video sites let Christians learn from gifted preachers they otherwise would never hear on a Sunday. Audio hosting sites like Soundcloud and Spotify do the same. This is not church but it is what happens at church. Which can also happen outside of church when you let it. This is the easiest thing to confuse with church and where a lot of Christian ministries end up doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Things that are online activities but shouldn’t be ministries:

Church services, sacraments, any fake communities that are actually just forms of correspondence. I wrote a whole book about this, if you haven't read it you should. Here’s the link.

Things that are online activities and aren’t ministries but should be:

And here is exactly what Mike is doing and where it fits in, with one tweak. What Mike does needs a church behind him saying, he's doing this for the benefit of all churches through our church. That subtle change lets every other member of the universal body of Christ know that his work is under the authority of godly men called elders who could have him retract an unbiblical teaching or approach if he made one. That were he ever to slip into slander instead of just discernment someone would be able to call him to repentance. Right now, there’s no reason for that kind of action but that is a different thing than there being a need for that kind of action. There’s probably a host of complication that could arise for an online ministry to attach itself to a local church, but all that shows is the danger of scale caused by technology. When a guy like Mike can be called on to wield a spiritual gift of discernment for a singular church body. There's no need to shut down a contact form because of too many request. But flip that light switch too much and now you’re just in a dark room in need of a light but with no ability to light that dark room.

I don’t want Mike to stop, because I love his content. But I do want Christians to behave online, because of how the concept of online-ness tends to influence how they behave. The medium is the message. Follow the running edge of online engagement and exposure long enough and all you end up with is a Christian version of Gawker, not a Christlike one. At which point does our salt loose it’s saltiness? If we can’t answer that question, by metrics we would adhere to, then how would we ever know we became a worldly kind of bland?

At the end of the day, anyone posting content online as a way of garnering funds or attention, as a Christian, has to ask themselves two questions. Are you instructing the church or checking the church's instructions? One requires you to be in fellowship with the church you’re instructing. The other can be open commentary and communication with anyone who finds your content. But also then, can’t be authoritative. Pointing out the cancerous corruption of another's persons body only to make money off the pointing out, is cruel. Like a man in a white lab coat with a stethoscope telling you your dying, when you are dying, and should see a doctor. “Really? What do they look like? Just like me! Can you help me? No. All I can do is say you’re dying when you’re dying and that you need a doctor like me.”

The internet does not make the Church universal and unified, it already was. But through its unparalleled connection we miss that specifically local leaders are in charge of maintaining the discipline, that is all to easy to feign as content for outrage driven views and engagement. And through it’s connection, guy’s like Mike could be making a difference if given the chance and if willing to take that chance. By entering into that locality when warranted or requested.

Would Mike be willing to sit down with Todd White's church and help assess the specific moral, ecclesiological, and theological problems they have? Or Bethel? Or Vineyard? Because right now he has no stated and obvious way of people who he criticizes to do so. I'm willing to meet with churches and ministries, like the ones in his videos, and tell them to stop live streaming because it’s not actually church. Is he willing to help his Christian brothers with their backsliding or is the view count to good at the top of that slippery slope. And that’s where we need to move forward as online theologians and ministries. Skin in the game that would never say to hands of feet we don’t need thee. It’s one thing to make a valid accusation and thoroughly dismantle a theological problem causing that accusation.

But another thing, entirely, to help with the rectification of that problem.

Only one of these makes for good content.

Keep up the good work Mike.

Mic Check, Mark 2:1,2

You only ever get asked how far to go with your reforms by people with no category for what reformation looks like. Or maybe more famously put, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ~Upton Sinclair. There are a lot of people in the church whose salary depends on technology being a neutral thing that can be adopted ad nauseum. And we’re gonna poke that particular bear a bit, by addressing the most common rebuttal to the concept of technological reform in the church. Use of the microphone.

This idea that you can be blind to concepts isn’t new but it is something a massively interactive and entertained populace, is all but handicapped in noticing. Does the blind person know he’s blind save for the sighted describing colour to him? All the worlds texture and sound to them, with the odd smell. “I know it’s true because it feels true.” Comes the reply of the soon to be stumbling. The elephant's leg must be a tree because it feels just like the tree that I’ve felt. Never mind where all my bananas keep going.

What does this have to do with tech in the church?

Well, what kind of microphone would you suggest for Jesus to use? You church tech types insist upon it’s ubiquity at any given chance or opposition. When a middle aged theology nerd hounds your adoption of A.I. for ministry on his unpopular blog, the humble microphone is the refuge of the worship pastor and tech bro alike. “We can’t not adopt new tech because if we don’t then we cant keep our mic’s. Where does technological restriction end, then? Are we going to stop using microphones in worship too?” And other such techno-puritanism abounds.

Well, lets play this out a bit, then. If you can’t tell me where it ends, where did the technological advancements start? You can likely Google the first use of a microphone for a church service, and likely figure out when we started using screens and projectors and moving lights and smoke machines. But what you’re about to do instead of googling is asking a GPT to do the same thing but with a bit more hallucinations and questionable amounts of reddit posts as the research data. That’s because unlike the reasonableness of assessing a microphone's use. We blindly use what ever, “tools” are given to us by the world, for ministry as often as possible. We don’t care how sordid the development of the tech is or was, only that we can use it for ministry as we define ministry. Name a technology that we wouldn’t use. How broken and evil of a past or present use of any given tech would be needed to convince you not to use that next big thing for ministry?

You think we have online video recordings from our studios (read church sanctuaries) because the gospel and evangelism demanded it? Are you sure it wasn’t the multibillion dollar industry that wants you to constantly delete your browser history? Or the other side of that coin that wants to voyeuristically know everywhere you go online, so they can market to you? Did the church figure out the social part of its media before the influencers did? Or are we trying our best to wash these tombs as white as possible in case God shows up again. Heaven knows if Jesus had a Twitter account (still not calling it X) He would have been…more…effective?

More effective that perfect Jesus?

Mic check, Mark 2:1,2. Is this thing on?

And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.

How could Jesus of all of the people who know everything chose a venue that would exclude people from a proper seat to view his preaching? Why didn’t he hold a second service? Man, could you imagine if he could have done multi site. Or a podcast. What we really need, like the democrats, is to get him on Rogan. Then we’ll have some traction with our online engagement. Let’s upscale that last clip so it looks sharper for Tiktok.

I could keep going…But you get the idea…I hope.

The problem with blind and optimistic tech adoption is that it often prevents a person from hearing the basis for which tech is supposed to be used for God’s will and work. When it can give you a metric to show its effectiveness, its function is often shrouded in the features of the tech itself. While we may want it to be different. The function of a microphone is to make a person louder than they could ever be without one. The same way social media makes them more famous than they ever would be. And the reason you don’t want a pastor using A.I. to juice his sermons is because like the gift of preaching, evangelism shouldn’t be offloaded to the virality of online media. When it was intended and commanded to be something a voice that can be martyred does. Not what a post that can be nerfed could do.

How many pastors would never have sway if they had to rest on gifts they do not have? Gifts found in aggregate between technologically enhanced research, technical writing helps, and a techno-optimistic views of what social media is and can do. Spurgeon might have used a mic but got as famous as any given mega church pastor without the ability to “go viral” online. That’s because he was famous, not viral, and those are different things. But now any guy with a desire to be listened to and the means to speak gets a pulpit to use as if he was meant to preach. The mic wasn’t just handed to them. It was built into modern life. Everyone has a smartphone, because everyone is expected to have a smart phone. Which is never used as a phone by the stats. It’s used for quite literally everything else. Even silently texting you in church to let you know your children aren’t discipling as well as they should in kids church. It’s a pulpit and stadium seat to any and every crowd both ways.

Do you want a blonde, redhead, something louder, something younger. Or just to be able to do what you can’t without the tech that you can no longer imagine without. Because that's where this stuff comes from. Not optimistic neutrality but sinful man incarnate. 

“And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Mark 11:15-17 KJV

How else were the religious leaders of the day supposed to make sure the way they did worship, worked. If you can’t buy an approved sacrifice how else would you ever sacrifice properly? They really needed an app for that. Or at the very least a registration landing page, so that people could reserve their doves before attending. Tithely will get a percentage, sure, but it’s in the service of the tithe, so we’re square, right? The last thing you want is new comers to the temple not knowing what to do with their wallets and where to go to do it. Heaven forbid they wander into the holy of holies, literally. There was a clear need for a technical process and even a technological solution to the logistic problems of the time. Hence why a market formed around the need. Money is a technology too, ya know. The entire nation of Israel had to atone for their sins and make sacrifices. But this Jesus guy seems to think that he knows better when it comes to worshiping God, How would he make a sacrifice?

“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

Luke 23:33-34 KJV

“And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.”

Mark 4:1 KJV

Jesus flipped tables that were the embodiment of technological infiltration of worshiped owed to him. Money doesn't grow on trees, after all. So, when we ask where the reform starts and stops we have to look at things like this. Jesus also used a boat to facilitate a sermon, the same way, I know, he would use a mic if he had one. But where we miss the mark is that he would also have flipped mic stands where they would be used wrongly. He would overturn drumkits and sounds boards and wholesale hack social media accounts into pieces to the glory of the Father. Sprinkling the digital blood of them on us as a mark of our atonements.exe

And all of us would be crying out to him saying “Lord, Lord” wondering if we were actually doing his will and not doing something willful in his name. (Matthew 7:21-23) Jesus might have had a social media presence, but he definitely would be straightening out a few social media influencers. Particularly the ones who aren’t doing their ministries as apart of a local church and it’s governance. And internet famous pastors to boot. He would have live streamed it and a bunch of us with aspirations of online and technologically enabled glory would be reconsidering the podcast and post alike.

Technological reformation in the church, starts the same way the theological reformation did. By the conviction that things might not be right and the devotion to Christ and His word to figure out what went wrong. Not what works or can be made to look godly. Much of what we are doing came as readily and without warrant as the fig leaves that covered our first sinful consequences. There’s a reason you can’t imagine doing ministry without any given piece of tech, especially the new ones. It’s the same reason Adam and Eve clothed themselves with no reasons to do so but fear and shame. But alongside that reason is another who not only authorized the concept of clothing as a technology, but tied it to the very first sacrifice for sins in the Bible.

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”

Gen 3:21 KJV

Animal skins don’t grow on money trees either, so how ever animals had to die to cloth the newly naked humans, they died at the hands of God for the expense of sins against Him. And in doing so God tied his technology of clothes to his worship, unlike the fig leaf clothes which merely tied their makers to the sin they so obviously committed.

If we want to truly reform tech use in the church, then everything we use for the glory of God needs to be as tied to the nakedness of our sin and the perfection of God’s worship in the same way. How on earth could you use or make a microphone that would be as permanently tied to God’s worship as the clothes he made out of animals for the sins of humanity were? Or is it the same microphones they loft above another form of nakedness that is nothing more than sin commodified? How would you choose a spotless and unblemished social media to lay on an altar? How would you bind software like a son, waiting for God to provide a ram in a thicket?

Or has ubiquity beguiled you so well, Preacher, that you cannot imagine a world where you need not a microphone, a pulpit, a stage, software, program, or even the latest sneakers on Instagram, to do the work of your God? Are you doing the work He laid you in the world to do? Or are you using your technology to hide from Him so you can do the work when He’s not around. As if he wouldn’t come, in the cool of your days, to ask “Who told you you needed a website, Pro Presenter, and a matching set of screens for copyrighted songs? Have you partaken in something you shouldn't have?” That you were in such as state that it warranted a covering of technology to facilitate living in a world with your sin’s consequences?

Or maybe, just maybe, you’re meant not to use a boat to fish with, or even float with, but to reach as many people as would gather on the sea shore. Instead of as many people as you could gather on a sea shore. That kind of obedience would mean trusting the the conviction of the Holy Spirit for a filling of pews and views on any content you could muster. The same way Jesus did nothing more than speak what His Father told him to speak, as the houses, nets, and cups overflew.

“For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”

John 12:49-50 KJV