Device & Virtue

Ever pass the plate in church and there’s nothing in there? Smartphones are the new tithing tech—building church budgets—even as they shape our souls!

Adam & Chris cash in on the question: what happens when the cash goes out?

Digital giving has been slowly growing for years and in our city of Chicago, cashless is the new normal for many folks. Venmo—the money app we use most often—reports 40 million users with $21 billion passing through the app at the beginning of 2019 (Q1). Paypal, it’s parent company, does much much more!

So how does this affect giving to the church?

Questions

How are different churches adjusting to the digital shift? Ignoring it? Trying new things? We’ve got some stories.

Who does giving online help and hurt?

Does giving via our phone change our spiritual growth?

Is giving supposed to be public or private?

Has the church always “passed the plate?” How old is that practice? (not as old as you think!)

And of course, Vice or Virtue.

“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.”Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.”

Mark 12:14-17

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Does technology control history? Or does history control tech? Adam & Chris take sides.

When major technologies hit the world stage, do they upend human history?

There are a couple camps out there in scholarship. But one of the big questions is—how big of an influence is technology on human society?

Tech Controls History (Chris)

History Controls Tech (Adam)

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Imagine: You’re pregnant and your doctor offers you a DNA edit so your baby can avoid a terminal illness. Do you do it? That decision is coming sooner than you think.

Turns out an expert professor on DNA-editing (who is also a Christian) had some early conversations with the Chinese scientist who shocked the world in 2018 by editing two real babies DNA. The trouble is, the Chinese scientist has some compelling moral reasoning for what he did: and he explains them on YouTube.

What do we think of this?

Plus we namecheck an amazing old-school sci-fi movie that imagines a DNA-based world... Can you guess?

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Would you be OK if your church tracked you the way Facebook does? Some churches already are.

When Adam meets representatives for a church software company, he can’t help but interrogate them for half an hour. He brings his reconnaissance back, and he and Chris sit down to discuss just how they feel about how churches are tracking their congregations.

This is Big Data on a church’s scale. Find out what data churches are already tracking and how these powerful platforms could inform the pastoral imagination and reshape the work of churches everywhere.

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• Cell-site Simulators

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Some people think the next great evangelist will reach more people than Billy Graham ever did. And they’re already programming the artificial intelligence to do it.

When Chris and Adam meet an Australian who’s already programmed an AI chatbot to do evangelism, they look at each other and wonder, “Can a chatbot really spread the Gospel?” Only to realize that evangelism chatbots are not quite as unprecedented as they first appear to be. Still, this new generation of tech-driven evangelism forces today’s Christians to go back again and ask, “What exactly is the Gospel?”

The future is here. This chatbot has already led hundreds to make decisions for Jesus. Can we really argue with results?

This episode will help you get your head around our new Jetsons-like reality, and see what Rosie could mean for Christians called to make disciples.

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Has your pastor preached a sermon on Facebook settings or surveillance cameras? Mine hasn’t. Does the Bible really have anything to say about digital privacy?

And—is Alexa actually listening to us in my kitchen?

Chris wrote the cover story for Christianity Today on a Christian view of digital privacy. He started out by going to parties and asking “When was a time your privacy was violated?”

So Adam interviews Chris about what he found out including:

What is the “intimacy paradox”?

Are you a “city, suburbs, or country” person when it comes to your reaction?

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Last summer, Chicago Cubs baseball player Ben Zobrist got thrown out of the game when he turned to the umpire and complained “that’s why we want an electronic strike zone”.

Who is a better witness to the truth—a person … or a computer?

On a more serious note: This question became especially relevant in Chicago. Chris & Adam watched the race-charged trial of the police officer who shot black teenager Laquan MacDonald. A police video camera became the key piece of evidence the jury trusted over the eye-witness accounts.

From a Christian ethics point of view, witness is key—heck, it’s the Ninth Commandment!

TOUGH QUESTIONS

Are we at a point where technology is a better witness than a human?

If so what does that mean?

What do cameras see that people don’t?

What can a human witness offer that a video witness cannot?

Can technology bear false witness?

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Adam & Chris start a podcast. By arguing.

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So Chris found an article from 1962 called “Is Technology Diabolical?” What do you think Adam said . . .

German theologian Helmut Thielicke posed this question more than 50 years ago, and it’s more relevant than ever. Chris and Adam unpack Thielicke's article and the most challenging questions it poses. Questions like, “If humanity wasn't sinful, would we need technology?” And, “Can humans avoid moral responsibility by blaming technology?”

Chris and Adam find themselves wondering, What does technology look like in the Kingdom of God? Like Thielicke's article, questions will surprise you at every turn, not least of which is, “How do you pronounce ‘Thielicke’?”

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• Read it yourself: Is Technology Diabolical? Helmut Thielicke (1962)

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CS Lewis became a household name because of the Radio. So why did he get rid of the one in his own house?

What did CS Lewis think about technology? He had strong opinions about the radio and other technologies inhabiting our lives. Chris and Adam sit down to talk about what CS Lewis thought about technology, and also how he lived with it personally. Drawing from published work like Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength as well as Lewis's private letters, Adam and Chris explore why Lewis got rid of his radio, why he believed technology is neutral, and why he thought the typewriter would destroy aspiring writers.

This episode arose from research Adam has done and written about in an ebook titled Mere Technology: CS Lewis Confronts the Devices Shaping His Life--And Ours.

The ebook that this episode refers is not currently publicly available. Reach out to @AdamGraber if you want to convince him to send you a copy! Or start with a little taste of it here.

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