Ever since the beginning of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy last May, there has been anticipation concerning his first encyclical letter. Oftentimes the subject and tone of a pope’s opening epistle is a significant marker of a given pontificate. For Pope…
Toy Story 5 brings the tech debate home, but it underplays the risks
The most improbable fantasy moment in Toy Story 5, Pixar’s latest entry in its unavoidable animated film franchise and likely one of the year’s biggest box-office hits, comes at an unexpected juncture in the story. (Some light spoilers follow.) It…
AI is coming for your pastor and your trust
In this new year, an unexpected presence will slip into many church sanctuaries, quietly and almost politely: A line in the sermon that began as a chatbot prompt. A prayer drafted by an AI tool because the volunteer who normally…
Tool of faith or digital distraction? Catholic Church offers indulgences to faithful who fast from social media
The year 2025 is a Year of Jubilee: an event held every quarter-century that calls Catholics around the world to embark on a holy journey of faith and repentance.
Yes, technology has become more critical for U.S. churches since pandemic
The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 prompted lasting changes in the ways U.S. religious groups use technology in congregational life, according to a new study by Hartford Institute for Religion Research. “The pandemic necessitated innovation in how congregations connect with…
AI ‘deep fakes’ are creating a new way of violating women’s privacy on the internet
Most people know of AI as a tool that will write papers, complete assignments or generate streams of content at the click of a button, like ChatGPT. Debates about the pros and cons of AI have been in conversation for…
Technology isn’t inherently bad but the way we use it can lead to harm, author warns
The growing complexity and pervasiveness of digital devices and social media is diminishing our capacity to relate authentically to others and to God, author and cultural sociologist Felicia Wu Song said. “Research is showing (that technology) is creating an inability…
This article was written using Chat GPT AI
One of my professors recently asked me what I thought about Chat GPT, an AI generator that, among other things, students could use to complete assignments (without actually completing them). I told him I thought it sounded creepy and not…
GenZ South Africans remix tech, African spiritualism and church
They are Gen-Z Black South Africans, highly educated, raised in typical “Christian homes,” but now flipping the script. Via aggressive use of Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, they’re re-inventing themselves as entrepreneurial “Afro-spiritualist” healers, fortune readers or dream interpreters. It’s all…
YHWH vs. the Singularity
In a recent issue of The Atlantic, novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar argues that we have now arrived in the age of the Singularity, the hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in never-before-foreseeable…
My phone and I need to talk
I have begun to suspect that some of what I read is not even true. I tell myself that I am checking the news, but it is not always new or important. I read news that is not quite news…
Baylor prof leads innovative team working to disrupt human trafficking
Criminal justice experts and academics, including a Baylor University professor, are teaming up to provide a technological edge to the law enforcement battle against human trafficking. Stacie Petter, professor of information systems and business analytics at Baylor, is part of…