technology in Community of Christ's efforts to become a 'prophetic people'

I spent a lot of the morning anxious about generative AI after reading about other professors’ struggles with how the technology has upended how we teach. It’s long been frustrating to me that teachers and others bear the burden of adapting to a world that big tech companies have created, seemingly with the goal of enriching themselves. Later in the morning, I read a worrying story about how a company called Flock is building tools that will let customers of their automated license plate readers (including Lexington, the city I live in) do even more invasive surveillance of the people they pick up on their cameras.

For as long as I’ve been a part of the church (and even longer), Community of Christ has had as a goal to transition from being “a people with a prophet” (the claim to fame of the Joseph Smith-era church and many of the churches that emerged from the 1844 succession crisis) to “a prophetic people.” A commentary volume on Community of Christ’s Basic Beliefs explains the latter possibility as follows:

We are called to be a prophetic people who confront religious and political powers that dehumanize God’s children.

I love this idea, but this morning’s anxiety underlined a thought that I’ve had for some time, that if my church is going to be serious about beinf a prophetic people, it needs to consider carefully what that means about confronting technological trends—especially as digital religion increasingly becomes part of our identity as well.

In a happy coincidence, Ted Lewis’s forward to one of the Jacques Ellul books I’m trying to read right now shared similar thoughts:

Given the exponential growth of technological trends, it may turn out that Christians will reach a place of radical witness only when they col-laborate better with those who may not share a Christian faith but do share a commitment to reverse the slow drift of technological oppression. Such partners often have greater insights that can strengthen communities of Christian faith, and a book like this may lead to fruitful conversations for those who jointly want to move from enlightened comprehension to ethical response. Certainly Ellul’s lifelong friendship with Bernard Charbonneau, who was not a Christian believer, represents this kind of dialectic partner-ship that stimulates new thought and subversive action. And if the subtitle of the original French edition is to be considered (Présence au monde moderne: Problèmes de la civilisation post-chrétienne), Christians and non-Christians alike face a crisis that requires all hands on deck. To be sure, this book shines the spotlight on the specific role that prophetic Christians have in this day and age. At the same time, Christians will likely falter in this role if they do not partner well with other co-prophets who equally wish to “give the slip” to modern civilization for the sake of true human freedom.

I think there’s something in there for my church to pay attention to, and I hope I can help direct some attention there as opportunities arise.

• Jacques Ellul
• generative AI
• privacy
• surveillance
• Community of Christ
• prophetic people
• prophetic voice