On any given Sunday, churchgoers settle into pews as a clergy person takes an ancient holy text and figures out what it has to say about our lives today. But how would worshippers feel if they found out that sermon was written by Artificial Intelligence?
RELATED: See more stories on AI and ministry.
While it’s hard to measure how widespread faith leaders’ use of the technology is, in an online survey of senior Protestant clergy by Barna Group last year, 12% described being comfortable using AI to write sermons, and 43% said they saw its merits in sermon preparation and research.
For more stories at your doorstep, subscribe to The Baptist Paper.
SIGN UP for our weekly Highlights emails that hit your inbox on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Wrestling
Are AI sermons ethical?
It’s an ethical question with which clergy across the country are wrestling. The goal of a sermon is to tell a story that can break open the hearts of people to a holy message. The question is whether it matters where that comes from.
Some denominations have issued general guidelines urging thought and caution regarding AI, but they typically don’t give specific rules. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention advises to “develop, maintain, regulate, and use these technologies with the utmost care and discernment, upholding the unique nature of humanity.”
However, pastors are often left to figure out the intricacies for themselves.
Nuanced picture
But some say there are reasons not to use AI for sermons. Brad East, who teaches theology at Abilene Christian University in West Texas, argued against it in an op-ed in Christianity Today entitled “AI Has No Place in the Pulpit.”
“ The church thinks in millennia — not in minutes, hours or days or weeks or years,” East said. “And if it turns out that all of our doomer worries are wrong, then we can start using these in two generations. I don’t need to be an early adopter before I know the full systemic implications.”
Beth Singler, an anthropologist who studies religion and AI and assistant professor in digital religion(s) at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said the full picture is nuanced.
“ When you look at the history of all religions, they’ve always engaged with different forms of automation, different forms of technological advancement,” Singler said. “The printing press was put to work, first of all, for religious texts, in the European context.”
East acknowledged that AI makes sermon-writing easier but said he doesn’t necessarily want all the struggles surrounding it to be relieved, because that’s part of the vocation.
“To me, the drudgery is part of the point,” East said. “I do not want pastors preaching sermons out of Scripture who themselves do not read or study Scripture. I just don’t. It is missing the point of what we are trying to do there.”
But some pastors point out using AI isn’t just about avoiding the grind or scholarship, instead arguing it can draw upon far more sources than any one human could access. It can also free up time for pastoral care, allowing clergy to prioritize providing counsel or sitting at a bedside of someone who’s dying. However, some argue sermons are part of those relationships.
“Does AI know the stories of your people? Do they know about the miscarriage? Do they know about the divorce? Do they know about the abuse? How can an algorithm comprehend lived human experience?” Paul Hoffman, pastor of Evangelical Friends Church in Middletown, Rhode Island, and author of the book “AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep,” said in an interview.
Much of the debate involves grappling with the question of whether AI is being used as a replacement for a sacred human project or whether it’s a tool in the service of that project.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Deena Prichep and originally published by Religion News Service. This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and RNS.
