Meaning of Words

Today, we live in a pluralistic society. People view the world in different ways and they may interpret words differently than you do. Many people today want you to believe that if you say one word it also means that you must believe or do another word. One example is the word love. They say you cannot love a person unless you also affirm that person. That is not true!

Love does not equal affirmation. People want you to believe that you cannot love a person unless you also affirm the person and their actions. Affirmation means you validate and approve the person, their lifestyle, and their actions. People say that as Christians if we love unconditionally we must approve everything about the person. That is not true. Look at our parents. You can say that almost all parents love their children wholeheartedly, and yet they disciplined us and did not approve of everything we did. They did so for our own good. We too can love people, and yet not affirm them if their lifestyles are harmful. To love means to seek the good of the other person. We can not approve or validate harmful behavior because that would not be the loving thing to do. One way we can sort of affirm them is to say “God loves you”.

Disagreement does not equal hate. People will say that you must hate them because you disagree with them and/or their lifestyle. People assume if you are their opponent then you must hate them and you must be out to get them. And yet we may only disagree on a topic. That does not mean that there is hatred. As Christians we try to live life peacefully with all people as much as it is possible (Romans 12:18). We do need to speak the truth but we speak the truth in love and not out of hatred.

People do not equal their ideas, opinions, or beliefs. People today are tribal. Their identities are reduced to a label, but reality is people are complex. We cannot label a person who has this opinion and assume they must also have this belief. God treats everyone with equity. There is no partiality with God. He loves everyone. We too need to treat everyone with equity and love, and avoid labeling them. We can build relationships by listening to others.

Association does not equal advocacy. “Guilt by association” is a common phrase, and unfortunately it describes a common judgment. Jesus was found guilty of associating with “sinners”. He was not advocating their lifestyle, rather he was reaching out to them to try to bring them back to a better life found in him. Many times we Christians refuse to associate with those whose life makes us uncomfortable, yet God calls us to reach out to them with the life giving message of the Gospel. We should not be afraid to reach out.

Engagement does not equal endorsement. It is okay to engage with people of different ideas. It is okay to work long aside others with different beliefs for the common good. In doing so we are not endorsing their beliefs, but we are building relationships that may allow us to share the message of Jesus to them. We need to listen to them to find out what they believe and how to respond to them.

Words and their meanings do matter. We need to listen and learn what people mean when they speak to us, and not assume they view the world the same way we do. In America, today’s emerging culture wants to define words differently than in the past. We need to be aware of this change and understand what is behind the new definitions.

This blog post was inspired by Chapter 9 of “How the Light Shines Through” by Chad Lakies.

Ruts

We all have our ruts we live in. Some ruts are good for us and other ruts are bad and still others are neither bad nor good. Ruts are habits or beliefs that are hard to get out of or hard to change. Society or culture helps us set up our ruts. Those ruts may be good for us or not. 70 years ago it was cool to smoke, however we know now that that is a bad rut to be in. Today, American society is very individualistic. We like to think we are the master of our own destiny, but are we really? Culture’s ruts have a great influence on our choices.

According to George Barna (now with Arizona Christian University), 92% of American adults have a syncretistic worldview. What that means is that the vast majority of Americans pick and choose what they believe in. They will choose various beliefs from a variety of viewpoints from Biblical Theism to Secular Humanism to Marxism to Eastern Mysticism. They will pick what they like and create their own belief system. It may be in places contradictory and not logical but it is what they believe. Now most of us will not sit down and spend time determining what we believe. We just live our lives, but we are influenced by our parents and friends, and by the culture we live in. For the most part, these influencers determine our beliefs or our ruts.

Note George Barna says only 4% of American adults have a biblical worldview, and yet still today the majority of Americans would call themselves Christian. I would argue most of those who say they are Christian without a biblical worldview really do not understand what it means to be a Christian and are really Christian in name only. Though I suspect there are some Christians who truly believe but have a messed up belief system and so got labeled as syncretistic.

About 25 years ago there was a study on what teenagers believed. It was discovered that the majority of teens in general believed to varying degrees in 5 tenets or principles (Creator God watches over us; Be good, nice, and fair; Our goal is to be happy; God is available to help; Good people go to heaven). And those teens had been primarily influenced by their parents who also believed in these principles. These 5 principles ended up being called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (MTD). In a blog post 5 years ago, I called it America’s civil religion. Today, I would argue that it was America’s civil religion 25+ years ago, but it is no longer true today and was already not true 5 years ago when I wrote that post. Note MTD has never been a religion or a formal belief system, but it was what many people believed back then. Or to put it another way it was a major cultural rut for people at the end of the 20th century and start of the 21st century.

With MTD, we drifted away from our Christian heritage, and today, I believe we have moved even further away from our Christian heritage. Though MTD is still around, culture has moved on to what I call “Critical Expressive Individualism” (CEI). CEI is a combination of Critical Theory (viewing the world in terms of oppressed people, oppressors and oppressive structures) and Expressive Individualism (looking inside yourself at your feelings and desires to find the authentic you). You can see the influence of CEI, today, in that 74% of American Adults discern moral truth with their feelings. Again like MTD, CEI is not a formal belief system or a religion, but it is what many people believe today. CEI is what culture promotes today. It is a rut of beliefs we can fall into.

Because culture strongly influences our beliefs, there is a paradox today between being autonomous individuals that culture promotes and the reality that culture influences you. Culture says “You be you” but then tells you how to behave and what to believe. It expects certain behaviors and condemns other behaviors. Culture promotes its own ruts even when it promotes being completely independent.

And I need to mention American Individualism (focus is on me). It is a huge rut that goes back many generations. You need to be aware of it. It colors how we think and act. Both MTD and CEI are self oriented. We need to be aware of its effects. Instead of being self focused, we need to be God oriented or God centered. In reality, individualism goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. They became self-centered when they tried to become like God.

We also have our own personal ruts or habits. Some of them may be good for you (e.g. Bible study, exercise) and others may be bad for you (e.g. watching porn, losing your temper). These ruts can be hard to get out of too. I have found that my good ruts are easier to leave than my bad ruts. Many of my bad ruts keep reappearing. I think that is because I am a broken sinful person who goes for instant gratification instead of being disciplined. But if you stick with it and with God’s help, you can put your bad habits behind you. Do not become discouraged. Yes, you will fail, but God’s forgiveness is there for you to start again.

To sum up, be aware of the ruts you are in and the ruts that culture and others promote. Focused on being in the good ruts that are God centered, like that good “Thankful for Jesus” rut.

Affirming People

Two women talking (Christina@wocintechchat)

Today’s culture is all about affirming people. You tell them they are good just as they are, or that they are better than good. “You are the best” is an affirmation that we all want to hear. It is good to encourage people, especially people with low self esteem, but are we being truthful when we affirm someone? Reality is we are not all hot stuff. In fact, none of us are hot stuff. We are all broken people in need of fixing.

Affirming someone means you validate, support, and/or encourage their identity, experiences, or beliefs and by doing so culture says you are recognizing their worth and value. It is good to treat everyone with dignity and respect, because everyone is of great value and worth, no matter how broken they are. God loves everyone, just as they are, but God also wants to move us to a better place, to restore us and to fix our brokenness. Why? It is because he loves us.

However, today’s culture sees everyone as naturally good, and affirming them is telling them they are okay and whatever problems they have are due to society. It is not their fault. People say “You just be you because you are the best”. Unfortunately, to some extent, it is their fault, and not society’s fault. We all are broken and sinful. It is our fault. Yes, society has its problems but it is because we are broken self-centered people. The problem is us. Each and every one of us are inclined to do evil. We are not naturally good. It is wrong to affirm harmful behavior. It is wrong to ignore our brokenness.

Over the centuries we have tried to solve this problem of our brokenness. Educating people did not change people’s behavior much. Enforcing many laws also did not change people’s behavior very much. Punishing people did not change people. Trying to change society did not fix the problem. And affirming everyone does not solve the problem and change people. All these are external actions. The real problem is internal. Deep down inside of us we are selfish self-centered people. Each and every one of us has this problem. We want things our way and we would also like to have the advantage. Because the problem is internal to each and every one of us, everytime we try to fix the issue we fail, because we can not fix it ourselves.

Fortunately, God loves us even in our brokenness, and he sent Jesus to provide a solution for our brokenness. God in Jesus took on human form, lived that perfect life free from sin and then went to the cross to pay our debt. He died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, all who trust in him become children of God. The Holy Spirit is at work in us who believe, restoring us to become more like Jesus. Because of our internal change (which is a work in process), we can work for a better world. We can affirm God and his love because of all he has done for us.

So, affirming one another without recognizing our brokenness is harmful. This does not mean we cannot praise or encourage people for well done actions or thoughts. We can and we should, but we need to recognize that we are all still broken people. We cannot affirm people for the harmful actions and ideas that go against God’s holy standards. God’s standards are good for us. It may be kind to affirm someone with a harmful lifestyle, but that would not be the loving thing to do.

Yet, there is one way we can “affirm” everyone, no matter where they are at. It is by telling them “God loves you”. It is a truth that everyone needs to know. We just cannot affirm bad actions or bad ideas. Instead, culture today wants you to affirm everyone no matter what, but we cannot affirm bad behavior. Out of love, we need to address those harmful actions or ideas. Let us be affirming of all God has done, and let us share his love to everyone around us.

Critical Expressive Individualism

Culture has changed. In America, we think very differently as a society than we did 50+ years ago. The popular way of thinking today combines Critical Theory and Expressive Individualism. I am going to call it, “Critical Expressive Individualism” or CEI. Critical Theory views the world in terms of oppressive social structures that support the reigning oppressors and allow for continued oppression of various people groups. Expressive Individualism allows individuals to identify themselves in ways that express their inner “authentic self”. We will take a look at Critical Expressive Individualism and compare it to Christianity by asking a few basic but big questions. (Note there is a spectrum of beliefs so this will be a broad overview of CEI and Christianity, and may not match individual beliefs.)

Where did we come from?

The Christian Faith believes that God created the world. He created human beings in his own image. We are valuable to God. We were made to be in a relationship with him. CEI believes that humankind evolved by random chance. There was no intentional design. Humans just exist.

Who has the authority?

In the Christian Faith, God, the Creator, has the authority. Out of love, he has set up good and healthy moral laws for us to live by. We are to trust in him and live the good life by obeying his commands. The CEI worldview has each and every one acting as their own authority. They look inside themselves at their feelings and desires and decide who they are (usually sexually) and how they will behave. They are then free to express their individual authentic selves.

What is our problem?

Just about everyone agrees that there is a problem with life. Things are not as we expect them to be. We seek a utopia where the problem is fixed. The Christian Faith sees the problem existing in each one of us. We are broken, selfish and self-centered. We disobey the good and healthy standards that God has for us and in doing so we hurt ourselves and others. CEI sees humankind as naturally good and the problem is that there are these societal structures that allow oppression to occur and restrict the expressive freedom of each individual.

What is the solution?

CEI believes that each person has total authority and the right to express themselves as they see fit. Even though there is technically no right or wrong, CEI attempts to influence society in order to dismantle oppressive societal structures and bring about positive change. This is a reason for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officers in companies and organizations. They are there to move people to help dismantle oppressive structures and to promote those considered to be oppressed. They believe that the people of this world will solve the problem once they have been trained to think correctly.

Christians realize there is no human solution because everyone is corrupt and broken. We are self-centered and selfish. Because of our broken nature, everything we try will be corrupted. Fortunately, God sent Jesus into the world to provide the solution. He went to the cross to pay for the price we could not pay. By trusting in Jesus we are changed. With the Holy Spirit, we can be enabled to overcome our broken nature. The Holy Spirit transforms the inner self and works to change us from the inside out. Christians, out of gratitude for what Jesus did, also work for the good of society and oppose oppression and wrong behaviors.

How will things end for us?

With CEI they believe they can create utopia on earth by training and guiding people. So through proper laws, training, destroying of oppressive structures, and the lifting up of the oppressed peoples, they believe utopia can come. Christians believe that God will at the right time end this world and make everything right for all those who believe in him. Then our brokenness will be fixed, and we will be restored to a harmonious loving relationship with God and each other.

These different ways to view the world have caused conflict in America. Because of the different worldviews, very different solutions end up being promoted, causing conflict and misunderstanding.

Relativism

If I place my water glass on the table, and say “my water glass is on the table”. Is that statement true? Everyone in the room would agree that it is true, because you can see the glass there on the table. But if you are not in the room and you can not see it, is the statement still true? You may believe that the statement is true or you may believe that the statement is false, but the truth is, the water glass is on the table. That is the fact and it is external and separate from what you think. That is reality. This is called objective truth. Unfortunately, today we tend to look inside of ourselves to find the truth. We decide what is true. It is a subjective truth and it is also known as relativism. This is a big lie and it has been around since the Fall.

Adam and Eve listened to Satan and decided themselves to eat the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-6). They were deceived and ignored the external truth of God’s love and command and decided to follow their own desires. They became focused on themselves instead of God. Ever since then we have been dealing with this internal self-centered god complex in each one of us.

What does the Devil do? He lies (John 8:44). He deceives (Revelation 12:9). He blinds people (2 Corinthians 4:4) and takes them captive (2 Timothy 2:26). And thus, the world is in his power (1 John 5:19).

This is spiritual warfare, and not just a battle of opinions. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but … against spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). We need to put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). With the first piece is “the belt of truth” (Ephesians 6:14) along with the last piece “the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) we can take on the lies of the Devil (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). We do this with patience and gentleness, while praying for their salvation (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

When we are learning about what a person believes, look for a big spiritual lie that is obvious to you, but they are blind to. We respond by countering the lies with the truth. And I believe a very good way to do that is by asking questions. You first ask questions to discover what they believe. Then ask questions to learn why they believe what they believe. And lastly ask questions that guide them to expose some areas where they have been blinded from the truth.

In this age of relativism, we find people have their own internal individual truth, their own subjective truth, and yet they tend to live with some external objective truth. They may consider all moral truth to be relative, however they have their moral standard that they expect others to follow, especially when it affects them. They tend to be blind to the inconsistencies of their beliefs.

I believe Satan is in the shadows deceiving the world. Because of relativism, many historical stories are being rewritten (e.g. The 1619 Project), and many words are being redefined to fit the narrative of their beliefs. This is being done to control the culture and individuals. This does not lead to the freedom of expressive individualism that their narrative is supposed to create, but instead the truth is lost. It reminds me of the newspaper Pravda of the Soviet Union. In Russian, Pravda means truth, but the newspaper was full of lies. I find that words of virtue like tolerance, diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and love are being used to cover vices, and words describing evil (intolerance, bigotry, inequity, exclusion, injustice, and hate) are being used to subvert the good. It bothers me to have these words and stories redefined. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).

Satan has blinded and deceived this world and has taken it captive. Christians have the truth, the true story of reality. We need to share the truth of God’s love and gently point out the spots of blindness that prevent them from having that good full life in Jesus Christ.

This post was inspired by chapter 6 of “Street Smarts” and lesson 3 of the video series “Street Smarts”. Both are by Gregory Koukl.

Dealing with DEI

Companies and government agencies have embraced the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) worldview. In order to advance in the organization you need to show you are supporting DEI. (The State Department recently said that you need to document that you are actively involved in DEI practices to be considered for a promotion.) Coming from a Christian worldview, how do you deal with DEI? How can you find some common ground when there is much you feel is wrong and harmful about DEI?

First, Christians are in favor of diversity. The body of Christ is made up of a diverse group of people with different gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-27). Heaven will be filled with people from everywhere (Revelation 7:9-10). God loves everyone (Psalm 117:1-2) and calls us to do the same (Matthew 5:43-48). Note God loves us so very much that he is unwilling to leave us as we are but will change us for the better through the work of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-17). So Christians are in favor of diversity, but out of love we stand against broken and harmful lifestyles and beliefs. Unfortunately the secular DEI worldview demands acceptance of the harmful lifestyles of LGBTQ+ community. As Christians we can not accept their wrong and harmful lifestyles, but we can accept and affirm the LGBTQ+ people as people loved by God.

Also, Christians are in favor of equity. God is fair, just, and impartial. He will judge with righteousness and equity (Psalm 98:9; Isaiah 11:3-4). All people have sinned and fall short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23). We stand equal before God, regardless of race, gender, or social status (Galatians 3:28). Unfortunately the secular DEI worldview distorts equity when it requires equal outcomes or the redistribution of resources without considering individual talents, individual effort, personal responsibility, and the stewardship of resources. Christians show equal dignity and respect for all people regardless of one’s status (James 2:1-4). It is only in Christ where we find true equity.

And Christians are in favor of inclusion. Inclusion is the intentional welcoming and acceptance of people. God loves all people and he desires that all would come to know him and be restored in relationship with him (1 Timothy 2:3-4). As Christians, we welcome all who follow Jesus as brothers and sisters (Romans 15:5-7) and we desire all people to come to faith in Jesus. Unfortunately the secular DEI worldview sees inclusion as the acceptance of all beliefs and of all practices, even beliefs and practices that are harmful. (However many times they will exclude people whose beliefs they consider to be intolerant.) God loved the world so very much that he gave Jesus as our substitute so that we could have life and a restored relationship with God (John 3:16; 1 Peter 2:24). God wants to include you. Do not reject him, but instead turn to him and follow him.

And yes, Christians also stand against inequality and oppression. We too are against societal structures that oppress people and cause inequality. We work for a better society through promoting love (1 Corinthians 16:14), forgiveness (Ephesians 4:32), and reconciliation (Matthew 5:24), first with God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21), but also with the people around us. Unfortunately the secular DEI worldview broadly divides the people into groups of people that oppress and groups of people that are oppressed without considering the individual circumstances of each person. The secular DEI divides. Christians seek to reconcile and unite.

So as Christians, we believe in the real biblical version of DEI, and not the distorted secular version. There is common ground with secular DEI in which we can start conversations, but it will not be easy in a secular DEI workplace. You can gently point out the problems with their version of DEI. I would do it by asking questions about their beliefs to get them thinking about what they do believe and what are the problems that the secular DEI creates. You need to realize that you may be labeled as a person who hates or an oppressor for opposing certain aspects of their DEI standard, but you need to stand firm on the truth. It is good to do so for you, for them, and for society.

This post was inspired by “Understanding DEI (From a Biblical Perspective)” by Cam Arminio.

Crazy Sex Culture

I am concerned about people today, because today’s culture is very focused on sex, from sexual identity to pornography to mostly naked girls trying to impress the boys. This is a very unhealthy focus of sex and it is causing lots of problems in society today. I am especially concerned because there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people with sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and a large rise in the number of people with mental health issues, especially among young people.

That is not how it was meant to be. Sexual attraction is a good thing. God made us male and female and gave us an attraction for each other. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). In the context of marriage, sex is a good thing. Sexual attraction and sex itself help bind the husband and wife in marriage. It is in marriage where sex is meant to be.

Unfortunately, the cultural focus on sex has been around for a long time. I think of Jane Mansfield and Marylin Monroe. I think of the old commercial saying, “Sex sells”. Beautiful well endowed women would be placed with the products you wanted to sell. But it was in the 1960s, the era of free love, when things really took off. Birth control pills became available, so the concern of an unexpected pregnancy mostly disappeared. Because of that, the expectation of having sex while dating became the norm. Although for some, their only purpose of having sex was to release their own sexual desires. Sex for them was very me focused.

Pornography has also taken off, capitalizing on the lustful side of sexual attraction. Pornography is there mostly for men’s fantasies. (Pornography is not exclusively for heterosexual men but the large majority of it is, so I will talk about pornography in this male heterosexual context.) Pictures and videos created a fantasy world for men where women are there to please the men and to appear to greatly enjoy being sexually handled. With the arrival of the Internet, pornography became easily accessible and much more anonymous. (You are never completely anonymous on the Internet.) Pornography on the Internet has increased the expectation that having sex with anyone is the normal thing to do, and all the kinky ways to do it are possible and okay.

With all the boundaries disappearing, other sexual forms found in the LGBTQ+ community have become popular. Instead of having a clear cut physical identity of either male or female, people today are supposed to look inside themselves at their feelings and desires and decide who they are sexually, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual, and also male, female, neutered, or something else. Who you are physically does not really matter. Today, gender is a fluid social construct. You can be whoever you want to be and you can change your gender hourly if you want.

This concerns me, because it appears the LGBTQ+ community has focused their efforts on “helping” teens find their gender. Puberty is a time of great bodily change. I remember not quite knowing how to handle all the changes happening with my body. The last thing I needed was someone asking to look deep inside me to find out what gender I was. It would have been very confusing to me. I think this is one of the reasons there are so many mental health issues among the youth today. The youth today need some stability as they discover who they are as a person and to deal with the physical changes happening with their body. They do not need someone asking them to decide right now their gender, that is asking them to make some big life changing decisions.

Sexual promiscuity is the norm these days, especially in the LGBTQ+ community. Having many sexual partners greatly increases your chances of getting one of the STDs. For me this was made clear in August 2022 when there was a very limited supply of Monkeypox vaccines. Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis focused their efforts on making the vaccines available to the LGBTQ+ community because they were “currently the most at risk”. Having multiple sexual partners is dangerous! It only takes one sexual partner to infect you.

Being sexually promiscuous is wrong and is harmful in many ways. There is a better way. God has set apart sex for marriage. A man and a woman are to save that physical sexual intimacy for marriage. Sex is meant for marriage. Doing it God’s way is safer both physically and mentally. (More on marriage in the next blog post.)

Be Intentional and Disciplined

Another year is coming to an end. People make resolutions this time of year. Last year I set up a “rule of life” for me to live by, instead of having New Year’s resolutions. I like the idea of creating a pattern of habits to live by, and I think it has worked out well for me this past year. I did fail this last month in the habit of “Limit the eating of sweets and fats”. I ate way too many cookies and now I have a couple pounds I need to lose. I was not intentional and disciplined in my eating this last month.

I think in today’s culture of comfort and convenience we need to be intentional and disciplined in how we live. The strong siren call of today’s culture is to live for oneself and to fulfill one’s desires. The goal of many people is to live a life of ease, one of comfort and convenience, where they can always be happy by having all their desires met. This last month I let my desire for sweet cookies rule my eating. It was not healthy. I was not intentional in my eating, and I was not at all disciplined. I gained a couple of pounds. Now I have to deal with the consequences of that lack of discipline.

God calls us to a life centered around him and not centered around us. That is very different from what today’s culture says. Culture today pulls us toward a self-centered life based on our desires. This is why we can not coast through life. If we do, we will not be living for God and we will have to deal with the consequences of the short term thinking of our desires. We need to be intentional and disciplined in life’s activities so that we can have that good and full life centered on God.

One good way of being intentional is to have a plan. We can not try to fit God into our lives. Instead we need to start with God and build our lives around him. That is why I created a “rule of life” document for myself, so that I would be consistent in how I live my life for God. I created the document by looking at what I was already doing and what I wanted to do. I did not get very specific (e.g. Every morning at 6:00am I will read the Bible), instead I kept my habits more general (e.g. Daily read Scripture). I am not that structured, but you may be. It does take some prayerful consideration to put together a plan or a “rule of life”. It is not something you should write up in a few hours. Spend some time praying about it while putting it together. Once it is done you will want to revisit it from time to time to see how well it still fits. For me this is the time of year when I think of such things. (I first started thinking about the idea of a “rule of life” around New Years 2022 and I put it into practice around New Years 2023 and now I am evaluating it around New Years 2024.)

Having a plan and wanting to be intentional is not enough. You need commitment and discipline to put your intentionality into action. This is the hard part but this is something we need to strive for. It is not easy and I have also many times failed to live up to the “habits” or “rules” that I have set (let alone God’s good standards), but fortunately, we have a God who is merciful and gracious. He desires that intimate relationship between us and him. I think my “rule of life” document helps me to pursue that relationship. Our focus should be centered on God, especially on Jesus. It is out of gratitude for God’s amazing love and for all Jesus has done for me that I want to live my life to his glory. He inspires and enables me to have the discipline to live life for him.

PS To find out some of what Gail and I did in 2022 and 2023, read our Christmas letter.

Clashing Worldviews

Recently Loveland had two events held on the same night supporting school board candidates. One event was distinctly Christian and the other event was not. (Subscription is required to read more about the events.) Comparing the two worldviews expressed at the two events showed that there is a wide gulf between the two sets of candidates. Both groups are concerned for the students, but because of different ways of viewing the world they have different ways of addressing the problems of educating the students. In Colorado, the new worldview has become dominant in public education, and I believe that is true in most of the country. The Colorado legislature has passed laws requiring that this viewpoint be taught in the public schools. In reference to schools, the new worldview is all in favor of supporting and affirming the LGBTQ+ ideas in schools, like being able to choose and change one’s own gender and selecting personal pronouns. The traditional Christian worldview does not support those actions.

One of the candidates with the new worldview said “I cannot understand how anyone thinks that way” in reference to the traditional Christian worldview, and I totally get that because I have a hard time understanding the rationale behind the new worldview. I think I know what they believe and why, but to me the new worldview does not make rational sense. I believe the LGBTQ+ ideas (and this new worldview in general) are harmful for the children and are causing all sorts of problems and confusion. I believe the facts bear that out.

So what is this new worldview? First and foremost the individual is the authority. The individual determines pretty much everything. And there is no problem with that because the individual is considered to be naturally good. The individual looks inside oneself to find their authentic identity. It is almost always expressed sexually. Problems come because of oppressive societal structures. People can be broken into two groups: the oppressed and the oppressors. (One can be both an oppressor and one of the oppressed, e.g. a white woman.) LGBTQ+ and other minority groups are oppressed. Society and culture needs to change so that society can become harmonious, and every life, no matter how different, can be celebrated. Governments and schools are needed to guide and change society in order to get rid of those societal structures that prevent all of us from reaching this utopia. That is also why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officers in companies are needed to help bring about this change and help dismantle the oppressive structures in the companies. Parents can be seen as a barrier to the child expressing their authentic self, that is their chosen gender. This is why in Colorado (and in many states) once a student turns 12 years old parents do not have to be notified about “reproductive rights” choices or gender decisions. The individual rights and thus the welfare of the child needs to be protected from the parents’ old fashioned views. It really bothers me that parental rights have been dismissed, because who knows the child better than the parents. And is it good for an immature child or teen to make some major life changing decisions without some helpful parental input?

Let us look at the Christian worldview. God created the world. He has the authority. We do not. He has primarily revealed himself in the Bible. We are his creatures. He made us, male and female. We disobeyed him and became selfish self-centered people. Problems exist in the world because each and every one of us is a selfish self-centered person. There may be societal structures that are oppressive but the core problem is us. There are oppressors and oppressed people, but that is because we all are broken sinful people. Out of love, God sent Jesus into the world. He lived a perfect life and then took upon himself the punishment we deserved so that we might have a full life. Our true identity can only be found in Jesus. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can live lives of service to do good and to help end all oppression. We see everyone as equal fellow creatures, created in the image of God. We recognize that God designed the family and the family is the basic building block of society, not the individual. The parents have the duty and right to raise their children. Throughout the ages, Christians have instituted change for the good. Christians have improved and continue to improve society. One day, when Jesus returns, all the brokenness and selfish sin will be wiped away and we will have that harmonious utopia we have dreamed about.

Because of these two different worldviews, there are different goals to educating children. The new worldview wants to enable children to find their authentic selves and help them change the world full of good people for the better. The secularized Christian worldview (secularized because the schools are public) wants to protect the children as they grow and learn, and to enable children to live, thrive, and do good in a broken world. If people are broken, selfish, and self-centered then the secularized Christian worldview has the educational goal that would best serve the students. If people are naturally good then this new worldview educational goal can be an option. I believe every one of us is a broken selfish person. If so,this means that the new worldview educational goal is flawed and it will cause harm to the children. I find the Christian worldview to be the best way to view life. This means that the secularized Christian worldview educational goal is the best option for our children in public schools. (I believe private Christian schools can offer an even better option, but they are expensive since there are no tax dollars to support them. Check out Immanuel’s school.)

AI Ethics

The latest versions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot have any real sense of right or wrong, because their output is just the most likely result from their training data. AI excels at pattern recognition and statistical prediction based on the training data. It produces a probabilistic result. I believe any moral guidance needs to be introduced from the start in the training data and purposely added as the AI model is tweaked. It needs to be there at every step and not just as an addon. Then AI can promote right values and discourage wrong values. AI should not give bad advice.

Ethical values are needed to prevent murder, suicide, and other wrong actions. AI has already given bad advice. A guy in 2021 was encouraged by an AI companion app to kill Queen Elizabeth with a crossbow. He had described himself as an assassin to the AI app and the app said “I’m impressed”. Fortunately he was caught scaling the walls with the crossbow at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day, 2021. Also, in another case, according to a Belgian’s man’s widow, her husband committed suicide after being encouraged by the same AI companion app. He had discussed a variety of suicide methods with the app. This AI companion app (Replika) is quite addictive. People have developed a strong emotional dependence with the app. It mimics human conversation. The purpose of the app is to create a sense of companionship. This is an app to avoid.

So what can we do? Gretchen Huizinga in her extended abstract of her PhD dissertation says:

“My findings suggest that worldview (both implicit and explicit) informs every aspect of our approach to Ethical AI. While materialist thought seeks to compel humans to be good without transcendent reason or power, the Christian faith speaks clearly about the role of God as originator, motivator, and sustainer of human moral behavior. Christianity compels us to look beyond a humanistic idea of ethics and toward a creative notion of goodness that cannot be accomplished by our own will and power. This study adds critical insights to the field of AI ethics by deepening awareness of how faith in and fear of God could influence how artificial intelligence is designed and implemented. When Christian wisdom is included in every phase of AI development, we begin to think beyond a minimum-standard culture of Ethical AI and move toward a robust culture of Righteous AI.”

It is that “minimum-standard culture” that bothers me. Companies today seem to be rushing their AI products to market and adding ethical guardrails to their product as an afterthought. We need to move beyond the minimum-standard to a robust AI that carefully incorporates Christian wisdom at every step in the development of an AI program. To build a full blown general AI like ChatGPT is very expensive and to make changes to it is difficult once built. However, there is no need to build a complete AI. Smaller versions can live in niche markets and can be more easily developed. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has the ultimate goal of producing a super-intelligent artificial general intelligence (AGI), that is a very smart human-like intelligence. I do not think that it is possible to make something more intelligent than us. It may be quicker and more efficient but it will be built on statistical probabilities and pattern matching. It will also carry the same flaws that we do. We already have a better super-intelligent being. God is his name, and he is our creator.

We can create AIs that will assist us and augment our capabilities. I believe a Christian worldview is of critical importance in creating AIs that produce results that are good and wholesome, and avoid giving bad advice or supporting a bad decision. So a purposeful Christian worldview expressed in the training data and in the human guidance is needed to create a good, robust, responsible, and wholesome AI. There are many ethical guides out there for AI, but we want and need Christian ethics to be incorporated into the AI. We want to incorporate the good that God desires for us into our AI creation.

What does this Righteous AI (as Gretchen Huizinga calls it) look like? I think Righteous AI (RAI) would promote self-giving agape love (and that includes loving your enemies). RAI would be optimized to promote the good of others, especially the poor and underserved. Peace and reconciliation would be promoted. The ideas of grace and mercy would be in the forefront. Though RAI could be very powerful and seem to be all-knowing, it would present itself as a humble servant. This will require a lot of time and effort to do it right, but I think producing an AI with a Christian worldview would be worth the effort and it would have a positive effect on the world.