Changing the Conversation on Climate Change

Interview by Daniel Silliman

Q&A with evangelical organizer Tori Goebel on the difference 10 years makes and how a rising generation of Christians is looking for “avenues for action.”

Christianity Today January 27, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: Unsplash / Pexels

More than one-third of American evangelicals believe that climate change is a pressing problem, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. One of the groups mobilizing believers on this issue, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA), celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022. National organizer and spokesperson Tori Goebel spoke to CT about what has changed in the last decade and how younger Christians are pursing activism as an expression of love and hope.

What was the evangelical conversation about climate change like in 2012 when Young Evangelicals for Climate Action started?

One of the reasons YECA was founded was that climate change was not really being discussed. Remember, 2012 was an election year and climate change wasn’t coming up in the campaigns and the debates.

We also weren’t talking about it in our churches. As an evangelical, I see how climate change activism connects to a core mandate of my faith: to love God and care for our neighbors. So why aren’t churches talking about it? Climate change seemed to be off-limits. But when our churches don’t seem to care that we are impacting our climate in a way that’s going to have a detrimental impact on our neighbors, that’s really frustrating.

So the motivation for starting YECA was to empower young people and equip young people to talk to their churches and have these conversations—start the conversation. We could help the church understand that this is a way to live our values, to care for our neighbors and God’s creation.

How has the conversation changed in the last 10 years?

At the beginning, a lot of the conversations were “What is climate change?” Climate science 101: “Is this even happening and are humans contributing?” We were having those really important but very basic, starter-level discussions.

Now, it has shifted. When I talk to college students and church groups about the theology of creation care and the issues with climate change, the questions are about how to respond, what are good policies to support, and what role can Christians play, bringing their faith to this space. They want to know “What difference can I make? What can my church do?”

The young evangelicals that we talk to are looking for hope and avenues for action.

A recent Pew Research survey said that roughly a third of American evangelicals think that climate change is real and caused by burning fossil fuels, a third believe the climate is warming but disagree with the majority of climate scientists on why, and the rest are divided between “don’t believe” and “unsure.” What do you make of those numbers?

I think what it tells me is that there’s still work to be done, but I’m encouraged that public perception is changing and evangelicals are more open. I feel like we’re headed in the right direction, even if I wish it were quicker.

Tell me a little about how you came to see climate change activism as part of your faith.

I grew up in a wonderful conservative Christian home. We recycled. We explored nature. But we weren’t talking about climate change at home or at church. So I wasn’t aware of the climate crisis until I was at Gordon College. One of the required classes, developed by Dr. Dorothy Boorse, was on energy and the environment. We studied how our lifestyles, here in the United States, involve the extraction and burning of fossil fuel and [how] that was contributing to this global problem.

I never felt like the reality of climate change challenged my faith or created any tension; it just raised questions about how I was supposed to love my neighbor and concerns about the silence of our churches on this issue. The pastors I grew up with talked a lot about mission trips, caring for the poor, making sure our neighbors were taken care of. So climate change didn’t seem different than that to me. But there was a tension with the leaders and their apparent lack of concern in this area.

I think for an older generation of evangelicals, climate science seemed more partisan, and they didn’t trust the science as much or maybe didn’t understand it. That does become an issue for young people. In my experience, the number one reason young people leave the church isn’t hatred of the faith or loss of faith but frustration at perceived and real hypocrisy.

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Is the discussion of climate crisis less partisan now than it used to be?

I see more and more bipartisanship: There are solutions that are bipartisan, there are Republicans who care about this, and there is a bipartisan Climate Solutions caucus and conversations across the aisle.

In the past, there were intentional disinformation campaigns around the issue, undermining trust in the science and encouraging people to think it’s all political. That has permeated our churches. A lot of it targeted evangelicals.

There’s also been a fear of solutions that look like they always require bigger government and the loss of freedom. Having a conversation across the aisle, with different people offering different solutions, helps depoliticize the conversation. Anything that contributes to depoliticizing the issue is good, from my perspective.

What are the big accomplishments YECA is celebrating at 10 years?

The growth in our college fellows program is a huge success. We’ve had 90 fellows from 40 different colleges and universities.

We’re really proud of our involvement in the policy landscape. In 2015, we had a letter-writing campaign to denominational leaders and the National Association of Evangelicals, which helped lead to the NAE adopting a statement on creation care and climate action. In 2016, YECA hosted prayer rallies at every Republican presidential debate and interacted with the candidates, letting them know there are Christians who care about the climate. In 2019, YECA was invited to testify before Congress, and we’ve worked a lot in the last year and a half on infrastructure and climate issues in the Build Back Better legislation.

We also look back at our presence at UN climate conferences. We help run the Christian Climate Observers Program there, which is a leadership development program that serves young people around the world, helping to develop a new generation of leaders on the national stage.

A lot of climate activists talk about being overwhelmed by despair. How do Christian activists deal with that?

Eco-anxiety, eco-depression, and eco-grief are all too real. I’m not immune to it, and neither are the young people we work with. I feel anxious about the future. I feel discouraged by the lack of action. I think that’s what makes it important for YECA to talk about.

But we can learn to hold despair in tension with hope, feeling this overwhelming sense of fear about the severity of the problem but also understanding that hope is important to taking action and combating that fear. I think that’s where, as a Christian organization, we bring something unique to the movement. We have a unique sense of hope and purpose. We understand this as part of our faith, part of our identity as followers of Christ.

We try to name it and create space for self-care and to pray for it, pray about it, and pour into our communities. And we remember that action can be a form of hope.

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Theology

Job’s Wife Urged Him to ‘Curse God and Die.’ Caregivers Get It.

Mélodie Kauffmann

It’s not necessary to condone her exhortations to curse God. But we should seek to understand them.

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: WikiMedia Commons / Getty / Unsplash

You’re reading the English translation of the winner of Christianity Today’s second annual essay contest for Christians who write in French. Learn more about the competition and CT’s multilingual work and check out the winning essays written originally in Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and Indonesian.

After seeing her husband lose his fortune, his family, and his health, Job’s wife is at her wit’s end. “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity?” she asks her husband in Job 2:9 (NLT). “Curse God and die!”

This is the only time Job’s wife’s voice appears in this 42-chapter book. We learn scant details about her. Even her name is unknown.

We know, however, that she is the wife of the book’s “hero.” A man described as “blameless and upright,” who “feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). A man who is wealthy, blessed with many children, and “the greatest man among all the people of the East” (v. 3).

As the story begins, the narrator presents Job to us as a man who is both upright and respected. We can therefore deduce that his wife is a woman of the upper class, probably as influential as her husband. As mother of a large family, manager of the household, she is used to a certain lifestyle. We do not know her degree of faith, but nothing suggests that she does not respect the God of her husband or follow his religious practices.

Suddenly, in just a few verses, her husband loses his herds and wealth (and with that his social status and power), his children, his servants, and finally his health:

“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes” (Job 2:7–8).

Job’s suffering is total: physical, moral, and spiritual.

And his wife is by his side. Like her husband, she has her share of loss to manage and a long process of mourning to go through. She also has lost her children! For that reason, it’s not surprising that she is outraged and angry with God, as Job is also shown to be a few chapters later.

Over the years, Bible commentators and preachers have not been kind to Job’s wife, labeling her as a weak, embittered woman who pushes her husband to blaspheme. Some even go so far as John Calvin, who called her an “instrument of Satan” in one of his sermons on the Book of Job.

However, because of my profession as a nurse, her cry reminds me of another very real suffering, even if it, too, sometimes struggles to be heard: the deep suffering of a patient’s family members.

While these loved ones may be spared the physical suffering of their sick relative, they have now adopted new multifaceted roles as the patient’s nurses, social workers, caretakers, or companions.

Such hardship is universal, and we find this culture of family support in the Bible. In the New Testament, for example, Peter's mother-in-law finds the care she needs with her daughter and son-in-law (Luke 4:38–39). Faced with serious afflictions, caretaking in this kind of situation can turn into a full-time job, without rest, 24 hours a day.

As if the tsunami that has just hit her life and her marriage is not enough, Job’s wife has to deal with seeing her husband suffer like a martyr—and being unable to offer him any relief. The gut-wrenching powerlessness one feels while watching a loved one suffer from a long, painful, disabling disease is terrible. It can enrage you, even against the whole world.

“Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die!” What despair, what anger hides behind these two sentences.

I am revolted by the cynicism of some who think, as Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary contends, that if Satan took everything from Job except his wife, it was to leave him with the additional torment of an embittered wife. Others might also suspect a financial interest on the part of someone asking too openly for a loved one’s death. Yet this is obviously impossible in the case of Job’s wife. Her husband has lost everything. She has no economic interest in his dying. She would have nothing left.

In her terrible words, perhaps she’s just a helpless wife who can’t stand to see her husband suffering so much. And this is love. Clumsy, misplaced, without recoil—but love. Or at least sympathy. She would rather push him to end his life quickly than have him suffer this agony indefinitely.

Even if it is difficult to hear, Job’s wife’s reaction pushes us to consider the issues faced by patients’ relatives—who also suffer, albeit in a different way. For instance, when one expresses a desire to end another’s suffering, we easily recognize that this comes from a place of not wanting to watch someone continue to be in relentless pain; it is not a callous desire to kill the person. Loved ones, especially caregivers, wrestle with complex and often conflicting emotions. Part of supporting them well, especially when they are caretakers, is hearing their inner turmoil, even when it’s ugly. Whether or not their words are as radical as those of Job’s wife, they too need support.

The idea of putting an end to someone’s suffering also reminds me of the contemporary issue of euthanasia. My point here is not to justify any kind of action or to draw from this text a possible legislation. (Euthanasia is prohibited in France, where I live.) Rather, I urge us to hear and understand the emotion that hides behind this issue.

Job’s wife is deeply human. Are we ready to hear her human emotions?

Job reacts strongly to his wife’s words, saying, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10) While the narrator notes that Job does not sin in all that he says, he also offers no documentation that God condemns Job’s wife for her statements. This is despite the fact that he later severely rebukes Job's friends for their remarks (42:7–9).

I believe it is possible to discern in this silence and nonjudgment from God that he hears and respects the pain of caregivers. God welcomes their emotions, their humanity, and their limits. Perhaps the story simply offers a space for reflection and shines another light on this sensitive issue of suffering and the end of life.

There are many ethical questions that arouse strong reactions or even immediate condemnations within us. Whatever the subject may be, before stepping up to the plate and fiercely brandishing prohibitions and judgments, are we willing to take a step back and try to understand the emotions inhabiting those we judge so easily?

God’s silence in response to Job’s wife’s harsh words can serve as a reminder: When we are the targets of people’s strong emotions, it is often prudent to at first remain silent and take the time to discern what lies behind their positions, rather than to immediately inflame conversations and relationships.

Learning to love caretakers will also better serve us in loving the sick. In my work, I realize that when people raise the possibility of euthanasia for themselves, the conversations are rarely initiated because my patients want to die or because their loved ones want to see them go.

Instead, patients are often afraid of aging or physically suffering, or they are already suffering and want it to stop; death appears to be the only solution. If patients can verbalize what they feel, it makes room for them to make decisions about care with family and medical staff without worrying that every option will just be reductively labeled as “bad” or “good.”

Many biblical texts, whether in the Psalms or the Prophets, let us see that God is ready to hear many things, even when they are unpleasant to our ears and disturb us. Suffering is sometimes expressed violently or in terms that shock us. Whether it is the sick or those that surround them, how are we offering to listen to those who suffer? Deeply listening and seeking to understand do not commit us to endorse the choices they might make.

This brief interjection by Job’s wife and the revolt she expresses offer us something very human that would be harmful for us to reject out of hand. Whatever we end up doing with her words, we need to hear her to better understand our own stories—and those of the people around us. The Book of Job tells us not only about crisis, loss, bereavement, illness, and the ensuing reactions but also about the companionship of loved ones, spouses, and friends in the lowest points of our lives.

And God? Despite his long silence, he is there and listening to us even in our sadness, anger, helplessness, and pain.

Mélodie Kauffmann is a nurse in intensive cardiology care in the city of Strasbourg, France. She is also attending courses at the Faculté libre de théologie évangélique in Vaux-sur-Seine (FLTE).

Translation from French by Sarah Buki

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Theology

‘For I Was Hungry’: The Verse Brazil’s Evangelicals Can Never Forget

Lucas Meloni

Will we be remembered for our political aspirations or for feeding the famished?

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: WikiMedia Commons / Unsplash

You’re reading the English translation of the winner of Christianity Today’s second annual essay contest for Christians who write in Portuguese. Learn more about the competition and CT’s multilingual work and check out the winning essays written originally in Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Spanish.

Brazil’s 2010 Census revealed that evangelicals in Brazil had reached nearly a quarter (22.2%) of the total population. Most expect this number to be even larger in the next census. In the most optimistic estimates, by 2040, Brazil’s evangelical population will surpass that of Catholics (who made up 64.4% of the population in the 2010 data).

As the number of evangelicals continues to rise, the community has the opportunity to grapple with the legacy it will leave on Brazil. What concrete impact should its presence have on the country? Perhaps more important, how will the lives of those who suffer the most change as a result of the expanding influence of evangelicals?

As the number of evangelicals grows, I expect the impact of our Christian witness on the country to also grow. But what will be the focus of our testimony: increasing our numbers in the halls of power or proclaiming the kingdom and caring for those who suffer?

Hunger in Brazil and in the Bible

Last July, Brazil returned to the United Nations’ Hunger Map eight years after it had first left. Today, at least 61 million Brazilians face some form of food insecurity, and 4 percent of the population suffers from chronic hunger. The data is alarming, especially since Brazil is a major global food producer. There is plenty of food; it just doesn’t make it to everyone’s table.

Hunger is a global problem, a part of human history since time immemorial. Famine and starvation show up numerous times in the Bible—along with God’s provision. In Genesis 46, God’s hand is evident in spurring Jacob and his sons to go to Egypt. The country was governed by the thought-to-be-dead Joseph, who, in a strategic move, had turned Egypt into the great granary of the world.

This theme recurs in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). In this parable, Jesus mentions an extreme famine that befell the region where the wayward son had fled after spending the entire share of his inheritance. We see the father’s mercy on that young man who was suffering the effects of hunger both physically (from the scarcity of food) and spiritually (from the separation from his father).

In Deuteronomy 15, God teaches his people about the year of remission, when creditors were to forgive their debtors. Here we see God’s concern and care that his people maintain a decent standard of living for all, in which no one suffers for want of essential needs. Verse 11 gives very clear instruction in this regard: “Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

Economic, social, energy, and hunger insecurity and crises are the fruit of the Fall. But this does not mean that God has lost control of history or that he has abandoned humanity to its own suffering. So, if God does not abandon us in pain, what should be the role of the Christian in the face of suffering?

The growing influence of evangelicals (as a result of their numerical growth) has led many in the church to be seduced by dreams of power and control and, with this, to forget the main focus of their testimony: love. However, the church in Brazil must not nurture a triumphal vision of growth and influence.

Christians were not called, rescued, saved, and set apart by the Lord to implement a system of power. Paul makes it very clear in Philippians 3:20 that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Our responsibility is to proclaim the kingdom not only by preaching the Word but also by shifting the reality of sin’s curse to display the beauty and grandeur of the Lord.

Hunger is one example of the devastating effects of sin. Until that perfect time when we will live in the future kingdom of God, we will struggle with sin and suffering. Beyond fulfilling our roles as citizens, we need to understand our roles as servants of God. To do this, we must understand what God, through his servants, has done in the world in harmony with his perfect purpose. There are certainly good examples of Christian witness.

Christian witness in the midst of those who suffer

Ten years ago, Georg Emmerich, a Methodist pastor, opened the Igreja nas Ruas (Church in the Streets) in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a state in the country’s impoverished northeast. Emmerich believed that too often the church was limited to its four walls when its ministry really began outside them.

When the number of homeless people began to increase in Natal, Emmerich and other believers decided to start a project aimed at serving daily meals and offering a mobile bath service to the community. Since 2013, they have provided 40,000 meals and 10,400 baths.

In mid-2020, he and other volunteers installed washbasins at various locations around greater Natal so that homeless people could wash their hands and have more protection in the fight against COVID-19. In addition to these actions, the church engages in evangelization and discipleship ministries and helps those struggling with addiction enter rehab.

Sinvaldo Queiroz founded Casa da Vida (House of Life), a ministry in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, also in the northeast, that provides accommodations for impoverished patients traveling far distances to receive treatment from the city’s hospital. He and his Baptist congregation have also organized efforts like Juntos pela Bahia (United for Bahia) in response to the flooding caused by heavy rains in late 2021 and early 2022. In partnership with the Brazilian Evangelical Alliance, they received volunteers from churches throughout Brazil who helped distribute food and water, showing compassion and solidarity. To Queiroz, the power of an engaging witness from gospel-centered faith communities that understand the integrality of the mission, while not always measurable, makes an important difference.

Many Christian organizations are also involved in compassion efforts. Last year, the Brazilian Baptist Convention’s National Mission Board distributed more than 600 basic food baskets, as well as bottles of mineral water and milk, to low-income families affected by three natural disasters. World Vision partnered with 500 churches and more than 1,200 religious leaders to better serve Brazil’s most impoverished. “We have to reinforce Christ’s message of caring for the poor in our churches,” says Thiago Crucciti, the national director of Visão Mundial Brasil. “We Christians must go out and serve the vulnerable where they are.”

The Cristolândia project, a ministry helping those addicted to drugs, is another great example. (The name—“Christland” in English—is a play on words comparing the project to the Portuguese pejorative Cracolândia or “Crackland,” commonly used to describe large concentrations of drug users.) Created by the Brazilian Baptist Convention’s National Mission Board in 2009, the organization now has more than 40 units in nine states.

Like hunger, drugs are another example of the devastation of sin. Initiatives such as Cristolândia that offer support and evangelization should be replicated by churches everywhere in Brazil. What should unite Christians is Christ and the proclamation of his gospel and his presence in the midst of suffering. After all, he is “God with us,” Immanuel.

More evangelicals, more love, more impact

Hunger, addiction, violence, and other such problems are all symptoms of sin—signs of a society that is sick and estranged from God. Although these evils are not exclusive to Brazil, with such a large evangelical population, we should play a more active role. This includes not only praying, campaigning for public policies, and overseeing the correct use of public resources but also implementing, within our own local communities and organizations, projects that announce the kingdom and alleviate suffering.

One place to start is to evaluate every area of our lives from a Christian worldview and understand that we cannot ignore the impact of sin that surrounds us. To this end, Gerson Pacheco, the former director of ChildFund Brasil, argues that gospel proclamation and social transformation need to go hand in hand but are two distinct interventions.

According to Pacheco, evangelicals fulfill the mandate to proclaim the gospel, but they do not pay as much attention to issues such as hunger and poverty. He claims that the Brazilian evangelical church, in general, is unaware of and does not work with poverty data in Brazil. Because the church fails to implement this data, adopt a methodology, and plan, most of its projects are limited to mere assistencialism. Therefore, its efforts do not generate lasting transformation or social impact.

Social transformation involves not only welfare-type programs but also care and sustainability—which require knowledge, time, and dedication. It is not enough to plant. We must also water, prune, and fertilize if we want to reap fruit and produce sustainability in our initiatives and effectiveness in our testimony.

Evangelical Brazil has much to learn in terms of witness. And it starts by meeting the basic needs of the people around us.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matt. 25:35–36).

Lucas Meloni is a journalist at Rádio Trans Mundial (RTM) and a communications coordinator for First Baptist Church of São Caetano do Sul. He studies at the São Paulo Baptist College of Theology (FTBSP) and is the author of Escritos de um Suburbano(Writings of a Suburbanite).

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Theology

We Shudder at Abraham Sacrificing Isaac. But We Have Our Own Altars.

Rebeca Martínez Gómez

We may flinch at seeing the revered patriarch nearly end his own son’s life. But what do we miss when viewing this story through contemporary eyes?

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: WikiMedia Commons / Getty / Unsplash

You’re reading the English translation of the winner of Christianity Today’s second annual essay contest for Christians who write in Spanish. Learn more about the competition and CT’s multilingual work and check out the winning essays written originally in Portuguese, French, Indonesian, and Chinese.

One of the most dramatic moments of the entire Bible occurs when Abraham reaches out his hand to take the knife, ready to sacrifice his son Isaac in obedience to the Lord (Gen. 22:10). Considering the customs of the time with regard to child sacrifices, perhaps the Lord's request did not seem so far-fetched to Abraham. Except that, of course, the Lord had promised Abraham that he would multiply his offspring “as the stars of heaven” through this son (21:12; 26:4).

But according to Hebrews 11:19, Abraham obeyed God because he “reasoned that God could even raise the dead.” As we know, the Lord did not let Abraham harm Isaac but provided a ram for the sacrifice (Gen. 22:12–13). After Abraham’s demonstration of reverence to God, the Lord promised to bless him to the point that all nations would also be blessed through his offspring (v. 18).

This passage marks a radical contrast with the practice of the other nations of Abraham's time (and continuing in subsequent centuries) that did sacrifice their children to pagan gods. Even some of the Israelites did so, in total disobedience to God (2 Kings 16:3).

Today it is almost impossible to identify ourselves with this event in the lives of Abraham and Isaac. We can’t fathom offering our children as a physical, living sacrifice before God, much less sacrificing them to pagan gods.

But is it true that the days of offering our children in sacrifice are so far behind us? Or is it possible we haven’t realized what idols and gods we have raised up in our days? What would it look like to offer our children to God in the 21st century?

A modern idol

Several years ago, my husband and I moved to the United States to attend graduate school and had our only son during this time. Since the moment I learned he was in the womb, planning his education became a priority for both me and my husband. In particular, I remember wanting him to have the opportunities that I did not have during my formative years.

Upon entering my graduate program in the United States, I soon realized that I was at a significant disadvantage in comparison to my peers. I had grown up in Mexico as the daughter of a single mother who did not have the opportunity to attend college and had to work hard to secure my education. I did not have the opportunity to learn arts and music like many of my peers, and often felt out of place by not being able to participate in their conversations. They had had experiences that had expanded their knowledge in areas of culture that I never had access to.

For this reason, I decided my son would never endure a similar experience. I felt it was my responsibility to provide him with the educational and cultural opportunities that I did not have. So, at four years old, our son was already studying violin in the children's classes at the university, and I planned his summers with classes and activities in arts, sports, science and technology.

Perhaps it is important to clarify that my husband and I had been calling ourselves followers of Christ for several years, and at this point in our history, we were attending an evangelical megachurch where my husband served as an interpreter and I taught children's classes.

We were Christians and were actively involved in the life of the church. However, we still loved what the Bible calls “the world”: its perspective, its values, and, evidently, its idols.

Without knowing it, we were willing to take our son to the altar of the world and give him up before another god: education aimed at achieving success and a better social status.

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The world according to Scripture

In the New Testament, the apostle John warns Christians to not “love the world or anything in the world.” (1 John 2:15). And John divides into three parts what he refers to when he speaks of the world: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (v. 16).

To express the meaning of pride, other Bible translations use the terms vainglory, boastful pride, or arrogance. The point John conveys is that what is attractive to the flesh, what we lust for with our eyes, and any desirable thing that causes us to boast once we have obtained it is of the world. The litmus test for whether something is of the world or not is whether it is contrary to the desires of the Spirit of God (Gal. 5:16–17).

Followers of Christ are, by definition, those who have been transformed by the Spirit of God to seek the kingdom of God above all things. Although we were born into the world and by nature pursued the desires of the flesh, Christians have found something whose value is infinitely superior to all that the world and the pleasures of the flesh can offer. We are those who have found a pearl “of great value” and leave everything behind—or sell all that we have—to buy it (Matt. 13:46).

John suggests that we can judge our own salvation based on whether we seek the things of the world or the things of God. “If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15). According to his argument, love for the world repels love for the Father and vice versa; that is, they cannot coexist.

One foot in the world, One foot in the kingdom

The temptation to keep one foot in the world tends to be overwhelming. We tell ourselves that it’s necessary to adapt our lives to this world's values, even if only partially. Many times, it seems logical to teach our children that the goal of their formative years is to prepare them for an adult life in which they can exchange their work for as much money as possible and get ahead of others in the race for success. But in doing this, are we not preparing them for the altar of the world?

In the same vein, few parents today teach their children to be content with merely having sufficient food to eat and clothes to cover themselves. Today’s Western society suggests that instructing our children this way is preparing them for mediocrity. However, being content with food and clothing is exactly what the New Testament teaches (1 Tim.6:8).

If we are honest, all Christian parents struggle with this to a certain extent. Our natural instinct and desire are to do everything in our power to ensure the well-being of our children.

But too often, we want to be in control of our children's future rather than to trust and rely on God. And as we know, whenever we act according to our own understanding, things do not turn out well. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (Prov. 16:25).

If we raise our children to seek education to get more money and status in the name of securing a better future, we are driving them in the way of the world. And “God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Gal. 6:7).

It is common to hear Christian parents say that they send their children to school not only to learn but also to be light and salt. But if we do not stop to analyze our motivations, we might as well pursue our children's education with the same motives as non-believing parents.

According to Barna research, between 2011 and 2018, “the percentage of young-adult [church] dropouts … increased from 59 to 64 percent. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. 18–29-year-olds who grew up in church … have withdrawn from church involvement as an adult after having been active as a child or teen.”

When we see the children we believed we were raising in the church turn away from the faith as they reach adulthood, is it possible that we were actually raising them according to the values of the world?

Analyzing our motivations

At this point, it is important to clarify that while the approach that sees education as a means to pursue and achieve success is certainly part of the snares of this world, education itself is not necessarily of the world. God gave us the ability to learn, and many have argued biblically for the value of education.

Rather, what we must examine is our motivations. God sees our hearts (1 Sam. 16:7). We must ask ourselves, Why do I want my child to receive the best education possible? Why do I want my son or daughter to belong to this particular sports league? How we answer—either with a response that honors God or one that glorifies the world— will determine if we love God above all else.

Do I want my son to play a sport so he will achieve a better social status or so he will glorify God in his body by exercising? Do I want him to learn a musical instrument so he will praise the Lord or simply because “well-educated” children play music? Do I want him to get a good job so he will use his knowledge and skills for the kingdom of God or just so he will have a life of abundance and a good socioeconomic status?

A living sacrifice

What would it look like, then, to offer our children to God nowadays? We would do well to begin by imitating Abraham's example: listening to God's instruction and obeying even when God's call may seem to run counter to the promise of success.

Like Abraham, we must believe that God will fulfill his promises regardless of our circumstances, for success is assured to those who love God (Rom. 8:28). To offer our children to God is to agree to let go of the reins and give God the space to fulfill His promise of success. The prosperity and success that God promises will always come on God's terms and not according to worldly interpretation of these terms.

Our son is now thirteen years old, and over the past few years we have walked hand in hand with the Lord, learning step by step to live a more contented life under God's provision. We have learned to pray that God's will be done in his life, not ours.

Our calling as God's redeemed people is to seek His glory at all times (1 Cor. 10:31). The goal of God's children is to please and serve him—not to do anything for the sake of ambition or conceit (Phil. 2:3) or other people’s approval but to do it for the Lord (Col. 3:23).

Let us ask God for forgiveness if in ignorance we have taught our children to worship idols and worldly values rather than to be living sacrifices to God. Let us rest in God's promises, for the Word says, “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

Rebeca Martínez Gómez is originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, and holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of New Mexico. She lives with her husband and son in Albuquerque, where the Lord called them to evangelize and plant a church.

Translation into English by Livia Giselle Seidel.

Our Church Budget Isn’t for Building a State-of-the-Art Sanctuary

Roy Soto

Networking for Dummies

Mark Begly

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Theology

Joseph Forgave His Estranged Brothers. So Can You?

Joe Shing Yung Tsoi

His response to his treacherous siblings invites us to reevaluate similar relationships in our lives.

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: WikiMedia Commons / Unsplash / Pexels

You’re reading the English translation of the winner of Christianity Today’s second annual essay contest for Christians who write in Chinese. Learn more about the competition and CT’s multilingual work and check out the winning essays written originally in Portuguese, French, Indonesian, and Spanish.

—

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!” (Gen. 45:4)

“Come close to me” is a simple statement. But it also signals an act of restoration.

Joseph, the victim, made a seemingly ordinary remark to his brothers, the perpetrators. He had experienced an accumulation of hurt from an unfortunate past and conflicting emotions. The sorrows of Joseph’s life constantly stalked him after his brothers betrayed him. Now, facing his past perpetrators from a high and prosperous position of power, he could have easily retaliated against them to alleviate his psychological and practical pain. Instead, he chose to praise God for his providence, reveal his own identity to his brothers, and show mercy to them (Gen. 45:5).

"Come close to me” is a phrase that may also have surfaced in the nightmares of a deeply wounded Joseph. As a young boy, Joseph was ignorant to the point that after God revealed a vision to him, he approached his brothers and shared it with them without reservation. Yet this only made them become jealous of him. Later, when his father, Jacob, asked him to go to his brothers, he went out obediently. However, the purpose of his brothers' “coming close” to him was to kill and sell him. Their “coming close” caused Joseph the greatest harm.

The brothers’ murderous intent toward Joseph also revealed the evil in their hearts. While imprisoned by Joseph in Egypt ( because they were accused of being spies), they reasoned to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.” (Gen. 42:21). Their imprisonment reminded them of the evil they had done to young Joseph, leading them to think their current situation was retribution from God.

Brother against brother

Like Joseph’s story of sibling conflict in the Bible, we often hear in the news about discord and strife between siblings, parents, and spouses. Families comprise relationships that are supposed to provide us with a sense of security, comfort, and freedom. But some families may bring about feelings of fear and helplessness.

The breakdown of relationships in a family is a common and unfortunate situation. Close, intimate relationships can become severely damaged from causes of conflict such as parental bias, generational and personality differences, and varying levels of ability to handle situations.

Sibling rivalry is a universal issue. Last year, an 11-year-old Japanese girl recorded 100 arguments among her three other siblings in just 10 days for a summer homework project.

In some instances, conflict arises when brothers and sisters fight over family inheritances. In other instances, sibling rivalry may arise because of cultural values like showing respect and deference toward their seniors. Take this example of two Chinese brothers involved in caring for their father, who lived with dementia: The younger brother volunteered to take on more responsibility concerning their father’s care because he felt that his older brother had low self-esteem and lacked decision-making skills. He grew increasingly frustrated as his older brother did not cooperate with his caregiving arrangements.

After going through counseling, the younger brother realized that his older sibling perceived him as disrespectful for acting as if he was in charge . Upon improving their communication styles and collaborative efforts, the brothers were able to understand each other more fully. Their conflict became an opportunity to reconcile long-standing differences.

The courage to forgive

Disputes between siblings may occur every day, and grievances may grow deeper and deeper. It is often difficult for a mediator to intervene and determine right from wrong as the roles of perpetrator and victim may be dynamic and interchangeable.

The relationship between perpetrator and victim is complex, entangled, and enduring. The perpetrator seems to wield an overabundance of power to oppress and bully the victim. However, the perpetrator’s actions of oppression and harm may stem from a heart filled with fear and cowardice. Some perpetrators may want to draw closer to their victims, but they use unhealthy ways to express themselves and thus continue to perpetuate harm.

These days, domestic abuse victims can seek support from institutions or churches to receive counseling and help for their bodies, minds, and souls. And if the perpetrators are self-aware, they can also seek guidance and assistance. These are some of the appropriate ways and means to unravel tangled relationships and move toward reconciliation within the family unit.

However, the state of each person’s heart is the crux of the matter.

When Joseph looked back on his life and realized that his suffering at others’ hands could nevertheless reflect God's mercy and goodness (Gen. 50:20), I believe the shadow in his heart faded away and his hurt was relieved. He was able to step out of the shackles of the victimized and say, “Please come closer to me” with a fearless heart, extending an olive branch of restoration to his brothers.

When Joseph, the victim in this story, issued an unexpected gesture of reconciliation to his brothers, they became suddenly aware and convicted of their past mistakes.

Reconciliation is the beginning of repairing a broken relationship and opens the door to ending cycles of abuse within that relationship. This is not the world’s way of violence for violence but the biblical way of overcoming evil with good (Rom. 12:21).

Joe Shing Yung Tsoi has been an editor for over ten years in a Christian institution in Hong Kong. He has edited dozens of books and journals. He earned a master’s degree in Chinese language and literature from Hong Kong Baptist University and a master’s degree in Christian studies from Hong Kong Alliance Bible Seminary.

Working Behind the Curtain

Drew Dyck

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Theology

Hagar’s Unhappiness Helps Me Parent Fragile Kids

Tomy Handaka Patria

From an enslaved Old Testament woman’s trials, I learn to raise the “strawberry generation.”

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: WikiMedia Commons / Unsplash

You’re reading the English translation of the winner of Christianity Today’s second annual essay contest for Christians who write in Indonesian. Learn more about the competition and CT’s multilingual work, and check out the winning essays written originally in Portuguese, French, Chinese, and Spanish.

—

At its core, life is a challenge. A challenge that requires people to have the mental equipment to either face it or avoid it. (Rhenald Kasali, Strawberry Generation , 2017)

Several years ago, economist Rhenald Kasali wrote about the current cohort of young Indonesian people that many of have referred to as the “strawberry generation.” The fruit metaphor has become popular as a way of expressing both this cohort’s beauty and propensity to bruise easily. Currently experiencing far greater prosperity than their parents and grandparents and often praised for their creativity, the strawberry generation has also been criticized for wilting in the face of adversity, being overly sensitive, and hunting for quick ways to achieve something.

As a father of two children, one of whom is a teenager, I have come to suspect I may have “strawberries” growing in my household. My concerns have become compounded by an increasingly sophisticated digital world and a pandemic that has forced my children to live online for the last few years.

In searching for wisdom on how to best parent my children in the coming years, I’ve turned to Genesis, a book full of stories of imperfect patriarchs. Specifically, I’ve returned multiple times to the story of Hagar (Gen. 16) and learned that sometimes God allows his people to endure hardship so they can understand his beautiful plan.

Hagar, an Egyptian woman, had been taken as a slave by Sarai, Abram’s wife. When God commanded Abram and Sarai to leave their homeland, he promised to make their descendants into a great nation (Gen. 12:2). However, after roughly ten years without becoming pregnant, Sarai gave Hagar to Abram. (At the time, it was a common practice in Mesopotamia for a barren wife to give her female slave to her husband to bear children for her.)

Hagar soon became pregnant, which is where the story’s conflict begins. Hagar despised Sarai now that she was carrying her master’s child. After expressing her jealous feelings to Abram, Sarai made life difficult for Hagar. Unable to bear living under her mistress’s oppression, Hagar ran away, an action that corresponds to the root meaning of her name in Hebrew: “to flee.”

Amid her escape, an angel appeared to Hagar and expressed three things to her—directions that I believe offer wisdom to those experiencing parenting dilemmas today.

1. “Go back to your mistress and submit to her” (Gen. 16:9).

At first glance, it may seem a little strange when the angel orders Hagar to return to Sarai. Instead of relieving Hagar’s suffering, the angel commands her to endure the abuse at the hands of her mistress. It calls to mind the Javanese idiom Kuthuk marai sunduk (lit., “A chick approaches a skewer”), which roughly means, “Why go somewhere if you know you’ll be in danger there?”

Through this strange command, the angel teaches Hagar that she must recognize and address the problems within her before dealing with anything else. Hagar struggles with the tendency to flee from difficult situations. She may justly feel like life has not treated her fairly. After all, she has been living as a slave, impregnated (presumably without her consent) by her master and bullied by her mistress. Indeed, other people have been making her life miserable. But the angel does not see this as a valid excuse for her to run away.

Many of us in older generations have been critical of what we see as the strawberry generation’s tendency to avoid dealing with problems. But part of this tendency likely started with us as parents. According to Kasali, parents these days often excessively hover over their children and tell them what they should do. Their anxiety about possible challenges or problems their children may encounter makes parents overprotective.

If he wanted to, God could instantly eliminate all the problems in our lives (Luke 1:37). However, as we have no doubt experienced, God often allows us to deal with our myriad challenges. Why does he do this? God’s ultimate goal for our lives on earth is not comfort but character development, as pastor Rick Warren has written. God wants us to grow up spiritually and become like Christ. The story of Hagar’s escape teaches us that God wants his children to face their problems, not run away from them.

Because they have had no physical interaction with their teachers and peers during the pandemic, my children have issues with social skills, lack discipline, and tend to give up when faced with challenging tasks—all behaviors that fall under Kasali’s strawberry-generation categorizations. This is a concern for my wife and me primarily in relation to our second child, who has almost never stepped inside a school building.

The angel’s directions to Hagar have encouraged us to stand back and watch our daughter overcome problems independently on occasion. For example, we don’t always help her with schoolwork. Sometimes this makes her sad because it means she may not get the grades she wants. Other times, we push her into interacting with new friends at church.

Her days spent doing school online have made her reliant on her older brother and parents. However, we know that our children need to learn to face difficulties for their good (Rom. 8:28). For it is precisely through these challenges that our children will be forged into mature Christians (James 1:3–4), ready to accept God’s call when the time comes. As parents, we do our best to explain our reasoning to them, as we do not want our children to suffer unreasonably; we want them to work through these hardships to mature them.

2. “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count” (Gen. 16:10).

The angel promises that Hagar will have many children. Is this not a great relief for her? Because of God’s promise, Hagar no longer has to feel like a victim of circumstances. The child she carries is not the result of an “accident” but a gift from God (Gen. 17:20).

This understanding gives Hagar the strength to deal with life’s challenges under Sarai’s oppression. Hagar also shows this strength by calling the Angel of the Lord El Roi, which means “the God who sees” (16:13). She realizes that she has experienced an encounter with God (which is why the Indonesian Bible Society uses capital letters when referring to the angel in this chapter).

Most likely, when Hagar returns to Abram and Sarai, she also brings good news, reminding them that God is still present and will not forget his promise. We, the readers, come to see that Hagar’s hardships are neither tragic nor meaningless.

In early 2022, our family was called to missionary service to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This has extended the online school period for our children, as they still need to finish their school year in Indonesia. We currently live in a high-rise, and our children struggle to play with the local kids because of the language barrier. We frequently see them sad when they can only watch from their computer screens as their friends—who have all returned to normal life—have fun together in the classroom. In the early days of our move, our children often asked why we had to live this way.

We don’t want our children to easily bruise. Yet the story of Hagar’s escape reminds my wife and me to teach our children to see God’s grace and plans behind every challenge they experience. God has given them the opportunity not only to live in a foreign country but also to learn a new culture and hone their English skills, as most Indonesian children in our church are born in Cambodia and attend international schools.

It is also an opportunity for them to witness firsthand the necessity of service to people who have not yet become acquainted with God. In conversations with my children, their gratitude for God’s grace and awareness of God’s plan have been apparent and this gratitude has profoundly changed them. Besides their newly emerging appreciation for life in a foreign country, they often enthusiastically tell their friends in Indonesia about what missionary service and the people’s lives are like.

3. “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery” (Gen. 16:11).

The angel gives the name Ishmael, meaning “God hears,” to the child in Hagar’s womb. Now, Hagar will always be reminded that God unfailingly pays attention to the misery of his servants. Not a single incident in the lives of his servants escapes God’s attention (Matt. 10:29–31). This is the case not only for Ishmael, “God hears,” but also for Immanuel, “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). Christ’s sacrifice proves all.

My children are digital natives and are very proficient in using information technology. What’s more, they were raised in Indonesian culture, which is very active on social media. (According to 2022 reports, almost 70% of Indonesians engage in social media and use it for an average of 3 hours, 17 minutes a day.) Used to searching for everything on the internet, my children tend to use social media to escape when they have problems. Unfortunately, significant misinformation about the Christian faith circulates on social media, and the platforms can also easily enable unhealthy peer comparison and bullying.

The story of Hagar’s escape has taught me to instill in my children that they have a God who is always ready to hear their hearts’ cry. I have realized that no matter how strong they may be in the future, there will always be situations that can bring them down. They need to have the faith that only God’s help is reliable (Ps. 46:1). They also need to learn that while their friends can easily unfollow them on social media, they have a God whose faithful love will endure, even if the earth may be destroyed (Isa. 54:10). From God alone, the true strength originates.

I hope that the story of Hagar’s escape will inspire you, as it has me, to educate our children so they do not grow into a strawberry generation. Like the rest of us, they will forever be fragile clay vessels. But it is precisely through that fragility that they can radiate the abundant power of God to those around them (2 Cor. 4:7). They can experience God in their life challenges as Hagar did: “I have now seen the One who sees me” (Gen. 16:13).

Tomy Handaka Patria is an ordained minister from Gereja Beth-El Tabernakel. He currently serves at Khalibre, an IT business as mission in Cambodia that develops Crosswired, a secure portal and social learning community for mission organizations. During his spare time, he is actively developing digital ministry through studibiblika.id and contributing as a volunteer writer for Got Questions Ministries.

Translated from Indonesian by Adam Mele.

An Indonesian Family Drama Helped Me See God’s Sovereignty in the Pandemic

Vika Rahelia

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Theology

Read the Winners of Christianity Today’s Second International Essay Contest

Morgan Lee

Wisdom, perspective, and theological understanding from Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, and Indonesian writers.

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: Unsplash

Hagar’s unhappiness helps one Indonesian father become a better parent.

A Mexican mother reflects on the parallels between Abraham nearly sacrificing Isaac and the false idols that tempt families to sacrifice their children today.

A Chinese writer ponders the ramifications of Joseph’s decision to bring his brothers close after a life-changing betrayal.

A Brazilian writer explores the significance of his country’s growing evangelical population even as the number of people going hungry increases.

A French nurse asks what we can learn from Job’s wife’s demand that her husband “curse God and die.”

These are the themes and questions the winners of Christianity Today’s second annual essay contest wrestled with. As we open 2023, we’re delighted to be sharing pieces originally written in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Indonesian with our English readers.

For this contest, we received more than 140 submissions from 26 different countries. These essays were meticulously reviewed by our language editorial teams and then assessed anonymously by a team of judges. Thank you to these judges for their time and thoughtfulness. And thank you to everyone who submitted an essay for deeply engaging your faith and the world.

The winners of our first international essay contest can be read here.

We’re currently entering our fourth year of building out CT Global’s language ministries. If you’re interested in assisting us in growing this work, here’s where you can learn more about our translation and social media roles.

If you’re interested in reading CT in another language, check out our 2,500 articles in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Indonesian, Korean, Russian, and more.

Any feedback you’d like to share with us? Please share it here. Thank you for reading!

—Morgan Lee CT Global managing editor

Spanish

We Shudder at Abraham Sacrificing Isaac. But We Have Our Own Altars.

Rebeca Martínez Gómez

Editorial director: Livia Giselle Seidel, México/United States

Project coordinator: Sofía Castillo, Argentina

Judges:

  • Luis Fajardo, Spain: general director of Sociedad Bíblica (Bible Society of Spain), elder at the Asamblea de Hermanos in Valladolid, and professor of biblical Hebrew
  • Wendy Bello, Cuba/USA: international author and speaker. She serves with LifeWay Women and is currently pursuing an MA at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
  • Harold Segura, Colombia/Costa Rica: pastor, theologian, and director of World Vision's Faith and Development Department for Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Daniel Puerto, Honduras/México: editorial coordinator of Poiema Publications and executive director at Soldados de Jesucristo. He studied at the Rio Grande Bible Institute and is currently pursuing an MA at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
  • Sergio Villanueva, México/USA: author, songwriter, and graphic artist. He serves as campus pastor at Iglesia del Pueblo in Chicago, Illinois.
  • Noa Alarcón, Spain: writer and translator specializing in theology and biblical texts, with studies in Hispanic and Hebraic philology
  • Óscar Fernández H., Costa Rica: theologian and doctoral candidate in socioreligious studies. He also serves as coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean of Global Proclamation Academies (Academias de Proclamación Global) and is a member of the Core Global Team at Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health (RREACH) ministry.

Portuguese

‘For I Was Hungry’: The Verse Brazil’s Evangelicals Can Never Forget

Lucas Meloni

Editorial director: Marisa Lopes, Brazil

Project coordinator: Mariana Albuquerque, Brazil

Judges:

  • Gutierres Fernandes Siqueira: journalist, theologian, and author of five books
  • Renato Marinoni: pastor of Igreja Batista Metrópole (Metropolitan Baptist Church) in São Paulo and founder of Instituto de Adoração, Cultura e Arte (Institute of Worship, Culture, and Art)
  • Zé Bruno: influencer and host of the videocast Entre amigos (Among Friends), a weekly show with influential Christians around the world

Indonesian

Hagar’s Unhappiness Helps Me Parent Fragile Kids

Tomy Handaka Patria

Editorial director: Maria Fennita, Indonesia

Judges:

  • Rev. Wahyu Pramudya: lead pastor of Indonesian Christian Church–Ngagel (Gereja Kristen Indonesia Ngagel), Surabaya, and founder of ributrukun.net
  • Rev. Lucky Samuel: worship pastor of Church of Christ Jesus–Mangga Besar (Gereja Kristus Yesus Mangga Besar), Jakarta, and lecturer of liturgy at Amanat Agung Theological Seminary (Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Amanat Agung), Jakarta
  • Fini Chen: supervisor of SDH-SLH professional development and curriculum enrichment team, Tangerang

French

Job’s Wife Urged Him to ‘Curse God and Die.’ Caregivers Get It.

Mélodie Kauffmann

Editorial director: Léo Lehmann, Belgium

Judges:

  • Lesly Jules, United States/Haiti: apologist, author of Objections Rejetées: Une Approche Apologétique Classique (Rejected Objections: A Classical Apologetics Approach), and management specialist
  • Marjorie Legendre, France: pastor in the Paris area and professor of ethics at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Évangélique (Seminary of Evangelical Theology of Vaux-sur-Seine, FLTE)
  • Fara Daniel Tolno, Guinea: pastor and professor of apologetics and missiology at the Institut de Théologie Évangélique de Conakry (Institute of Evangelical Theology of Conakry, ITEC)

Chinese

Joseph Forgave His Estranged Brothers. So Can You?

Joe Shing Yung Tsoi

Editorial director: Sean Cheng, CT Asia Editor, United States/China

Editorial coordinator: Yiting Tsai, United States/Taiwan

Social media ambassador: Ivan Cen, United Kingdom/China

Judges:

  • Virginia Fong-hsiang Chen, Taiwan: editor, seminary lecturer, writer. She holds an MDiv from Taiwan Lutheran Theological Seminary, a ThM degree from Taiwan Theological Seminary and is studying towards a PhD degree in Old Testament Theology from Taiwan Theological Seminary. She is CEO and editor in chief of Faith-Hope-Love website.
  • Jerry An, United States/China: new media pastor, producer, publisher. He also serves as executive director of ReFrame Ministries Chinese.
  • Tsun-en Lu, United States/Taiwan: minister, trainer. He holds an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary and is currently finishing up PhD studies. In addition, Lu serves as director of training ministries of Ambassadors for Christ.

Announcing the Winners of Christianity Today’s First International Essay Contest

Morgan Lee

Theology

AI Might Teach, But It Can’t Preach

Russell Moore

No, our future children or grandchildren will not be evangelized by a robot.

Christianity Today January 26, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: Alex Workman / Lightstock

This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

ChatGPT, the eerily accurate artificial intelligence (AI) information-gathering and writing chatbot that launched this past November, is worrying a growing number of people.

Teachers are wondering how a genuine high-school or college essay will be possible again when any student could produce, within minutes, a fully formed, original, footnoted paper. Some ask whether this or future AI could do job-performance reviews for employees. And some are starting to ponder whether the smart tech could be headed for another place: the pulpits of our churches.

Journalist Matt Labash, in a delightfully “neo-Luddite” rant in his newsletter, noted that New York rabbi Josh Franklin had the chatbot write an entire sermon for him. He didn’t tell his congregation until afterward that the sermon was written by someone else.

When he asked them to guess who wrote it, they identified the late rabbi Jonathan Sacks—perhaps the most renowned Jewish preacher of the past 20 years. Imagine the synagogue’s reaction when they were told that the sermon they liked so much was assembled with zero human contribution.

Is that the future of Christian preaching? You might respond, “Of course not.” Maybe you just can’t believe such a thing could happen. But imagine trying to explain Google or a smartphone Bible app to a person 30 years ago. What if everywhere-accessible AI could write completely orthodox, biblically anchored, and compellingly argued sermons for pastors every week?

Garrison Keillor told a story about a man whose pastor asked whether he believed in infant baptism. The man responded, “Believe in it? … I’ve seen it done!” If we’re asking whether artificial intelligence can know the Bible, research themes and backgrounds, and write applications to life and imperatives for action—well, we’ve seen it done.

But the real question is not about technological possibility. It’s not really about church leadership ethics either. Rather, the question is about what preaching actually is.

When I first told my pastor that I thought maybe God was calling me to full-time ministry—at age 12 or so—he told me I would preach in three weeks on a Sunday night. I said, “I don’t mean he’s calling me now; I mean, like, when I grow up.” He answered, “Well, I’m calling you now, and I’m going to teach you what to do.” And he did. He gave me a book of “sermon starters,” outlines of biblical texts, and possible applications. He offered some tips for speaking and on interpreting the text.

When that Sunday night came around, I went into the little bathroom beside the baptistery of our Baptist church and threw up both right before and right after preaching. The sermon was awful—and I’m glad it wasn’t recorded.

I wouldn’t recommend handling the situation quite that way, but there was something beautiful in it. He knew that I would look out on a congregation of people whom I loved and who loved me—who taught me in Sunday school and Training Union and Vacation Bible School and Bible sword drills. He knew I would see their familiar faces beaming back at me, reassuring that they were for me no matter how I stammered or lost my place.

He knew that afterward they would encourage me and pray for me, no matter how bad the sermon was. And he knew that the very presence of this little guy in the pulpit would remind the congregation that the gospel went forward into the future—that God was still “sending the light” and calling out the called.

In that moment, something happened for me—beyond the content on the page or the way I said the words. In fact, I’m not sure I could even really describe what that “something” was.

Over the years, when teaching seminary classes or ministering in pastor cohorts, I found that the primary problem for most of my students was not a lack of competence in discerning biblical truth or speaking in front of crowds.

I know there are some current and aspiring preachers who don’t take the Bible or the task of preaching seriously. (Know it? I’ve seen it!) But that was seldom the case with virtually anyone I ever taught. Rather, for some, the tendency was to collate commentaries and then diagram the text down to points and subpoints and sub-subpoints.

What many of those students eventually started to see was that the preaching moment is more than the sum of its parts. And in the best of cases, our audiences should witness the same thing. Yes, preaching needs someone who knows the text and can convey that to the people—but it’s not just about transmitting information.

The preacher is delivering good news. That’s true even when the sermon speaks of God’s judgment. After John the Baptist told his listeners they were vipers who should flee the wrath to come, chaff that would soon be burned with unquenchable fire, Luke writes, “With many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them” (3:18).

When you hear a sermon, you’re not hearing the equivalent of a motivational speech or even a biblical, theological, or ethical seminar. An AI program will likely be able to do all of that—maybe even with special attention paid to doctrinal tradition, denominational affiliation, and preferred Bible translation.

Since ChatGPT can replicate the writing of Ernest Hemingway or William Shakespeare on command, there’s no reason why it couldn’t follow the instruction to write a sermon in the style of, say, Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, or Joel Osteen.

To the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul writes of himself and those with him this way: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). When we listen to the Word preached, we are hearing not just a word about God but a word from God.

Can the ambassador garble the communication from the embassy? Sure. Could an unscrupulous diplomat rewrite the transmission? It happens all the time. And that’s why the congregation needs biblical grounding and the Spirit’s wisdom to weigh the message.

The gravity of preaching the Word isn’t the same as gathering data and presenting it. At its best, we as the audience are hearing from a fellow redeemed sinner—one who has grappled with the text. As we listen, we are less like researchers looking for information than like the parents of a missing-in-action soldier waiting for the officer at the door to give us news of our child.

In fact, the stakes are even higher—the Good News is even more joyous.

The message—whether “Your child has been found alive” or “Your child is gone”—could utterly upend the parents’ lives. The wording of the message matters to a degree. But the point here is that this type of message shouldn’t come by text or email. Such life-altering news needs to be delivered by a human, in person.

A chatbot can research. A chatbot can write. Perhaps a chatbot can even orate. But a chatbot can’t preach.

Russell Moore is editor in chief of Christianity Today and leads its Public Theology Project.

Ideas

Should Christians Support Making Birth Free?

Compiled by Stefani McDade

Contributor

In the wake of Roe’s 50th anniversary, four believing experts discuss the merits and challenges of the Make Birth Free proposal.

Christianity Today January 25, 2023
Randy Faris / Getty

Last week marked 50 years since the monumental Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion in our country—and seven months since it was overturned.

Amid the articles discussing implications for the pro-life movement, one argument in Compact Magazine sparked a ripple of related headlines. In it, Catherine Glenn Foster with Americans United for Life and Kristen Day with Democrats for Life of America proposed that to address the financial motives for abortion, giving birth should be made free in the United States.

This proposal isn’t new—Elizabeth Bruenig penned an op-ed with the same title for The Atlantic last year—but the Make Birth Free movement seems to be gaining greater traction in recent days, as people of faith and folks on both sides of the political aisle are lining up to share their thoughts on the subject.

One response for the Institute for Family Studies explains that “making it easier to have a child doesn’t require making birth free”—arguing instead that existing resources should be made easier to access. Another piece for the National Review lists other objections and ultimately argues that the same ends could be achieved through private rather than governmental support.

But what are some other views on the matter? Four pro-life Christian thinkers with a background in politics and family advocacy weigh in on the merits and challenges of the Make Birth Free proposal.

Daniel Bennett, politics professor at John Brown University:

The end of Roe v. Wade was a necessary result for the American pro-life movement, but it was far from sufficient in its fight against abortion. Pro-life Americans—including many Christians—now find themselves in new territory, no longer fighting a constitutional battle but instead one focused on how to best respond in this new environment.

If the end of Roe really does result in more children being born, we must focus on how to support these children, their mothers, and their families with all means at our disposal. This includes continuing to lift up women and children in our private lives, yes, but also being creative in how we marshal government resources to invest in some of the most vulnerable among us.

Americans United for Life has set a high bar in its proposal to make birth free in the United States, modeled on existing programs funding organ donation and essential medical care.

I am encouraged to see an unapologetically pro-life group recognize the complexity of living in a post-Roe world, combining personal efforts with public programs to support the preborn, newborns, and the women who care for them.

Pro-life Americans rightly rejoiced with the end of a constitutional right to abortion. Now, we must be equally zealous in adopting an all-hands-on-deck posture in serving women and children in our midst, regardless of where this aid comes from.

Kelly M. Rosati, former vice president of Advocacy for Children and Community Outreach at Focus on the Family:

I was heartened to see the proposal from Democrats for Life and Americans United for Life calling on policymakers to make birth free in the United States.

There can be no better fiscal or policy priorities than those that elevate practical support for children and families. According to the pro-abortion rights research organization, the Guttmacher Institute, 73 percent of women who have had abortions indicated they chose abortion because they couldn’t afford a baby. A 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation study found the average cost of giving birth is almost $19K, with almost $3K out of pocket for families.

These numbers don’t include the rising price of health insurance premiums and additional charges for any out-of-network care or services required to keep both mom and baby healthy. And these amounts are just the beginning. The Brookings Institute in 2022 estimated from government data that the annual cost of raising a child is now around $18K.

Policies that alleviate these monetary burdens on families aren’t the solution to solving the abortion crisis in our country, but they are most certainly part of the solution. Creating a welcoming environment for new life is critical, both culturally and economically. A proposal to make birth free recognizes the unique, sacred, and practical imperatives to structure a society whose fiscal priorities include welcoming new life and fostering the next generation.

These are the kinds of bold proposals the pro-life movement needs to place high on the agenda—along with providing paid family leave and ensuring health care for moms and babies.

To those with concerns about spending and fiscal accountability, I’d say there are ample places in the federal budget to offset additional spending. It’s all a matter of priorities. Support for childbirth, infants, and families ought to be at the top of our pro-life policy lists.

Lyman Stone, research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies (IFS):

It is laudable to see pro-life organizations getting behind the call to make birth and delivery free for all Americans. If the proposal on offer became law tomorrow, we would have fewer abortions, more healthy babies, and a stronger culture of life in our society.

However, we would also be overpaying for this, as the proposal calls to essentially cover all birth costs in the United States—at a level not even covered by many private insurance plans currently (such as by covering doulas)—and also to provide an allowance for the child’s first two years of life. This is all well and good, but to effect serious change, it would be more helpful to advance concrete policy proposals that are attainable in the short run and at a reasonable cost.

To make birth free, a straightforward option would be to push for a legislative fix to the laws governing Medicaid, allowing presumptive eligibility for pregnant women to be extended from 60 days to 300 days, covering a whole pregnancy and the immediate perinatal period. This would give all Americans a free option without disrupting the private market for people who like their current insurance. Many people would still choose to pay for a more amenity-rich, privately insured birth—but everybody would have a free option, providing some price discipline across the industry.

This approach is a lot more economical and nondisruptive than the current Make Birth Free proposal. If there's an interest beyond that in covering costs for private births, a straightforward option would be to establish a total out-of-pocket, maximum cost for pregnancy-related care. The average total out-of-pocket cost for birth right now is around $3,000, which could be capped at a much lower threshold. This wouldn't cost the government anything, but it would cause insurance rates to rise for people who are not having babies.

Of course, if we believe all of society has an interest in the next generation, paying a little more for insurance to make birth free may be a worthwhile tradeoff. Regardless of the approach, both of these proposals are far cheaper than the $30–$70 billion per year quoted by the Make Birth Free proposal: Total costs would be no more than $20 billion per year, possibly as little as $5 billion.

Rachel Anderson, founder of the Families Valued project at the Center for Public Justice:

The Make Birth Free proposal is one in a series of signals that families in the United States, though occupying a vital and unique place in human society, are themselves in a vulnerable place. Kristen Day and Catherine Glenn Foster illustrate this by citing the out-of-pocket expenses incurred during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. But the reality is even more challenging.

Families not only incur new costs when they have a child—they face these costs with even fewer resources than they did before. American households experience, on average, a 10 percent drop in income in the months before and after childbirth. Prenatal medical appointments and the physical realities of late pregnancy often mean time away from work, and many jobs still do not provide adequate paid parental leave.

Researchers at Seattle Pacific University conducted interviews with faith-based employers indicating that even well-meaning organizations are offering, on average, only four to six weeks of paid time off after an employee welcomes a new child by birth or adoption.

Many Americans find that the structures and cycles of their jobs are often out of sync with the rhythms and seasons of family life—creating gaps of lost income, exhaustion, and stress.

Day and Foster’s proposal tackles the needs around health care costs—which many states are currently addressing through expanding Medicaid to cover a full year after birth and cost-effective, culturally sensitive services such as doula care. Pro-family Christians should be on the frontlines of these efforts in their states.

Employers should stretch to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family leave for major family-care events and at least two weeks of paid medical-caregiving leave annually. They should also advocate for public programs that extend family stipends in the months surrounding childbirth and paid-leave benefits to all who work. Last year, a diverse group of Christian leaders convened by the Center for Public Justice offered policymakers such a proposal.

As a society, we have grown used to assuming that families will be able to serve their vital role without making the real shifts needed to assure that they do. Too often, our attitude around families is much like the posture toward the poor criticized in the Book of James: “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” while failing to provide the necessary resources to clothe and feed the needy.

The call to make birth free is a reminder that promoting healthy families is work we all need to do.

News

Put Not Your Trust in ChatGPT, for Now

Interview by Emily Belz

Q&A with a veteran AI engineer and entrepreneur, Tom Kehler, about the limits of the popular chatbot and the wonders of the human brain.

Christianity Today January 25, 2023
Illustration by Mallory Rentsch / Source Images: Getty

Tom Kehler has worked in artificial intelligence for more than 40 years, as a coder and a CEO. He grew up a preacher’s kid and got into mathematical linguistics in high school. After earning a PhD in physics, he wanted to do linguistics with Wycliffe Bible Translators, but “God kept closing that door,” he says, and instead he found himself working with natural language processing in computing.

He had a stint in academia before joining Texas Instruments in 1980, where he began working with top AI researchers. He ended up in Silicon Valley, founding and leading several startups involving AI, including IntelliCorp and CrowdSmart.

Developments in AI appear to be speeding along: This week Microsoft announced that it is investing $10 billion in OpenAI, which created the popular chatbot ChatGPT. One of OpenAI’s top researchers described current neural networks as “slightly conscious.” Kehler has his doubts.

What were the questions about AI in the 1980s when you were first working on it?

“Is it going to replace my job?” In many cases, the answer is yes. We need to be thinking about continuous education—you may not be doing the assembly line, but you may be operating the machinery that does the assembly line. The other question that comes up is this notion of the singularity [when AI outstrips humans]. The sentient question comes up. But I think we’re a very long way from that.

Why is there an obsession with sentient AI?

If you are a person of nonbelief, you want to create something that gives you hope in the future. On the AI side, we want something that will cause us to have eternal life—my consciousness is going to go into eternity because it’s in a machine. I think that drives some of these notions of generalized AI, like [Ray] Kurzweil’s singularity obsession. It speaks more of the human desire than of where we are in terms of our progress.

What do you make of the Google engineer last year who said his chatbot had become sentient and had a soul?

I think he spent too much time with his laptop, honestly. We work with the same kind of large language models. It’s called transformer models. My whole career, I’ve been focused on natural language processing—a field that’s been around for some time. All of those models were built by aggregating information off of things like Wikipedia. It was the echo of human intelligence.

The way these systems work, we’ll say, “This is the number seven.” We keep reinforcing until the neural network can recognize that seven. That correlation of events is the core way AI works now.

Here is a system that will turn my head: You take an empty system, and it has the capability of learning language at the speed of a child. The way kids acquire language is truly mind-blowing. And not just language, but even if you go open the cupboard door—they see something once, and they figure out how to do it.

The system that this Google engineer was talking about, it was given trillions of examples in order to get some sense of intelligence out of it. It consumed ridiculous amounts of energy, whereas a little kid’s brain requires the power of a flashlight, and it’s able to learn language. We’re not anywhere close to that kind of general AI.

We underestimate how little we know about how the brain works. And there’s overconfidence in the tools we have so far. [Computer scientist] Judea Pearl in The Book of Why makes a case that deep learning gives us animal levels of intelligence, which is correlation on inputs and data. That’s going to get really good. That’s what helps us with cool things like ships that can go across the ocean now without any pilot. What we can do with AI is incredibly powerful, but it’s not the same thing as saying this is now an intelligent being.

So where do you want AI to go?

There is scientific evidence that the problems we need to solve are way too complex for any one person. And we need to use collective intelligence to figure out how to solve some of these big problems. I believe AI can be a huge benefit, and not a threat, to human development.

The popular new AI chatbot, ChatGPT—what’s good about it?

It puts in a very accessible form the knowledge that has been captured for a very long time. It’s a very useful utility if you’re asking it general-knowledge questions, like an encyclopedia. It presents it in a much better form than doing a search where you’re going to get a group of links and you have to put the story together yourself.

But you think it has problems too.

It’s taking inputs to build its knowledge. It doesn’t check the truth value or, what’s called in information systems, data lineage. Where did this data come from? Do we know it’s true? It’s translating input text to output text based on some objective.

Let’s say you’re using ChatGPT for taking action or making a decision. What happened over the last six, seven years—in the bad old days of AI—AI was used to manipulate people’s opinions. There were campaigns to mimic the truth but twist it.

You can do that with something like ChatGPT. You can’t use it like how we would use science, where we might make a decision based on science to create a drug. There needs to be a human process of finding out if it’s trustworthy or not.

How do we create a trustworthy chatbot?

If you think about how scientific knowledge or medical knowledge was developed, it’s by peer review. We as a human race have considered that trustworthy. It’s not perfect. But that’s how we normally build trust. You have 12 of the world’s best cardiac surgeons say a certain procedure is good, you’re going to say, “Yeah, that’s probably good.” If ChatGPT told you to do that procedure, you’d better have it reviewed by somebody, because it could be wrong.

I believe it’s ethically critical that we keep humans in the loop with developing artificial intelligence technology. We’ve seen where AI systems can beat somebody at chess, but that’s a skill set. That’s not demonstrating that they can be trusted for the things we humans call wisdom—how to live.

Why does truthfulness in chatbots matter to Christians?

Faith is about the evidence of things hoped for. When people think of faith as just a leap, that’s kind of not true. We have decisions in faith because of evidence.

Now, think about what happened in Christianity when there was misinformation. It caused fragmentation, right? QAnon stuff started to get propagated. Information is getting propagated where its truth value hasn’t been determined. It causes divisions in families.

At the very core, we should be focused on what is true. This notion fits in with Philippians—what is true, what is of good report, what is creating a greater common good. This is the original plan of Christianity, the kingdom of God emerging.

This belief that we can try to find agreement and come together is at the very core of what I have envisioned for artificial intelligence. It’s a scientific principle: We have peer-reviewed evidence that we trust and that moves science forward.

You’ve argued certain mathematical models themselves help build more trustworthy AI.

Every AI engineer on the planet knows about Bayesian applications, because that’s fundamental to most of AI now. Bayesian learning has its roots in a Presbyterian minister in the 1700s.

Bayesian thinking says, “How does evidence change my beliefs?” I form new beliefs based on evidence. You can use Bayesian models to build much richer kinds of intelligent systems, and you can have it be explainable. It can tell you how it got an answer.

The Silicon Valley crowd that really believes in the singularity—that this is the way that we’re going to achieve eternal life—they don’t realize that a lot of the underpinnings of this were invented by people who had a deep faith in God. I find that interesting and fun.

Have you used ChatGPT?

I asked it to write an essay about how large language models will destroy human society as we know it. And it does a beautiful job of saying why this will destroy human society as we know it.

It’s a great piece of technology. I’m not trying to negate it but to say, “This is how far you can go with it.” And I’ve got a deeper ethical problem: It’s a bit of a dangerous thing to start thinking of the machine as superior in intelligence to humans, particularly if it’s not based on any foundation of ethics.

You don’t want an automaton that starts to do things and you don’t know why or how it’s doing them. Explainability is very important. There’s probably not enough elevation of thinking about where this is taking us and where we want to guide it. We need people who are thinking deeply about the spiritual implications.

If We Can’t Reason Together, How Can We Worship Together?

Robert Tracy McKenzie

Bible Apps Are the New Printing Press

John Dyer

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