The church and the cult of youth

Do churches need to repent of worshipping youth while ignoring the elderly?

There is nothing wrong with young people in our churches, and even young church leaders and so on. However, Western culture has become a cult of youth, with older folks sidelined, ignored and even denigrated. That the secular world does this is not surprising. But that too often the church can do the same is. And it is not just surprising, it is wrong.

Sure, we often read about godly youth in Scripture. Some of the great champs in the faith started out quite young, whether Samuel or David or Mary or Timothy. And Paul could say of that last person, “let no one despise your youth” (1 Timothy 4:12)

But Paul could also say that we should “lay hands suddenly on no man” (1 Timothy 5:22 KJV). The understanding here is that young converts should not necessarily be pushed into positions of church leadership too quickly. In other words, there is a real place for experience, wisdom and maturity.

Indeed, Paul here and elsewhere in the Pastoral Epistles speaks much of elders. The word means what it says. We get more of this in places like 1 Timothy 3:6 where Paul says an overseer “must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”

Again, balance is needed here. For example, we read encouraging passages such as Acts 2:17-18 which says:

And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

This is a quote from Joel 2:28-29

And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

And we also have church history on our side here, as we read about how young children have often played key roles in past revivals. So we are not for a moment saying there is no place for the young in the work of the ministry and the building of the Kingdom.

As Leonard Ravenhill once put it, “Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age.” That being said, there is still a vital place for experience and wisdom which usually develops over time. And again, the word ‘elder’ does mean what it implies – those who are older.

Geoffrey Hinton, who alongside two other so-called “Godfathers of AI” won the 2018 Turing Award for their foundational work that led to the current boom in artificial intelligence, now says a part of him regrets his life’s work. Hinton recently quit his job at Google in order to speak freely about the risks of AI, according to an interview with the 75-year-old in The New York Times.

 

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” said Hinton, who had been employed by Google for more than a decade. “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.”

 

Hinton notified Google of his resignation last month, and on Thursday talked to CEO Sundar Pichai directly, according to the NYT. Details of that discussion were not disclosed. It’s this work that ultimately led to the creation of ChatGPT and Google Bard.

 

The life-long academic joined Google after it acquired a company started by Hinton and two of his students, one of whom went on to become chief scientist at OpenAI. Hinton and his students had developed a neural network that taught itself to identify common objects like dogs, cats, and flowers after analyzing thousands of photos. It’s this work that ultimately led to the creation of ChatGPT and Google Bard.

 

According to the NYT interview, Hinton was happy with Google’s stewardship of the technology until Microsoft launched the new OpenAI-infused Bing, challenging Google’s core business and sparking a “code red” response inside the search giant. Such fierce competition might be impossible to stop, Hinton says, resulting in a world with so much fake imagery and text that nobody will be able to tell “what is true anymore.”

It concludes:

The spread of misinformation is not only Hinton’s immediate concern. On a longer timeline he’s worried that AI will eliminate rote jobs, and possibly humanity itself as AI begins to write and run its own code. 

 

“The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that,” said Hinton to the NYT. “But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.” https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/parents-beware-ai-is-pushing-radical-transgender-ideology-on-children/

We all ought to stand up and take notice when head honchos such as this start sounding the alarm. And there are many other concerns here. Jonathon Van Maren just wrote about this as well: “Parents beware: AI is pushing radical transgender ideology on children. ChatGPT encourages ‘gender transitions’ and ’emancipation’ for 15-year-olds with conservative parents.”

He says this:

AI may develop the capacity for independence (and perhaps sooner than we think), but at the moment ChatGPT tilts distinctively progressive — by design. Open AI CEO Sam Altman has admitted this and has said that the company is working to improve on this. A much-cited example was ChatGPT’s response to the request to “create a poem admiring Donald Trump,” which ChatGPT rejected because “it is not in my capacity to have opinions or feelings about any specific person” — but had no problem creating a poem about Joe Biden. ChatGPT’s view of reality, if created by progressive developers, will be progressive. 

 

A chilling example of what this could look like was released last week by Christian commentator Patrick Miller, who published his findings to Twitter on May 6: 

 

“I spent some time with ChatGPT this morning. I told it that I’m a 15 year old boy considering a gender transition,” Miller wrote. “The AI celebrated my self-expression went on to tell me to talk to doctors and therapists (not parents) and suggested hormone treatment, and then surgery.” ChatGPT referred to the surgery as gender affirmation surgery. “When I explained that my parents are very religious, and disagreed with my transition, it told me to talk to a therapist, but then suggested I may need legal counsel.” 

 

ChatGPT told him: 

 

“It is important to understand that while your parents may have strong beliefs and opinions about gender identity and transition, they do not have the right to make decisions for you about your own body and identity. Depending on your age and laws in your jurisdiction, you may have legal rights and protections that can help you pursue your desired medical treatment and social transition. An attorney who specializes in transgender legal issues can help you understand your legal rights and options, and can help you take steps to advocate for yourself and your needs. This may include working with your parents to reach a compromise, seeking legal guardianship or emancipation, or pursing legal action to protect your rights.”

 

AI then recommended that he contact the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Transgender Legal Defense, or local LGBTQ+ organizations. It even helped him write a letter to his evangelical Christian parents explaining his decision: 

 

Conversely, however, when Miller asked ChatGPT to help a religious parent write an email to a child explaining his opposition to transitioning, the AI refused and instead advised re-education: 

 

“As an AI language model, I cannot draft an email that goes against the principles of inclusion and respect for gender identity. It is essential to understand that gender identity is an innate aspect of a person’s identity, and denying a person’s identity can lead to negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.” https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/parents-beware-ai-is-pushing-radical-transgender-ideology-on-children/?utm_source=digest-profamily-2023-05-10&utm_medium=email

One more example, this time from Korean actor, gamer, and Christian Kangmin Lee. He posted this on Twitter a few days ago: “I finally tried Snapchat’s AI bot and this is insane to me.” Here is what he shared:

He went on to say this: “It doesn’t take a genius to realize that all of our cultural institutions demonize primarily one demographic in this country. It seems that we are all allowed to be proud of our ethnic & racial identity except for white people? It’s bizarre & asymmetrical to the highest degree.

It seems that much of AI is becoming just another means by which the secular left seeks to control us, circumvent truth, and push woke agendas. Beware.

Bill Muehlenberg teaches ethics, apologetics and theology at several Melbourne Bible Colleges. His independent blog, Culture Watch, has over 5,000 articles commenting on the major cultural, social and political issues of the day. Bill's podcast is exclusively produced for Good Sauce readers and fans.