Published August 1, 2024
The False Promises of Technological Freedom
More and more, church leaders are waking up to the fact that the most urgent challenges of church leadership are those posed by technology. Many churches have rushed to embrace new technologies in their worship and communication without pausing to consider the implications, replacing prayer books with QR codes, and offering trays with apps. At the same time, pastors have watched their authority slowly siphoned off to the multitude of podcast gurus or Instagram influencers—or else have sought to join the attention rat race by taking to Twitter to opine on the issues of the day. Worst of all, clergy have witnessed a proliferation of technology-driven pastoral problems in their congregations, from marriage-destroying pornography addictions to gender dysphoria.
To think clearly about technology, we must think about the false promise of freedom that it offers, and how it contrasts with the freedom that God created us for in the beginning. This was not a freedom to do just anything, but a freedom to rule as kings, to take dominion over creation as image-bearers of the Great King. This was a freedom bound by the limits of creaturehood, but a freedom enjoyed at the very highest reaches of creaturehood, and intended for even greater exaltation and glory, if Adam and Eve had passed the test. But they just didn’t have the patience.
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Brad Littlejohn, Ph.D., is a Fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping public leaders understand the intellectual and historical foundations of our current breakdown of public trust, social cohesion, and sound governance. His research investigates shifting understandings of the nature of freedom and authority, and how a more full-orbed conception of freedom, rooted in the Christian tradition, can inform policy that respects both the dignity of the individual and the urgency of the common good. He also serves as President of the Davenant Institute.
