Can Christ Speak Through a Chatbot?

Dear Friends,

I happened to hear a podcast a few weeks ago about the impact of AI on the Church. A week later with a new phone, and needing to get my email on my phone, I had a living experience of AI with my phone and Grace Church. Instead of the lengthy process outlined in an email to put my email on my phone, I simply downloaded the Outlook app put in my email and password, and voila my email quickly populated the app. It took 20 seconds.

The good news about AI for many pastors is that it enables all of us to take our sermons and the Scripture that accompanies them, use them for bible studies for congregants, prayer possibilities, and encouraging messages. I don’t do this because the faithful group that comes to the 7:30 am Eucharist on Thursdays pretty much does this better than my preaching. Yes, AI can write your sermons too. The few I have seen and read are pretty much a naïve sort of optimism that makes a mockery of a faith that is challenging and requires action that isn’t always in step with popular social or political ideas.

Perhaps the most sensitive application of AI is pastoral care. Because there has been some real success in the field of mental health using chatbots for therapy, the question has been raised, why not use this for pastoral care. Famously, the Roman Catholics tried this with “Ask Father Joe” which was mostly intended to answer questions about the faith and solve faith-based dilemmas. Instead, it turned into a confessional, leading to pulling Father Joe altogether. (It’s now a lay, “Ask Joe” app with scripted answers.) I will admit that my hair was standing on end when I heard this conversation. Call me old-fashioned, but I think pastoral care needs to be with a real person who prayerfully listens to what is said, and importantly, what is left unsaid. While I have given last rites fully gowned, gloved, and masked in a hospital room, making me feel slightly removed from my parishioner, nonetheless I was present, praying and able to touch a person in those last moments of this life. It is what I was ordained to do.

Listening to those I serve is a precious gift from God and the community. In those moments we embody Christ together. Somehow,

I have a hard time imaging Christ in a chatbot.

God’s peace and keeping,

Mary+