AI steps up to the pulpit

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This article was published 04/03/2023 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like many others, I am fascinated by ChatGPT — the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI that can write essays, letters, poems and just about anything else you ask it to do.

But can it write sermons? I decided to find out.

I asked ChatGPT to write a sermon about the Good Samaritan: What it meant in its original context and what it means for Christians today with reference to those who are marginalized. Here’s what ChatGPT created:

As we know, the story of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in response to a question about eternal life. A man asks him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies with the story of a man who is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite, both religious leaders, pass by him without stopping to help. But a Samaritan, who was considered an outcast and an enemy by the Jews, stops to help the man, bringing him to an inn and caring for him.

In the historical context of the time, this parable was a shocking and revolutionary message. Samaritans were seen as second-class citizens, and their religious beliefs were considered to be heretical. Yet, in this story, Jesus shows that it is the outsider who acts with compassion and humanity, while the religious leaders pass by without helping.

So what does this parable mean for Christians today? First and foremost, it is a reminder of the importance of loving our neighbours as ourselves. This means reaching out to those who are vulnerable and marginalized in our communities, including homeless people, drug addicts, sex workers, LGBTTQ+ people, Indigenous people, and others who are often ignored or mistreated by society.

But loving our neighbours is not just about offering practical help, such as food and shelter. It’s also about treating them with dignity and respect, listening to their stories, and breaking down the barriers of prejudice and discrimination that divide us. In doing so, we demonstrate the love of Christ to the world and bring healing to broken communities.

Another important aspect of this parable is the reminder that we are all called to be good Samaritans in our own lives. This means being proactive in seeking out opportunities to serve and care for those in need. It means taking the initiative to reach out to those who are marginalized and showing them kindness, compassion, and respect. And it means recognizing that our actions, no matter how small, can make a big difference in the lives of others.

Let us strive to live out the message of the Good Samaritan in our own lives. Let us love our neighbours as ourselves and bring hope and healing to those who are vulnerable and marginalized. And let us remember that in doing so, we fulfil the call of Christ to love one another as he has loved us.

As sermons go, it’s not bad! But what do preachers think? I decided to find that out, too.

“Augustine said that the purpose of the sermon was to teach, to delight, to persuade,” said Michael Wilson, minister at Charleswood United Church. “This example may pass the first element, but I would suggest it fails to address the second and third.”

Maybe some future programmer will address that shortcoming, he said, but it can’t replace the role of the preacher in a congregation.

Preachers, he said, are “sent by a community to the word in order to come back and share what was found. I wonder if an AI sermon can wrestle with a text, putting it into the context of a community’s life and add the weight of the tradition and theology. This example does not.”

A sermon is also preached in the context of a worship service and is an act of worship, Wilson said.

“It is supported by and contributes to that which has come before and after the sermon,” he said. “That is in part a reflection on the incarnational nature of the Christian community.”

Andrew Rampton, rector at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in downtown Winnipeg, has also been playing around with ChatGPT. “I don’t think it’s something that preachers need to worry about as a potential replacement,” he said. “At least, not in its current form.”

For Rampton, its main strength is collecting, organizing and reproducing data in the requested format.

“That could be incredibly useful in lots of ways,” he said. But what it lacks “is the relating of the data in a contextual way… it doesn’t know my congregation, it doesn’t know me.”

This doesn’t mean it isn’t useful, Rampton said; it could help preachers with prompts or to overcome writer’s block since it can help organize ideas into words.

“Being able to punch into an app a request to outline some data around a particular passage and set of theological ideas might be the spark that gets the fire going,” he said.

Jeff Loach is minister at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Nobleton, Ont. He also thinks ChatGPT has the potential to serve pastors as a research tool, “but not as a replacement for themselves or for good preaching.”

For him, AI can’t replicate — at least, not yet — the “pastoral role in preaching … the machine does not know the people who will hear or read it,” he said.

It is the task of the preacher to craft a sermon for his or her congregation that can “explain the Scriptures with their people in mind, their various issues and struggles and joys.”

A pastor, he said, knows “the culture of the church in a way that no robot does.”

If the goal was only passing along information, “I suppose AI could kick me out of the manse,” he said. “But the goal is also formation, and that doesn’t happen in a vacuum of ones and zeros.”

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