Robert recently appeared on an episode of “The Commonwealth Matters,” a podcast hosted by Richard Nelson of the Commonwealth Policy Center. You can watch the video version of the podcast via the YouTube video below. You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts ..read more

We are ready to conclude our discussion on redeeming technology with the topic that originally inspired the series: Parenting children within this technological age. Rather than delving into specifics that are soon outdated by rapidly changing technology advancements, the best guidance I can offer is parenting principles that can hopefully transcend any future developments.  I will order these principles into a fitting acronym TECH: Teach, Emulate, Choose, Help. (Rather than four shorter posts on each, I believe it will be most helpful to combine them all into one resource. Thus, pleas ..read more

“Pixel art of a humble church in a green pasture” - Produced using Midjourney generative AI. In response to our technology discussion, I received a question that I think is worth responding to publicly: I’m really benefiting from your thoughts on technology, and I appreciate your analysis on how it is affecting us as individuals. But I’m wondering if you have thoughts on the way technology is affecting communities. Specifically, I have in mind church communities. I’m a pastor, and it feels daunting to keep up with all these changes you have outlined. For example, you spoke about how technol ..read more

In our attempt to offer a Christian critique of our technological age, we are exploring the three areas most impacted by the technology of our making. Having explored the consequences upon community and mentality, we turn our attention to sexuality.  I want to examine the technological destruction of human sexuality in three ways: self, sex, and society. Self Proverbs 9 offers a fitting picture of the alluring nature of online pornography, "The woman of folly is loud, she sits at the door of her house calling out to all who pass by, 'Let all who are simple come in, stolen water is swee ..read more

In our series on technology, we are exploring the three areas of human experience that I argue are most negatively impacted: community, mentality, and sexuality.  This week’s consideration is our mentality. I mean mentality in its more classic definition—not merely our attitude and mindset, but the totality of our mental life. Jaquez Ellul predicted a technological tipping point, where we no longer control the machines of our own making, but the machines begin to control us. And this, I believe, is what is taking place with our minds.  The screens we are addicted to are not harmle ..read more

After establishing a foundational Christian perspective of technology, I wish to turn attention to those areas where technological progress is yielding human regress. What are the most significant negative consequences of our technological age? The first I will address is the collapse of community.  Statistically speaking, rates of loneliness have reached epidemic proportions, and subsequently, so too have depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide. Even the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently declared our social isolation a public health emergency.  What is hap ..read more

Arguably, the most frequent questions I receive are somehow related to technology. From parenting to personal usage, our technological age's enveloping and ever-increasing nature leaves many of us bewildered at best and perhaps utterly overwhelmed at worst. We are desperate for a robust and relevant Christian approach to technological progress, which will be the aim of this series.  By way of introduction, I will begin very broadly with a Christian theology of technology. In the most basic sense, technology is the word we use to describe a central component of what God created humanity ..read more

We conclude our defeater ethics series with the moral objection lurking behind the other objections previously addressed. Though manifesting in different ways, the common theme has been the failure of Christians to faithfully represent their Christ. Let's discuss the issue of Christian hypocrisy. This objection was famously summed up in one sentence by Mahatma Gandhi, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians." Repeatedly, this is the dilemma we have navigated. Perhaps our neighbors would like our Christ, but they do not like our (abusive, racist, misogynistic, name your moral obje ..read more

Our defeater ethics discussion turns its attention to what is, for many, the most sensitive and significant moral objection to the Christian faith. For reasons we will discuss, the moral failings of Christian parents represent a uniquely substantial barrier to their progeny continuing the legacy of faith entrusted to them. This topic requires a level of sensitivity I cannot offer here, so I would encourage those traumatically impacted by parental failure, perhaps even abuse, to listen to the more qualified long-form discussion I provide on the podcast.   God ordained the family in ..read more

In this month's op-ed contribution, Robert argues for pro-life advocacy from the perspective of a progressive worldview. You can read the op-ed here →. As a reminder, these contributions will be online and printed in Bowling Green Daily News, Claiborne Progress, Frankfort State Journal, Harlan Enterprise, Middlesboro News, The Advocate-Messenger, The Interior Journal, The Jessamine Journal, and The Winchester Sun. Please read and share ..read more