“Can a soul-less artist produce a soul-full act of worship?”
I am very concerned about AI in general, and when it invades Christian preaching and singing, so much the worse.[i]
In 1996, I wrote an imaginary “Possible Scenario – Any Church, USA,” lamenting how some churches were projecting music and preaching on screens instead of having real people lead their worship. In the “possible scenario” the church pews became people-empty, but filled with cassette players. The silence was broken only by an occasional electronic “amen.”[ii] Not as good as Orwell’s book 1984, yet my “1995” has become “2026.” Except perhaps the members don’t even bother with a source of electronic amens. Now here is this.
“How does Ray feel about this sudden success? He doesn’t. Because Ray doesn’t feel anything. His voice, his songs, his music, his appearance and even his ‘Mississippi Soul’ branding are entirely AI-generated. The current No. 1 ‘Christian artist’ is not a person. It is a product.”
The No. 1 “Christian artist” is neither Christian nor an artist. He is not even human.
We can complain about – and rightfully so – but modern Christians have been headed toward this path for years. We just didn’t have all the technology previously (and don’t have all the technology now that we will have).
Disclaimer: I first saw this report at Baptist New Global (BNG), which I have linked to, and have not looked elsewhere for a better source. This link is definitely not a recommendation of BNG or the author of this piece. Nevertheless, we agree on the problematic nature of “AI worship.” “My real concern with AI-generated worship music is not so much that AI songs will ‘infect’ Christian worship, but that Christian worship already has drifted into a thin, commercialized space where emotional accessibility is mistaken for spiritual depth.”
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