Clergy grapple with the ethics of using AI to write sermons; 90.5 WESA, July 17, 2025

Deena Prichep, 90.5 WESA; Clergy grapple with the ethics of using AI to write sermons

"AILSA CHANG, HOST:

On any given Sunday, churchgoers settle into pews and listen to a sermon. A member of the clergy uses text from the Bible and figures out what it has to say about our lives today, right? But how would you feel if you found out that sermon was written by artificial intelligence? Deena Prichep reports.

DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: Writing and delivering sermons, homiletics if you're in the biz, is not an easy job.

NAOMI SEASE CARRIKER: It's like a mini research paper. You have to prepare every week, and some weeks, life is just a lot.

PRICHEP: Naomi Sease Carriker is pastor of Messiah of the Mountains Lutheran Church in North Carolina and recently had one of those weeks, so she popped open ChatGPT.

CARRIKER: And boom, literally within not even 30 seconds, I had a 900-word sermon. And I read through it, and I was like, oh, my God, this is really good.

PRICHEP: But she also thought...

CARRIKER: This feels wrong.

PRICHEP: It's an ethical question clergy across the country are wrestling with. When it comes to something like homework, the goal is students learning. So using AI can get in the way of that. But the goal of a sermon is basically to tell a story that can break open the hearts of people to a holy message. So does it matter where that comes from? Some denominations have issued general guidelines urging thought and caution, but they don't really mention specifics, given that the technology is changing so quickly. So clergy are left to figure it out themselves. Naomi Sease Carriker decided not to preach that AI sermon, but she does use the tech to get her draft started or wrap up what she's written with a nice conclusion, and that feels OK."

Full Text of Pope Leo XIV’s Homily From Inauguration Mass: ‘This Is the Hour for Love’; National Catholic Register, May 18, 2025

 

National Catholic Register, Full Text of Pope Leo XIV’s Homily From Inauguration Mass: ‘This Is the Hour for Love’

"Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters."

AI SERMON SERIES #1: AI AND THE HUMAN IDENTITY–THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD; Epiphany Seattle, May 7, 2023

The Rev. Doyt L. Conn, Jr., Epiphany Seattle; AI SERMON SERIES #1: AI AND THE HUMAN IDENTITY–THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

Click here to watch the sermon

[Excerpt]

"Character will be the distinguishing trait for what it means to be human. It will be what makes us noble or ignoble, just or unjust, honest or liars. It is our character that will give truth meaning, and us the capacity to look each other in the eye as equal members in the caste of the Royal Priesthood.

The church’s role is as a gathering place and a training ground for Priestly Sovereigns, where we practice being human.  And toward that ends, it is important to recognize the ground upon which we stand. For us, it is within the balanced cadence of our Anglican tradition. We have historical precedence developed over the last 500 years for walking with equanimity on a line that runs through the complexity. It is why we are known as the people of the middle way, or to use a theological term: the via media-which is the theology of balance and moderation and equanimity. Think Queen Elizabeth(God rest her soul).

As Anglicans, we meet the latest headlines with a calm cadence, well aware that this new world of AI will reveal both good news and bad news. And so, when we read an article like the one I read the other day about a University of California San Diego School of Medicine study that found that 75% of the time patients reported that a chat bot’s response was superior in quality and empathy to human doctors…pause, don’t panic.

Remember the via media, that we are people of the middle way. And there will be good news: new medical treatments, and scientific breakthroughs, new efficiencies in manufacturing, and better worldwide food distribution. And there will be troubling news: Job losses, and theft, and fraud, and an Internet polluted with lies. Strikes will be more common, as we see with the Writers’ strike going on in Hollywood right now.

And amidst it all, we walk the middle way, understanding and practicing the true primacy of relationship, relationship with one another, with creation, and with God. + The cross is our sign because of who our God is, a relational God, Trinitarian, Father and Son and Holy Ghost . We are the Royal Priesthood, trained like Jedi as people who walk the earth; well balanced, with equanimity whether the world is run by AI or not."