Created for Connection: A Christian Response to Loneliness and AI

     I just finished watching another depressing video about the dangers of AI chatbots (artificial intelligence modules that engage in conversations with you). This video touches on another video I watched, which spoke of the rising number of people, especially men, who have no friends. This, of course, is not new news. We have known of the growing problem of loneliness for decades, but it has recently become more acute as some of those AI chatbots are leading people into destructive behaviors. What does Christianity have to say in this moment?

     We can begin in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, when Adam is alone. Genesis 2:18 tells us, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.’” Now, this section of Scripture is foundational to the rite of marriage, but we can read it in a less specific way, that we need other people in our lives. We need friends to walk with us on the journey and help us flourish. God then provides that need for Adam in the form of Eve, who is taken from his side, which reveals that companionship costs something. It asks something of us. Then we move to Jesus, where He prays for His disciples in John 17:20-21 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The will of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is that we may be one. That we may be in relationship with one another as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are. This theme is expressed in another way by Paul, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Cor 12:27). There is this expectation that we are all working together as a body. This implies that we are in relationship with one another, not amputated from the body like Thing, the hand in the Addams Family. We are called to connection and love. This united body is the vision of the Church in the New Testament. Our culture seems set on a path of disconnection and isolation, the Bible challenges us to seek out relationship with others. This demands that the lonely look for how to connect with others and that everyone pay attention to who might be in need of a relationship so that we can be unified. Friendship asks a great deal of us. We ought to know this more than others because we have seen what it cost Jesus to make us friends with God. Let us love one another faithfully and thus reveal our love for God.

In Christ, Father Seth Kellermann

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