Device & Virtue

If you’ve been in a big city recently, you’ve probably seen people scootering around. Or is it “scooting”? Chris & Adam are asking the hard questions about micro-mobility—is it trendy? Transformational? Or Terrible? And if “cars created the megachurch”—what do e-scooters create? TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter . Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device &am...

Have you installed the world’s newest social media app? Your church youth group has! China, dancing cats, and Adam’s new obsession all right here on the first episode of season 5. TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter . Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if cops carried freeze rays instead of guns? Could it change society? Could technology really solve police brutality? Christians for millennia have debated whether force—and the technology employed in it—is necessary to stop evil, and whether Christians should resist lethal weapons in general. Some people envision a future without guns, where law enforcement uses non-lethal weapons. Star Trek...

Can you translate the Bible into emoji? 😂. Some Christian leaders say No Way. But we ❤ this idea. Here’s why. Some people 👀 emoji as just 😜 cartoons that make texting more fun, but they offer a crucial way to recover our humanity and share our ❤ with others. Could they help us know God better too? Adam and Chris look at the multi-faceted world of emoji: the surprising value of their playful sty...

If you’re out for an evening stroll, you can bet that someone’s watching, even if nobody’s home. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood surveillance state. Instead of Mr. Rogers, Jeff Bezos is putting on his cardigan and answering the door. Grab your shoes. Ring Doorbells are popping up on porches across the country and around the world. What happens in your neighborhood no longer stays in your...

Apple, Google, and governments around the world are cooking up a new way to trace where you’ve been and who you’ve talked to. Sound like Big Brother? It may actually help you to love your neighbor. TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter . Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue on Patreon . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

Life's changed for all of us, right? Adam & Chris each highlight four things they noticed this week about technology & faith—all from home. For one thing, when church goes online, what’s the difference between watching and worshiping? It may depend on which app you use. Pastors are scrambling to keep their congregations connected during the coronavirus quarantine. And they are realizing th...

Did your church cancel services last weekend? With coronavirus, worship went online in unprecedented numbers, and social distancing has us all asking, “Can real church happen on the Internet?” The coronavirus may do more than infect our bodies. It may have a lasting effect on church theology around the world. Even while we long to gather together in person, we’re finding ways to still connect in r...

Will artificial intelligence start delivering all your Amazon orders? If 9 million drivers lose their jobs, what should we do about it? Artificial Intelligence has already found its way into our homes, says Jason Thacker. We interview him about his new book, The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Zondervan 2020) . We talk about: Why Christians need to be thinking about...

Thinking of giving up technology for Lent? We have 10 ideas for how to do it. Plus, you know, maybe why you shouldn’t. Fasting from social media has been a popular choice the past couple years. Internet habits are out of control. People feel out of sorts. Maybe you feel the same way. Chris and Adam offer up 10 ways to develop a better tech-life balance. Ten alternatives to going cold turkey while...

How did we get from the Arab Spring to Cambridge Analytica in less than 5 years? Waves of pro-democracy protesters in the Middle East have given way to waves of nationalism around the globe. In less than a decade, the Internet went from harbinger of democracy to herald of demagogues. What happened? And ARE WE … DOOMED?? Technology and social media are undoubtedly changing how elections and governm...

Ignore the hyped-up headlines and impossible advice blogs, and hear how two moms are trying their best to walk with their kids in a world surrounded by screens. Adam and Chris invite two special guests to share about their own experiences raising Gen Z kids. Two moms who show us that, even in the age of Instagram families, parenting isn’t about perfection. Hear how two different moms handle screen...

The New Year is upon us, and the only reason we know that is thanks to the Egyptians. And the Catholic Church! Clocks, calendars, and timekeeping tech on our final episode of 2019. Wait a second: What does being a “good Christian” have to do with clocks and calendars? The connections surprised us too… From sunsets to seconds, we’ve been tracking time for all of human history. To the point that we...

How does Google Maps decide what route you should take? How does Spotify determine what kind of music you might like? And if I wanted to get a job at those companies, how would they choose one application out of a thousand resumes? Decide. Determine. Choose. That’s what algorithms do. Everything from song recommendations to health insurance rates to prison sentencing, companies and governments are...

From autism to advertising, technology is reading people’s emotions like never before. Some say emotional intelligence is being outsourced. Others predict emotion tech is on the cusp of a multi-billion dollar payday. So . . . how do YOU feel about that? No worries, the technology already knows. Just like FitBit changed how we relate to our bodies, emotion tech will change how we relate to our feel...

What if we told you that at the Last Supper, Jesus taught us something about text messaging? Sounds far-fetched, right? But the connections will have you rethinking what “IRL” really means. Adam & Chris dive into our daily experiences of texting—especially that moment when your friend stops listening because a new text lights up their phone. Yeah, you know that moment. Key Questions Should we...

Special Conference Episode! Chris & Adam join a conference for pastors on technology called Teche: A Christian View of Technology, put on by the Center for Pastor Theologians. This is our same-day hot-takes—recorded live on location! Stuff like: What’s the difference between a musical instrument and a Roomba? How is the Eucharist like technology? How the church could be more like a forest path...

What do you think? Are selfies narcissistic? Yes, right? But we’re starting season 3 off right and taking one of our own. Selfies have become part of normal life. We see them. We take them. We see other people taking them too. And while they may be normal, do they show us anything real? Chris and Adam dive into identity, authenticity, and the image of God to look for answers, with a few embarrassi...

What do you think Siri looks like? Is she someone you would tell your secrets to? She’s not a person—but she’s getting more personal than ever—could she change our real relationships? In this episode Chris & Adam chat up the voice part of “voice assistants.” More talking and less typing—what happens when as we shift our interaction with technology to the very personal medium of voice? LINKS &a...

Ever pass the plate in church and there’s nothing in there? Smartphones are the new tithing tech—building church budgets—even as they shape our souls! Adam & Chris cash in on the question: what happens when the cash goes out? Digital giving has been slowly growing for years and in our city of Chicago, cashless is the new normal for many folks. Venmo—the money app we use most often— reports 40...

Does technology control history? Or does history control tech? Adam & Chris take sides. When major technologies hit the world stage, do they upend human history? There are a couple camps out there in scholarship. But one of the big questions is—how big of an influence is technology on human society? Tech Controls History (Chris) History Controls Tech (Adam) TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue...

Imagine: You’re pregnant and your doctor offers you a DNA edit so your baby can avoid a terminal illness. Do you do it? That decision is coming sooner than you think. Turns out an expert professor on DNA-editing (who is also a Christian) had some early conversations with the Chinese scientist who shocked the world in 2018 by editing two real babies DNA. The trouble is, the Chinese scientist has so...

Would you be OK if your church tracked you the way Facebook does? Some churches already are. When Adam meets representatives for a church software company, he can’t help but interrogate them for half an hour. He brings his reconnaissance back, and he and Chris sit down to discuss just how they feel about how churches are tracking their congregations. This is Big Data on a church’s scale. Find out...

Some people think the next great evangelist will reach more people than Billy Graham ever did. And they’re already programming the artificial intelligence to do it. When Chris and Adam meet an Australian who’s already programmed an AI chatbot to do evangelism, they look at each other and wonder, “Can a chatbot really spread the Gospel?” Only to realize that evangelism chatbots are not quite as unp...

Has your pastor preached a sermon on Facebook settings or surveillance cameras? Mine hasn’t. Does the Bible really have anything to say about digital privacy? And—is Alexa actually listening to us in my kitchen? Chris wrote the cover story for Christianity Today on a Christian view of digital privacy . He started out by going to parties and asking “When was a time your privacy was violated?” So Ad...