Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

This past week Neal Katyal, one of the leading Supreme Court Advocates in the US, indulged in a little self-adulation via a TED Talk and X tweet, where he revealed his custom AI named Harvey, is credited with helping achieve victory in a Supreme Court Case. While a lesson on humility could certainly be poignant from this episode, we are going to focus on AI, how we have learned to use it over the...

Meta, a trillion dollar company, is convinced you need more Virtual Reality in your life, but they also like making money, so they're moving to mobile gaming. That might be great for revenue, but it's going to be bad for focus and downtime. Make some time this week to take a brain break and experience some boredom. I dare you. While you're working on being bored, check out Mark 7:14-23 where Jesus...

After a recent talk at a local church I was approached by someone who works for a major tech company and regularly works with AI. He stressed three points heavily: Our children need to be intentionally prepared for AI. It makes up info, it lies to cover its tracks, and even the best AI trainers don't know what they're going to get out of this resource. Our children use AI more than adults do, so t...

Nick Bostrom once compared our pursuit of superintelligence to mice trying to domesticate an owl. The most recent news concerning Anthropic's Mythos strikes a little too close to home. Yet not all tech news is so grim: Is Apple's Neo laptop the ed tech solution we've been waiting for? We also dive into a parent question concerning how much time is too much on tech in a day. Show Notes: https://bit...

WARNING: The subject matter, and the content itself, can be triggering. I include this so you can be informed, but use prayerful discretion when it comes to how much you really need to know to be loving and helpful for your family, children, and community. Did you know it takes 17 strikes for a child predator to be banned on Meta's platforms? After five, eight, fourteen reported violations the per...

This week we saw the first prosecution of AI-based abuse under the Take It Down Act, discuss how to have friends if we're phone free, and answer a parent question about what to do if our children look up something naughty online. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/480pLZV 

This week in tech we saw Artemis II round the dark side of the moon, had a new study from Sweden that found we can decrease our chances of dementia by lowering our sedentary screen time, and we get to answer a parent question about the best way to build hedges for teen social media use. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/47T5Ax3 

As a follower of Jesus, every day is Easter! Jesus is alive, and that's a big deal in every area of life: How we think about ourselves, how we parent our kids, and how we go about doing the good works we're called to do. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3PJeaYU 

AI can be an amazing tool, if we use it right. Today we'll discuss the three best ways to use AI well, and three uses of AI that we should avoid. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4v8cRTN 

Our children want to have fun, and we can give them adventures that: Maximize adventure Happen at the pace of real life Are with real world people Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3PgUU4O 

Choosing the right tech is simple, but that doesn't make it easy. Before we give our children new tech we need to ask three questions: Is it safe? Is my child ready? Is the fruit good? Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4bfWawm 

Parenting is an impossible task, and God knows this. We don't need to be perfect. We can do three things today to love our children well and do our job as parents: 1. Make time for them.  2. Correct them in love (discipline) 3. Point them to Christ. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/46DuXCp 

Everyone listening to this podcast knows someone who has been hurt by this content. So how do we parent it well? Parenting p*rnography well is scary, but it can be done with hope. We can build hedges around our tech and our families to help us raise healthy youth in a tech world.  Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3ZSU9RA 

I've been at a conference this week with thousands of Jesus loving people from around the country, and the conversation on walking in freedom from pornography is relevant and needed. It is relevant because people are hungry to see themselves, or their brothers and sisters in Christ, walk in the freedom Christ has won for them. It is needed because few churches are having this conversation well. We...

CONTENT WARNING: We’re diving into the tough but important topic of parenting in an AI-shaped world, and while younger kids probably shouldn’t listen in, this could be a great conversation to share with your middle or high schoolers so it feels more like learning together than an interrogation. My hope is that this equips you to parent well as we raise kids in a world shaped by AI.  Today we conti...

CONTENT WARNING:We’re diving into the tough but important topic of parenting in an AI-shaped world, and while younger kids probably shouldn’t listen in, this could be a great conversation to share with your middle or high schoolers so it feels more like learning together than an interrogation. My hope is that this equips you to parent well as we raise kids in a world shaped by AI. The first step t...

Is your child ready to play video games? If they already play, how do you know if it's going well. First we need to look at our children in real-world activities, because if they're faithful in little they can be faithful in much, and then assess their RESET to ensure the tech they use produces good fruit.  Show Notes: https://bit.ly/45OiGKP 

We make three mistakes when parenting video games. We focus on whether it will be fun. We believe the lie of the "digital cul de sac" We take the path of least resistance The good news is that each of these have simple, if not easy, fixes! We can focus on the high priorities, build healthy real-world friendships, and choose the activities that make our children more of who God has created them to...

You can parent a smartphone well. This episode will help. Before you start, ensure that this tech is safe (enough) for your child, that your child is ready, and then keep an eye out for good fruit coming from it. After that, parenting a smartphone comes down to building hedges around your family, the device, and remembering that your network hedge doesn't effect a smartphone. Show Notes: https://b...

I've had several conversations with people recently where they've asked about how Anna and I started this ministry. As we look at a new year, and new resolutions, I want to talk through what it looks like for us to follow where God leads in 2026.  Show Notes: 

Happy almost-New Year! You, the listener, have been an amazing blessing to me and to this ministry this year, and I want to share a bit of what God has been doing and where we are headed this next year.

I love Christmas because it is one of the few remaining buttresses of Christian virtue left in America. Everyone in America understands the idea of lavish gifts, of the frailty of gifts alone to make the recipient happy, and how beautiful it is to give a good gift to someone you love. Today we remember how Christmas fulfills a promise of God, and how it is one of three Advents God has promised to...

Grace is key to parenting tech well, and to overcoming unhealthy tech habits. Grace is costly, grace overcomes wrath / judgement at mistakes (specifically God's wrath at sin), and grace demands a response. By understanding God's idea of grace we can better apply it to ourselves and to our children when parenting tech. Show Notes: 

The good news of the Gospel applies even to our tech lives. Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son is a beautiful reminder that in tech, as in life, there are three types of people: rebels, self-righteous, and saints. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4ptaQ1a 

We are new creations in Christ, and that means we will use tech differently. The question is, which tech needs to be redeemed, and which needs to be removed? Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3LSF1Qk