The Age of AI and the Christian Parent

Many parents—myself included—are struggling to know how to wisely use technology and AI in our homes. As a pastor, I see how my own phone use threatens to turn me into a zombie, fighting daily against algorithms built to capture my attention. I look at my 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter and know that if I struggle, they have little chance against today’s relentless digital giants. When I read Clare Morell’s recent article, “The AI Revolution Is Coming for Our Kids,” it sounded an alarm I already felt in my spirit.

Christians throughout history have faced moments when new cultural forces demanded fresh discernment. The printing press, television, and the internet all changed how people learn and think. Yet through each transformation, the call of God’s people has remained the same—to live wisely, to love truth, and to order our use of the world’s tools under the authority of Christ.

A Biblical Framework for Cultural Discernment

Receive, Reject, or Redeem
Followers of Jesus have long approached culture through a biblical framework: receive, reject, or redeem. This is not a clever slogan; it flows from Scripture itself.

Paul urged believers to “test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess. 5:21–22). This single instruction captures the entire task of discernment. We gratefully receive what aligns with God’s design, reject what distorts it, and redeem what can be repurposed for His glory.

• To receive is to enjoy God’s good gifts as reflections of His creativity (1 Tim. 4:4).
• To reject is to turn away from what leads us or our children away from Christ (Rom. 12:2).
• To redeem is to engage what is broken and, by wisdom and restraint, restore it for kingdom purposes (Col. 1:19–20; 1 Cor. 10:31).

This biblical rhythm isn’t theoretical—it shapes ordinary decisions every Christian family faces.

Everyday Application
Each day, parents weigh choices that rarely fit neatly into “yes” or “no.” Should my child play club soccer even though it includes Sunday games? Should my teen experiment with AI tools for schoolwork or creative projects?

This framework helps guide those tensions.

• Club Soccer: Some families receive it as an opportunity to enjoy God’s gifts and build relationships. Others reject it when it disrupts worship or family health. Still others redeem it by setting boundaries while using it as a venue for witness and character formation.
• AI Technology: Likewise, wise families receive some uses, reject others, and redeem the rest—embracing its educational potential while maintaining safeguards, purpose, and accountability.

This kind of discernment requires humility and vigilance. The goal is not to control every detail of life but to ensure that whatever enters our homes leads hearts toward Christ, not away from Him.

Understanding the Moment We’re In

The Alarming Rise of AI in Youth Culture
Morell recounts chilling examples—from tragic outcomes linked to AI chatbots to the subtle emotional manipulation of children through personalized algorithms. Many teens now build emotional connections with chatbots that imitate empathy yet lack humanity. Parents often discover too late that these “companions” are shaping their child’s beliefs about love, identity, and truth.

As Sherry Turkle at MIT observed, we are increasingly “alone together.” AI companionship makes that literal. Digital relationships offer comfort without confrontation, intimacy without accountability. Scripture warns that “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). How much more dangerous is company that seems human yet carries no soul—and no truth?

This is not fearmongering; it is realism. The moral formation of the next generation is already being outsourced to machine-driven persuasion.

Technology, Anxiety, and the Crisis Facing Our Kids
Our society now faces an unprecedented mental-health crisis among youth, intensified by the always-on, comparison-driven digital world. Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation documents how screen saturation fragments attention, disrupts sleep, and feeds insecurity. But the root problem is deeper than psychology—it is theological.

Humans were never meant to live as self-made gods. In Genesis 11, the builders of Babel sought a name apart from God’s glory. Technology today tempts us with the same illusion: omniscience without wisdom, connection without communion, power without dependence.

When our children grow up in that environment, their understanding of humanity, purpose, and belonging shifts. Unless we ground them in biblical identity, the world will gladly supply a digital one.

Who Do Kids Trust for Guidance?
Perhaps most sobering, surveys show that when teens seek answers, they rarely go first to their parents or pastors. They go to their phones. Truth has been replaced by search results, and moral guidance by trending content.

Deuteronomy 6 commands parents to teach God’s Word “when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way.” In today’s language, that includes “when you scroll.” Christian parents must reclaim their God-given role as primary disciplers, speaking truth more faithfully than the algorithms that never sleep.

A Call to Faithful Engagement

Can We Redeem What We Don’t Understand?
Our calling cannot be passive. Scripture never commends fear-based withdrawal or blind acceptance. It calls us to stewardship—to understand, to guard, and to guide.

The men of Issachar were praised because they “understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chron. 12:32). That same wisdom is needed now. We cannot redeem what we refuse to learn. AI is not merely a novelty; it is a worldview in code, reflecting human values and spiritual assumptions.

As Carl Trueman warns, modern culture trains people to look inward for truth. AI amplifies that tendency by personalizing reality itself. Only Scripture—“living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12)—can cut through those illusions.

Understanding AI’s reach does not mean surrendering to it. It means leading our families through it with eyes open and Bibles in hand.

Practical Resources for Christian Families
Thankfully, faithful help exists for those seeking wisdom in this new terrain:

• Protect Young Eyes offers biblically informed digital-safety tools for families and churches.
• Covenant Eyes provides powerful accountability and monitoring software designed to help families, churches, and individuals pursue purity and transparency in online habits.
• Bark offers comprehensive parental monitoring for devices, detecting potential dangers such as explicit content, cyberbullying, or self-harm, and alerting parents with actionable insight.
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt provides data on the mental-health consequences of digital dependency—insights that, when viewed through Scripture, point us back to God’s design for rest and embodiment.
• Consider the Lilies by Jonny Ardavanis invites anxious parents to trust God’s character more than their control.
• The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch offers wise, practical habits for placing technology in its rightful place—under human authority and Christ’s lordship.

No resource replaces discipleship, but these can strengthen parents and churches determined to lead with conviction.

The Charge Before Us

Wrestling for Our Children’s Good
This is the moment for Christian parents, educators, and pastors to reclaim digital discipleship. If we do not intentionally shape technology’s influence, it will shape our children in its own image.

Paul’s command still stands: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Today, that transformation must extend to our screens. The renewal of our minds happens when Christ, not culture, defines reality.

We must acknowledge our own struggles, pursue wisdom together, and model restraint in a distracted world. Our goal is not isolation but integration—learning to live in a technological age without surrendering to it.

The AI revolution will not wait, but neither will the grace of God. The Spirit who hovered over the formless void still brings order to chaos. Parents who walk by that Spirit, and churches that disciple with that confidence, can raise children who are wise, grounded, and unafraid.

May our homes be places where digital tools are mastered, not mastering—and where every invention of man ultimately bows before the sovereignty of God.