Jason Thacker's Blog, page 11
June 13, 2021
What we can learn about Biblical ethics from the storyline of scripture
The study of Christian ethics is an underdeveloped area within the evangelical tradition, as many of the resources on biblical ethics come from the Roman Catholic moral tradition. While this is an area that has seen a recent surge of interest in the last few decades, there are several works from past generations that the church would do well to pick up and read with a discerning mind. One of these volumes is Principles of Conduct by theologian John Murray written in the 1950s. While it may seem ...
June 6, 2021
Balancing Our Uneasy Relationship with Technology After the Pandemic
Just as the shutdowns began in March 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I distinctly remember tweeting how encouraging it was to see a number of pastors and ministry leaders jumping on social media to update their people on church gatherings and to encourage them in that time of uneasiness.
Throughout the pandemic, pastors across the nation (and world) sought to navigate the unknown, and many picked up a new set of technical skills as they sought to take their church ga...
May 31, 2021
Should the government regulate social media? Florida’s new social media bill and the crisis of online governance
On Monday, May 24, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a new bill into law regulating content moderation and online governance in the state on social media platforms. This bill is the first state bill to become law on these issues, with other states including Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Utah currently considering similar legislation.
DeSantis championed the bill as a collaborative effort at the press conference where he signed the bill into law, highlighting how these major social med...
May 23, 2021
WeeklyTech Podcast Celebrates One Year!
It’s hard to believe that the WeeklyTech podcast just turned one year old! Over this past year, I have had the privilege of interviewing some of our society’s top thinkers and scholars about the pressing issues of theology, ethics, and philosophy in our technological society. It has been a real joy to connect with them and hear about their important work.
As many of us start to prepare for summer, I wanted to highlight the top five conversations from this past year on WeeklyTech in case you m...
May 16, 2021
Should Facial Recognition Be Used in Policing?
In January 2020, The New York Times broke the story and raised public awareness of a little-known facial recognition startup called Clearview AI, which sells their controversial technology to more than 600 law enforcement agencies and police units around the nation. CEO Hon Ton-That says the benefits of the technology include allowing police to identify criminals quickly and efficiently, often from a single photo uploaded to the service.
Facial recognition technology is already used in varyin...
May 9, 2021
Just Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should: Thinking Ethically about Technology
This past spring, I had the honor of working with the Colson Center on a couple video explainers as part of their “What Would You Say?” series on Youtube.
Summer is right around the corner and it has been a busy season. As I finish up a few writing projects and get ready for the launch of an exciting new project in the technology ethics space at ERLC, I wanted to share two video resources with you that I hope will encourage, challenge, and cause you to think deeply about the role of technolog...
May 2, 2021
Technology (Still) Can’t Replace In-person Community
A Roundtable Discussion with Jay Kim, Julie Masson, and John Dyer
As churches begin to gather in person again all around our nation and restrictions begin to ease, many church leaders are wondering how to navigate the challenges and opportunities that technology has brought us in this season. Last summer, I (Jason) hosted a roundtable with friends about the role of technology in the church and much of what they said still rings true today as we hopefully have the worst of this pandemic behind...
April 25, 2021
Should we treat social media platforms as common carriers?
Last Monday, EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson and Faulkner University law professor Adam J. MacLeod published a thought-provoking article at National Review walking through some of the arguments that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made concerning online governance and content moderation in his concurrence released alongside the court’s decision on Biden vs. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This particular case was ruled moot by the court, and the lower court decisio...
April 19, 2021
Is Clarence Thomas Right About Big Tech?
Today, EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson and Faulkner University law professor Adam J. MacLeod published a thought-provoking article at National Review walking through some of the arguments that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made concerning online governance and content moderation in his concurrence released alongside the court’s decision on Biden vs. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This particular case was ruled moot by the court, and the lower court decision was ...
The Disconnect of the Digital Life: How Social Media is Shaping Us and Can Impede Our Witness
Recently, I was reading a book and was impressed by the scholar’s careful exposition, nuanced approach, and charitable engagement with critics. Naturally, in the age of social media, I decided to look up the author online and was surprised by what I found. It seemed that the scholar was acting a certain way on one medium and a different way on the other. Social media tends to tempt a number of us to post things that we would never publish in a book, much less say in person to another human being...
