RFI Senior Legal Fellow Ian Speir wrote a piece published in Public Discourse this week on “Emerging Tech and Religious Freedom.” Speir argues that as lawmakers across the country increase their scrutiny and regulation of emerging technologies, religious organizations utilizing technology “will have to navigate an increasingly contested boundary line between the requirements of law and the demands of faith.” He writes:

Like their secular counterparts, religious organizations—churches and synagogues, ministries, and religious schools—have rapidly embraced digital and AI technologies. Some have placed them at the very core of their religious mission. Whether it’s sophisticated data analysis on donor behavior, faith-infused chatbots, or digital cloning of religious leaders, many organizations see technology as simply another tool: another way to spread their message, make disciples, minister to the faithful, educate the young, care for the poor, and build support for their missions.

Yet where technology goes, regulation soon follows. As lawmakers across the country increase their scrutiny of emerging technologies, tech-savvy religious organizations will have to navigate an increasingly contested boundary line between the requirements of law and the demands of faith.

At the moment, neither side seems aware of the problem. The tech regulations emerging out of state capitals, administrative agencies, and Congress are largely oblivious to the ways religious organizations use technology. On the flip side, religious organizations have yet to reckon with new legal restrictions on practices that are essential to their missions. Many are simply unaware that they’re subject to regulation at all. All this will change in the coming years.

Read the full article: “Emerging Tech and Religious Freedom.”