Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign It's Friday, May 8, 2026. I'm Albert Moeller and this is the Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. You know, here we are in the digital age, we're in the smartphone age, we're in the Internet age. You can just name the technology, it's all around us and most people are connected to it one way or the other. And that comes right down to even the existence of a podcast or a broadcast or any kind of product like that. The world has been transformed. We do understand there are grave dangers and they're not evenly distributed. So let's put it another way. We understand that there is a unique vulnerability to young people. And one of the things that should appear insane to us is that children and young people have been so exposed to not only cell phones, but to all kinds of very toxic, toxic, toxic influences. And not only that, in the age of artificial intelligence, to chatbots that include, well, as I say, some things that have led children and young people to self destructive behavior, some which have confused them sexually and so many other ways. We're talking about something, it's just really dangerous. We're also talking about the fact that these digital devices are taking so much time and consuming so much attention that other things like making friends and sustaining friendships, knowing how to have a conversation, all those things tend to fall apart. Okay, so all around the globe, people are beginning to awaken to this problem. And government, after government is beginning to take some kind of action. They are saying that children, until a certain age, 15, 16, on average, young people can't have social media accounts or they can't have full access to social media accounts. You also have the physical changes that are taking place where people are actually saying, no, you can't have a phone connected to a cellular system while you're in school. You're going to have to have your phone put away. It's going to be put into some kind of pocket, often a container that prevents it from connecting to the cell system. And we're just trying to cut down these school systems are saying in terms of cell phone access. So, so then it is interesting that you've got media attention to a recent study that was released asking the question, do bans on cell phones in schools work? Okay, so various news sources have reported on this. The studies are pretty interesting. It's more than one, but some of these are pretty big. One paper from researchers at Stanford University, Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan looked at cell data and were able to track it pretty significantly. And, you know, here one of the very interesting things you had schools saying, look, the presence of these phones in school is becoming something that's very counterproductive to teaching. The attention of students is towards the phones, towards the connectivity, rather than towards the teacher and the learning process. So an awful lot of schools have moved into the direction of banning phones. By the way, the New York Times, Dana Goldstein puts it this way, quote, banning cell phones was supposed to improve many of the problems ailing American education, including distraction, bullying, declining test stores, and absenteeism. The idea attracted rare bipartisan support. And over the past three years, two thirds of states. So that's the significant number. Two thirds of states pass laws restricting cell phones in schools. But according to this report, the bands have achieved only some of the goals that educators and parents hope for, at least so far. And this report, by the way, the most important one, is coming from the National Bureau of Economic Research, that's nber, which is very authoritative. Now, I just want to point to the fact that, number one, banning cell phones in a cell phone age is, I think, a very legitimate kind of move. But it is going to come with limited consequences because these young people are living lives if they have the phone. The rest of the time, they're living connected lives. And one of the things that shows up is that in the first year after school systems have moved to say that students can't have the cell phones in class, behavioral problems really erupt for about a year. And the explanation coming from some is that there's so much anxiety, even physical anxiety and behavioral anxiety that comes out when they're separated from their phones because they're so accustomed to it. Constant, constant engagement in terms of cell phones and then everything to which the smartphone is connected. So again, this report tells us something very. We don't put all our confidence in this kind of report, even this one coming from a very credible organization. It tells us only so much. And one of the things we have to watch is that the media will run a headline. The headline, number one, may not even be descriptive of the study. And secondly, it could be something that's replaced by something else. Another study, just in a matter of days, weeks, months, you name it. But it is about an issue here that should really have our attention as Christians, when we think about the minds and hearts and souls of young people. And, by the way, not just young people, but this is focused on the. The unique vulnerability of young people and the unique need for young people to focus on gaining an education. According to this Report the schools that have adopted strict bans in two thirds of the state over the last several years. And by the way, if those years are really only the last three years, there just isn't that much data to have a long term analysis. But the point is that many of these schools have not seen their test scores increase, but what has increased is the quality of the experience in the classroom. Okay, so that's really interesting. By the way, I think this should be of interest to a lot of evangelical churches and pastors, preachers as well, because we are talking about the fact that you have people and if they are connected, guess what, they're connected. And if they're connected to their phone, they are in more general terms, disconnected from the people with whom they are sitting. And here's something else that I think would surprise at least some people. Here is also from the report. Quote, teachers have been thrilled with the change, reporting fewer distractions from personal cell phone use. Over time, students in schools with strict bans reported a greater sense of personal well being. Or put it another way, do Christians really need to be told this so explicitly? Constant contact, consistent contact at younger ages with this kind of technology and the larger digital media world, especially social media, it doesn't increase the sense of well being of young people. It decreases that sense of well being. And I think it's, by the way, not just subjective, I think that points to an objectively true reality. All right, something similar came out. The Wall Street Journal gave a lot of attention to this. And this was a report that indicates how much of the time, in terms of the time children spend in schools. And this is about the public schools in particular, how much of the time is filled with, with videos. The headline is simply this. And the headline makes the point how YouTube took over the American classroom. The subhead of the article, parents find their kids captive to the video streaming site on their school issued devices. For one, that means one student. Okay, hold on. One student, one child. It was 13,000 YouTube videos in three months. Very interesting article. And as is common for a major paper like the Wall Street Journal, it takes the big issue. It looks at the research data. It also sends reporters out to talk with parents, children with families about this kind of situation. It starts out with the account of a seventh grade boy in Wichita, Kansas. And he seemed to know about a video game and to know a good deal about a video game he wasn't allowed to play. And so his parents notice. He seems to be very well informed about this thing he's forbidden to use. And it turns out he wasn't so much playing the game as he was watching YouTube videos about it. We're told that this boy's parents signed on to his school Google account. The mom found that her son had accessed more than 13,000 YouTube videos during school hours from December 2024 to February 2025. Okay, so that's roughly a year. A year and just a couple months. And during that period of time at school, her son had accessed more than 13,000 YouTube videos. Okay, so let's just ask the question, how in the world could that be? How could that be possible? Well, one of the things that becomes very clear in this article is that schools and teachers are increasingly allowing young people, and here we're talking about a seventh grader, to just have pretty much unrestricted access, at least in some contexts, to. To a platform like YouTube. And they're also pointing them to products, to particular videos as a part of what they would present as the curriculum. This mom found the problem was even worse. Speaking of her son, quote, his feed was rife with inappropriate content. Videos glorifying gun culture, asking about silencers on Nerf guns, headshots where children realistically portray being killed. A video with sexually explicit jokes. I'm not going to continue. You get the point. Bad stuff on this seventh grade boy's video stream. The mom said that it made her cry, and so she went to the school board. She then ran for the school board, trying to bring about change. The problem is being more and more well understood, school district by school district. Listen to this. According to the educators interviewed by the Wall street journal, quote, YouTube during snack time, dismissal and indoor recess, YouTube to teach drawing to first graders. YouTube to read a book to class. YouTube under the covers at night, watching hamster video videos on school issued Chromebooks. A survey touted by YouTube executives shows that 94% of teachers have used YouTube in their roles as teachers. Okay, 94%. I'll just tell you, I find that number pretty remarkable. The Wall Street Journal article points to the fact that in many school districts, children are being provided with the technology and often with Chromebooks. And these Chromebooks are often ready to be used on YouTube. And you have some parents and some young people actually waking up to understand this is a big problem, by the way, with this seventh grade boy whose experience is how the Wall Street Journal story begins. We're told that his parents intervened and he began using paper and pencil. And it was like a whole new world for this seventh grade boy. He said, quote, I'd rather use paper and pencil. It's easier to focus, end quote. The paper, by the way, traces all this to a strategy, at least in part by YouTube, to close the 80 million hour per day viewing gap between school days and weekends, end quote. And so that viewing gap is what they wanted to close, and evidently they've been pretty successful at it. Okay, one final issue along these lines. U.S. senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has initiated what's known as the Guard Act. And in a bipartisan way, it really is making progress. As Fox News reports, quote, the bill known as the Guidelines for User Age Verification Responsible Dialogue act, that's G U A R D Guard Act. It would ban artificial intelligence companies from providing information to minors that simulates interpersonal relationships or emotional interactions through AI companions, also known as chat bots. Okay, now get this. The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Guard act, paving the way for a future full Senate vote, end quote. Okay, so passing a Senate committee unanimously, that's not unprecedented. But in this particular political climate at this moment, something like this to happen, that does tell you something. Senator Hawley said, quote, it's a terrific victory. He went on to say, it's a huge victory for parents. This is the first time ever that the Senate has passed legislation that stands up to these AI companies and holds them accountable for hurting our kids, end quote. The Senator went on quite explicitly to say what kind of violent actions were being encouraged to children and teenagers through these bots. And you know about some of that just in terms of very tragic headlines. The Senator said, quote, this is insane stuff, and if the chatbot companies know about this, they ought to be penalized for it. If they're allowing this to happen and they know about it, they ought to be held accountable. That's what this legislation does, end quote. Now the next step is getting a vote on it in the full Senate. And then, of course, similar action has to be approved in the House. But I'll just say I think there is something happening in the culture around us where people are beginning to understand that our current situation is rightly defined as insane. And as Christians, we understand that's not just some kind of descriptor. It's a matter of moral responsibility. One last thing before we turn to questions. It is very interesting to see controversy that comes from Amsterdam, that is, as in the capital of the Netherlands. And for instance, the Washington Post ran an opinion piece. Here's the headline. Amsterdam's Ban on Advertising Hamburgers Won't Stop Climate Change. Okay? That's the kind of headline that demands a little Bit of attention. So here's the thing. In Amsterdam, the city has determined to ban all advertisements for meat. And by the way, that includes chicken and beef and pork. And it's because the city council, very leftist, Very, very leftist, it's not even going to allow fish to be advertised because they want to cut down on the demand for animal protein and they want people to move to plant based diets as a way to approach the problem of climate change. As the editorial board of the Washington Post said, quote, this is the nanny state at its silliest. Dutch politicians don't trust their citizens to decide for themselves what to eat. The European greens, that's the ecological parties are so hypnotized by climate hysteria and the belief that it poses an existential threat, that they rationalize authoritarianism, then this is a form of authoritarianism. You're telling producers they can't advertise. You're telling advertisers they can't allow the advertising. You're ordering society to try to act as if meat doesn't exist. And guess what? They're still legally going to serve it in the restaurants. By the way, the fake meat trend hasn't gone particularly well in the United States. And it was announced with a big bang just a few years ago. But one company that is beyond meat, its stock is now down from a 2019 high. So 2019, that's about six or seven years ago. The company is now worth less. How much less is it worth? It has lost 99% of its value. All right, something for us to ponder. Nonsense doesn't stay just on one side of the Atlantic. It's a reminder to us there's a whole lot at stake in terms of these developments. Okay, now let's turn to questions. I always appreciate the questions sent in by listeners, and as always, they're really good questions. And so you can write me just@mailalbertmuller.com, we'll get to as many as we can. First, from a father here, a father with two precious little girls. They're two and a half and 10 months old. And he's praying for them. Now, listen to this. With Romans chapter nine in the background, he asked the question. When I pray for them before bed, I find myself praying that God would love them and choose them. Looking ahead, I'm struggling with how to talk to my girls about God's love. It seems like lying to tell them definitely that God loves you when God forbid, he might not. But telling them God might love you seems appalling to me. Even if that's theologically correct, telling them that seems likely to cause a lifetime of spiritual anxiety. He says, am I thinking rightly about this? Okay, number one, let me just be thankful for something right in the world. Let me just tell you how happy I am to know about a Christian father with two precious little girls praying for them as they go to sleep at night. So I can just tell you something very right in the world. And let me tell you, you can always say to the child, you can always say to a child, God loves you. And so when we sing about Jesus loving the little children, we are singing what we know to be true. And number one, God has shown love to them by bringing them into the world. God has shown love to them by giving them to Christian parents. God shows his love for them in limitless ways even in the course of the day. God does love them. And God loves them by putting them in the home of Christian parents. And God loves them by putting them in proximity to the gospel. And God's love for them is with parents who raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so I want to just say, even with a text, especially with a text, emphatically with a text like Romans 9 behind us, which speaks of God's electing love, the reality is that there are clear signs of God's love for your daughters already. And one of the most precious dimensions, and I just hope you hear me say this, one of the most precious dimensions of God's love for your little girls is the love that God has put in your heart for them already. And so, as a Christian dad, I just want to encourage you and your wife to live the gospel before your children, raise them in a nurture and admonition of the Lord. Teach these little girls the Scriptures and pray for them. And for the day that we pray will come when they place their faith and trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. This is also a giant theological point. And let me just say that I think the Bible is emphatically clear about the sovereignty of God. And that sovereignty is unconditional, it's universal, and it is the display of his own power and glory. But that sovereignty does not prevent us and is not to dissuade us from obeying all that is commanded to us, and also from understanding that it is our task to share the Gospel with as many people as possible. And understanding that God has ordained not only the end, but the means. And the God who is absolutely sovereign has commanded us in faithfulness to do certain things, such as raise children, preach the gospel, and do so in light of all that is taught in Scripture. So again, I just am very thankful for this question. I'm just very encouraged to know about this father and his daughters, to know about this family. And I pray God's blessing in your life as you raise these girls in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Okay, then, a question from a mom and a mom of four. And she says that she's a strong advocate of people having babies, but she doesn't understand why so many people, including so many, many Christians, including. She directs this to me, why so many are concerned about a falling birth rate and a decline in the birth rate. And so she says, you speak about a lot of concerns surrounding the declining birth rate. Besides the moral implications that point to a decline in people wanting kids and the decay of the family unit, what is the problem with the falling birth rate? It would seem like it could be helpful in alleviating housing scarcity, opening up job opportunities, and reducing strain on natural resources exposure. Okay, so that's a fair question. It's a fair question. Let me just point out that God has so created human societies that a fall on the birth rate comes with pretty dismal consequences. So for one thing, just take up a society in which the process is advanced. So let's think about a society like Japan right now. And in Japan, they're closing elementary schools and they're having to radically expand nursing homes. Some years ago, I talked about on the briefing the fact that the nation of Japan had become the very first nation in which the sale of adult death diapers have become a larger economic factor than the sale of infant diapers. Okay, so when you're in a society where most diapers are being sold to those who are at the last stage of life rather than the first stage of life, you have a completely different economic reality, let's just put it that way. And when you have a declining birth rate, you have fewer people to help, fewer people to work, fewer people to support the entire society. Basically, a declining birth rate is something that has generally been brought about by some kind of absolute disaster in a time of war or something very similar, such as a dire famine. It is a situation in which a declining birth rate. Yes. Okay, so immediately there could be some alleviation of a problem like housing scarcity. Okay, so there could be some immediate results in which people say, hey, we don't have to spend so much on education. We don't have to spend so much on issues related to childhood. But the next thing you know, you are paying even more for the costs that come at the end stage of life. And there are fewer people working in order to provide for that need. And so I'll simply say I do think it's a matter of math. And I want to say to this mom, and by the way, God bless you for being a mom of four. That's really, really sweet. But I just want to say that even though you'll have some people who say, look, there will be immediate positive results to having fewer babies, well, if you're talking about certain forms of expenditure and cultural attention, yeah, that's certainly true. The problem is that it quickly turns into a very big problem for the society and it just comes back to the fact that the command given to human beings in the garden was be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. It turns out that that's what leads to flourishing. And the denial of it, let's just say, profoundly doesn't. Okay. I especially appreciate questions from young people and children, teenagers, they ask such good questions. A 13 year old girl wrote to ask me a sweet question. If you could meet one hero of the faith, famous or not, from the past, who would it be and why? Okay, wow, hard question. I think if I were talking about an Old Testament hero, it would be Moses. I look forward one day to meeting Moses in heaven. And the reason is just because this was the man who was used of the Lord in such a magnificent way. And it was through Moses that God gave the law. And so I would really want to meet Moses in the New Testament. And here I'm obviously not speaking of Christ. I don't think that's what this questioner means. I would say the Apostle Paul. And it is because the Apostle Paul looms so large in my life as a theological influence, as a model, as an apostle. I'll simply say I really look forward to meeting the Apostle Paul. And then if I'm talking about later church history, I think I would say Martin Luther, the reformer. And the reason for that is I think he's one of the most colorful human beings. He's one of the most courageous Christians I know. And he's a really interesting man that lived at a really interesting time. And I just have learned so much from Luther. I get so much encouragement from Luther's example. I think that's what this 13 year old young woman means to ask. And I'll simply say of all of church history, the one hero of the faith I really look forward to meeting in that sense is the great reformer Martin Luther. Okay, now an outstanding question coming from a man in Texas, and he says he's a pastor in Texas and he's wondering what is the difference in making an atheist Texas teacher put the Ten Commandments on her wall in her classroom and making a Christian baker bake a cake for a same sex marriage or wedding? He says, as Christians, shouldn't we be concerned for the religious freedom of all? What a great question. I mean, it really is a great question. It's one of those questions that comes out of a real life headline. And you can easily understand why this question would come to mind. I do think there's a real distinction here. And the distinction is that this is a law about the posting of the Ten Commandments that has to do with historical reference and is in a public school classroom. It's ordered to be put up into public school classrooms. That is legally a government statement in a private business. It's not a government statement. It's a private statement. And so when you talk about the cake baker here, he was being required in Colorado to make cakes for same sex weddings and to even express support and celebration for same sex unions. That he believed was wrong. It was a matter of his own private business and his own private reputation. When it comes to legislation to put something on the walls of a public school classroom, the teacher is basically relieved of responsibility for making that decision. And it is not interpreted as the speech being given, the communication being given by the teacher. Now, I do think that's the crucial distinction. I think it's a smart question and I appreciate the question being sent in as it was. I do think the difference here is between government speech and private speech. Okay, one final question coming in from a woman listener to the briefing. She's asking about artificial intelligence and she's saying that she's worried about one dimension. She says, is it possible that chatbots can become possessed by demonic forces? Okay, so I think I can answer this quickly and I'm going to say no. I do not believe they can be possessed by demonic forces simply because possession refers to spiritual beings and in particular to human beings who have that spiritual capacity and the soul. And I don't believe any artificial intelligence will have any such thing because it will not be made in the image of God. It's going to be objectively distinct from human beings. I do believe that demonic forces, just as defined in scripture, clearly can use just about anything to their demonic ends. And that certainly would include technology. So I don't believe that a chatbot can be possessed by demonic forces, I think it can be deployed by demonic forces. Quite frankly, as I close, I think most of us can come to a pretty quick analysis of just how that might happen. Or already has. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website@albertmohler.com you can follow me on X or Twitter by going to x.comalbertmohler for information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu. for information on Boyce College, just go to boycecollege.com. i'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.