“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.” —Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about artificial intelligence. Like many of you, I feel both excitement and concern. I’m amazed by what AI can do. It could help us find new medicines, tackle climate issues, make education more accessible, and solve problems that once seemed impossible.
At the same time, I’m troubled by how we’re already using this technology.
A recent New York Times article looked at how quickly AI is being used in modern warfare.1 The same technology that could help us heal is also being developed to make killing more efficient.
It raises a question for me: Why does our imagination for destruction so often outrun our imagination for healing?
This isn’t a new pattern for us. Whenever we invent powerful technologies, we quickly think about how they can help us control others. Chemistry brought us both medicines and chemical weapons. Physics gave us energy and nuclear bombs. The internet connected people but also became a tool for manipulation and division. Now, we’re at the start of the AI era.
The real question isn’t whether AI is good or bad. It’s about what kind of people will shape it.
But we don’t shape technology just through our personal choices. We also shape it through the institutions and systems we build, which decide what gets funded, what matters most, and what actually comes into the world.
Weapons always have buyers. Governments have budgets, militaries have systems to buy things, and industries are set up to turn ideas into reality fast. Healing is different. You can’t sign a contract for a restored ecosystem. There’s no lobby for a generation safe from hunger. Building a society focused on human well-being takes patience, imagination, and long-term commitment. These are much harder to fund, measure, or defend.
Destruction follows a simple pattern: find, target, eliminate.
Healing is much more complex: listen, tend, nurture, restore.
Maybe that’s why we imagine destruction first. It’s easier to picture. A missile has a clear target. A drone can be programmed. But healing a watershed needs vision. Building a caring society takes effort and time.
But there’s an even bigger challenge. Destruction often comes disguised as healing. Wars are fought in the name of peace. Weapons are made for security. Surveillance is called protection. The real issue isn’t just whether we make things that can hurt us. It’s whether we get so used to talking about protection that we stop asking if our actions are really creating more life.
Thomas Merton, a Christian monk and writer, warned that modern life’s violence isn’t just in acts of destruction.2 It’s also in the speed, pressure, and systems that stop us from being fully awake. Maybe that’s the challenge with AI. It’s not just about what machines can do, but about what we value as humans.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Christian mystic and thinker, believed humanity is moving toward greater awareness of our shared future and connection.3 He saw human creativity as part of creation’s unfolding, but only when it’s guided by love.
Maybe AI is another step in that process.
But just being connected isn’t enough. The world can be more connected and still become more cruel. Information isn’t the same as wisdom. Intelligence isn’t compassion. Power isn’t maturity.
The real question is whether our wisdom can keep up with our growing power.
AI won’t decide our future.
We will.
The tools we create will reveal what we love.
May we have the courage to create a future where our imagination for healing finally becomes as powerful as our imagination for destruction.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What emotions arise in you when you think about artificial intelligence—hope, fear, curiosity, resistance, or something else?
Where do you see human creativity being used to heal rather than dominate?
What wisdom, practices, and communities do we need in order to guide the technologies we create?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For Wisdom Beyond Our Power
Holy One, We stand at the edge of something we do not fully understand. We hold in our hands tools of extraordinary promise, capable of bringing healing, discovery, and connection. We also know the shadows that follow human power. We have too often built before we have listened, created before we have discerned, and reached for mastery before we have learned humility. Give us wisdom equal to our inventions. When our imagination runs toward control, turn our hearts toward compassion. When we seek faster answers, teach us the patience of forests, the persistence of rivers, the quiet work of restoration. Remind us that intelligence without love is incomplete, and power without wisdom cannot sustain life. May the things we create become blessings rather than burdens. May our knowledge be guided by humility. May our innovation be guided by care. May our future be shaped by love. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Ask a Different Question
Today, when you encounter a new technology or a new possibility, pause before asking, “What can this do?”
Ask a deeper question: “What is this for?”
How might this serve healing? How might it deepen human connection? How might it contribute to the flourishing of life?
The future will not be shaped only by the technologies we create.
It will be shaped by the wisdom we bring to them.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
July 28 - September 1, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are reading our next book, “I Eat The Stars” by Sarah Wilson. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
August 6, 2026, 7-8pm ET - FREE EVENT - Join me in conversation with Rev. Natalia Terfa about her new book, “It All Counts: Finding God Beyond the Boundaries.” What if the moments you’ve been taught don’t “count” spiritually are actually where God is waiting to be found? Many of us were handed a version of faith that divided life into sacred and secular, holy and ordinary, faithful and doubtful. But what if those boundaries were never real? Whether you’ve left church, stayed in it, or find yourself somewhere in between, this conversation will offer fresh language for a faith that is expansive, embodied, and deeply human. REGISTER HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for an 18-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
Dr. Timothy Snyder, the author of On Tyranny, has publicly released the first lecture of a ten-lecture course he taught at the University of Toronto this past year. The course is called “Hitler and Stalin Today.” He is offering this as a public resource for students, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding the relationship between history and contemporary democracy. Follow his posts here or watch on YouTube.
July 23, 2026, 2-3:00pm ET, Join Rev. Lisa Bryant for a six-session community of practice called “Imagining God with Julian of Norwich” inspired by Julian of Norwich’s The Showings, in Mirabai Starr’s vivid and accessible translation. Together, we will encounter Julian’s remarkable vision of divine love and explore what her wisdom might awaken in our own lives, spiritual practices, and understanding of God. You can learn more and sign up here.
July 29, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
My friends over at Spiritual Wanderlust have some of the coolest classes. One I am particularly drawn to is their Celtic Spirituality School where you get to learn from people like John Philip Newell, Ilia Delio, Carl McColman, Sharon Blackie, and more. Read more about their program.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Hennigan, W.J. “The New Age of War: How AI Is Changing the Battlefield.” The New York Times, July 20, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/opinion/ai-drones-modern-warfare.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.XaHN.yv07zCXpU3cE&smid=url-share
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Doubleday, 1966), p. 71.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959).
Tristan Harris and Krista Tippet on her On Being podcast. It is offers the most thorough, graspable and clear statement about the challenge of having AI serve vs destroy us. https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/can-ai-be-built-in-service-of-life-a-conversation-with-krista-tippett-00005347
I have no (direct or immediate) control over AI on a large scale but before going to Claude for conversation I do ask myself if the quality or importance of my question is worth the energy Claude uses to help me with an answer. Only occasionally do I get a YES from my discerning -