Russell Moore is Nervous About Driverless Cars, Here's Why

In a recent post on his website, Russell Moore, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, parallels the future of work to the future of the church. 

Moore says he's concerned because as technology disrupts industry--it's people who get left behind--and it's the church who cares for hurting people.

When I was serving in local church ministry, I would become especially nervous whenever the local factory would announce the possibility of downsizing. I knew that downstream from that, in just a matter of months, I would be faced with a much heavier counseling load—with marriages especially in crisis. Usually this would be due to the men in my congregation, faced with the loss of work, spiraling into fear of the loss of not just their incomes but their sense of themselves, and of their worth. This would manifest itself in different ways—sometimes in a deep depression in which a person would want to stay in bed all day, sometimes in a pornography addiction, sometimes in an adulterous affair, sometimes in alcoholism or dependence on prescription drugs.

He points to driverless cars as a current example. Advances in technology will soon put those who make a living driving cars or trucks out of work.

The crisis would start to be economic but would end up being spiritual. What may seem episodic in some places is epidemic in others. Notice the hollowing out of entire swaths of the country; the places where industries once thrived and now are gone. In many cases, what has departed is not just wealth but social cohesion. One church—once a booming, evangelistic congregation—told me that they had no deacons. This church had a male-only diaconate, and they could not find men qualified to serve, who were not too elderly to serve. The reason was that the men in this community were, to the person, barreling through multiple divorces or opioid addiction. Behind all of that is joblessness, with the stress that goes along with it.

Moore goes on to challenge churches to be prepared to answer questions like, "Who am I now?" 

"The church should be the community that cares for those who are hurting, tangibly and economically, as both Israel and the early church modeled for us. Beyond that, though, we must also speak a word of hope for people who have bound up their identities in jobs that are gone, and are not coming back. People won't just need income, but also a sense of meaning and mission. Jesus has given us that," Moore writes.