Technology is not an enemy of Christianity. It never has been. But the so-called “Big Tech” stranglehold on our culture is another matter. When I say, “Big-Tech” I mean something very specific. I’m talking about the power of three technology giants — Facebook, Twitter, and Google — which dominate our culture today. These companies regulate what we see and believe to be important. Sometimes that means they do so by not showing us things. Either way, they control our collective mindset. And for reasons explained below, that is a dangerous truth that needs to be addressed. People of faith need to band together to address it. And Christian thinkers should lead the revolt against Big Tech.

Too “Worldly”?

No doubt, some Christians will think this is ridiculous. Technology, they’ll say, has no bearing on how we live out our Christian faith. And Christians shouldn’t be involved in a “revolt” against anything. They’ll accuse me of “worldly” thinking.

To which I would reply, “Exactly.”

Hear me out. I know it is a Christianese article of faith to give the word “worldly” a negative connotation. But I don’t. When I say “worldly,” I am talking about engaging with the world. It’s as simple as that. I am not talking about embracing the way the world thinks. And that’s the point.

These Big Tech companies are doing more than messing with our internet searches and news content. They are shaping the way the entire culture sees the world. And if you don’t understand the impact that can have on religious liberty and your ability to practice and preach about your faith, you’re just not paying attention.

Identifying the Problem

If you have 42:00 minutes, I encourage you to watch this speech by Peter Rex at Hillsdale College. To be honest, he is not a dynamic speaker. (He is more engaging in the 20:00 minutes of Q&A time after the speech). But the content of his talk is what’s important. It’s eye-opening. And I will summarize it below …

The problem with Big Tech is that it demands conformity. Conformity is not bad in and of itself. We all belong to groups where we agree to conform to rules and behaviors. When you play golf, there are rules you are supposed to conform to. When you drive a car, your safety depends on the conformity of other drivers.

Big Tech’s conformity is different. It’s about conformity of thought — and intolerance for those who think differently. It has the means and the power to demand ideological conformity. And because we live in such a technocentric culture, it can impose that ideology on all of us whether we agree to it or not.

The Origins of Tech Conformity

Peter Rex is a product of Big Tech. He was Ivy League-educated and worked in Silicon Valley. But as his career progressed, he became uncomfortable with the kind of conformity he saw being practiced all around him.

It turns out that almost all the leaders and workers in the Big Tech world go to college at a tiny handful of Ivy League universities. And what Peter Rex noticed was that these universities do more than educate their students. They indoctrinate them. That program of indoctrination is hostile to critical thinking in general, and to the Judeo-Christian worldview specifically. And it’s getting worse. The proof of this is in the pudding.

A 1968 study of Ivy League universities put the liberal-to-conservative ratio of professors in history departments at 3-to-1. But a more recent (2017) study of 40 leading universities found that among professors age 65 and older, liberals now outnumber conservatives by 10-to-1. And for scholars under the age of 36, the ratio is 23-to-1. If you want to look at it from the perspective of political parties, a recent study on political donations at 31 leading private and public universities (from the Federal Election Commission database) found a Democrat-to-Republican ratio of 95:1, with only 22 Republican donors. That’s compared with 2,081 Democratic donors.

Another study of party affiliation found the ratio of Democrat-to-Republican professors in the Communications field at 108-to-0.

Yes, zero.

I don’t say this to promote any political position. The point is that the universities — those places we send our young people to broaden their minds and teach them to think critically — should never be this lopsided in either direction.

Big Tech Homogeneity

Once these students become Big Tech employees, the ideological indoctrination not only continues; it intensifies. The vast majority of Big Tech companies reside in two urban centers — San Francisco and Seattle. Thus, the Big Tech “bubble” is not just ideological, but also geographical. People who share the same thinking on almost every level, also live and work in the same places. Their view of the world is reinforced in every possible way. It’s a world where opposing views don’t really even need to be silenced.

These people never hear them.

The companies they run, and the algorithms they use to feed their business models, are incomprehensibly profitable. Those profits fuel their marketing machines, confirming (in their eyes) the purity of their causes. Dissenting views are not tolerated. And the cycle of navel-gazing self-righteousness perpetuates itself.

This is important. Remember that the fuel for Big Tech control over what we see and think is money. Remove the profits and the self-inflated bubble can’t help but collapse.

Consequences

This is where the Big Tech powerhouses impact not only Christians but traditional religious believers of every kind. Remember, the homogenous Big Tech view of the world is hostile to the Judeo-Christian worldview and its values. And that means that forced conformity impacts all of us in three specific ways.

1. 1.  Censorship — Big Tech has a virtual monopoly on social media and marketing. By demanding conformity in the way almost everyone interacts with the world, it is able to manipulate how billions of people think. It not only promotes a specific point of view, it also limits what people can see, say, or hear from other points of view. There’s a term for this practice. It’s called censorship.
   2. No Accountability — Because Big Tech has virtually no competition, and because all its constituents share the same views, there is no one to hold it accountable. There are no consequences for imposing conformity on the rest of us.
   3. Limited Opposition — In the eyes of the leaders of Big Tech, anyone outside their marketing empire who dares question its doctrines must be an uneducated bigot. No thinking person could possibly oppose them. Those who dare to do so must be silenced and/or de-platformed. No dissent allowed!

Limiting Progress

The irony in all this is that the Big Tech elite believe they are being “progressive.” That they are leading us all to a brighter — if not utopian — future. But the consequences of their actions are not in the least bit “progressive.” By controlling society’s unfettered access to information they are, by definition, stifling human flourishing. This is morally repugnant. But there is an insidious aspect of all this that is even more ironic.

Big Tech is hobbling the supposed progressivism … of Big Tech. How so?

Those who run Big Tech don’t believe in the value and power of human diversity. They think they know better how people should act and what they should think. That’s bad enough. But what’s worse is that Big Tech exploits the many to enrich a few. They sell your personal data. They purposefully generate controversy by showing you the most fringe examples of those with whom you disagree. And they do this for one reason. It causes conflict. Conflict encourages clicks. And clicks generate revenue.

Big Tech literally enriches a small group of elitists by tearing the rest of us apart. If you doubt it, watch the Netflix documentary, “The Social Dilemma.” It’s telling that Big Tech social media leaders won’t let their own kids be on social media.

Why Christians Should Care

None of these are minor issues. And they aren’t just inconveniences.

Remember, Big Tech is hostile to people with a Judeo-Christian view of the world. And when you think that through, you realize that there are even bigger implications than the inconvenience of getting your news source blocked, your Facebook post removed, or your account suspended. The Judeo-Christian worldview is the foundation for Western Civilization. It’s the basis for human rights and tolerance, even among those who are not believers. It’s what brought us freedom of expression and free inquiry.

Left to its own devices, Big Tech will have the means and the motive to stifle religious liberty, punish religious believers, and forbid us from practicing our faith in the public square. Google already collaborates with Communist China and its military to limit what is available to the Chinese people with their search engine and to develop new surveillance technologies. Facebook suppresses news stories that go against its “approved” political ideology. Twitter does the same. If you want to know where that leads we have a modern-day example to consider. It’s called North Korea.

This is a problem whether you’re a religious believer or not. But Big Tech — and technology itself — is not going away. That means that, as Christians, we need to not only understand the issues, we need to generate responses and offer solutions. The revolt against Big Tech will come when we implement those solutions en masse.

That will be the topic of my next post.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments …