Churches Using AI: This Week's Top Faith-and-AI Stories

Five developments from the first days of June 2026 (a papal encyclical, a multi-faith study of AI bias, fresh national survey data, and a Southern Baptist vote on the calendar) show religious organizations moving from quietly experimenting with AI to openly governing it. Here is what happened and why it matters for churches using AI.

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Pope Leo XIV Makes AI the Subject of His First Encyclical

The Catholic Church put artificial intelligence and the church at the center of its highest form of teaching. Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas ("On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence"), runs to roughly 42,000 words and was presented at the Vatican alongside Chris Olah, a co-founder of the AI lab Anthropic. The pope's central move was to call for AI to be "disarmed," which he framed as a refusal to let technology dominate people rather than a rejection of technology itself. Technology, he wrote, is never neutral, because it carries the aims of those who build, fund, regulate, and use it.

Catholic reaction has been substantial and, for the most part, warm. University of Notre Dame scholar Paolo Carozza praised the document's measured and vigilant tone and its willingness to engage AI seriously rather than dismiss it. Not everyone agreed: writer Matthew Walther argued the pope underestimates how badly AI could worsen existing social problems, pointing to the drift toward algorithmic decision-making in medicine. The presence of Olah on stage drew its own attention, with the Anthropic co-founder making the case that the industry needs outside voices: people who sit outside the commercial incentives and are willing to say hard things.

For faith leaders of any tradition, the encyclical resets the conversation. Artificial intelligence in the Catholic Church is no longer a matter of individual parish experimentation; it now has formal magisterial teaching behind it that other denominations will read, cite, and respond to. The document stops short of a rulebook for which tools to use. What it provides is a moral frame for the decisions ahead, and a clear signal to the wider AI industry that the world's largest church intends to help shape the debate rather than watch from the sidelines.

Source: Deseret News

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A Multi-Faith Study Finds AI Quietly Leaves Religion Out

A new research consortium has produced hard evidence that leading AI models sideline faith. The Consortium for Evaluation of Faith and Ethics in AI (CEFE-AI), led by Brigham Young University with Baylor University, the University of Notre Dame, and Yeshiva University, released the first three studies of what it calls the AllFaith Benchmark, a set of tests for how AI systems handle religion. The team brought together evangelical, Catholic, and Jewish computer scientists, and announced its results at the Summit on AI Ethics in Athens.

The findings are pointed. Across more than a dozen of the most-used AI models, the systems largely declined to bring religion into answers about grief, love, loss, and morality: the very questions where people often turn to faith. That absence stands out against the backdrop the researchers cite: most of the world's population claims a religious identity, and a national survey found that people expect religious perspectives to show up in answers to ethical questions. The benchmark also surfaced a "conversion bias," in which models nudged users toward some traditions and away from others, leaning favorable toward Catholicism, for instance, and negative toward Jehovah's Witnesses, agnosticism, and atheism.

Lead researcher David Wingate framed the takeaway plainly: "Religion is an important part of human flourishing," he said, arguing there is no good reason not to build AI that supports people in what matters to them. "AI does not bring religion into those conversations," he noted of the life questions the team tested.

The practical lesson for ministries is direct. A congregation that points members toward a general chatbot for spiritual questions may be handing them a tool that quietly omits, or even skews, their own tradition. It strengthens the case for any organization adopting AI to test how a given model treats its beliefs, rather than assume neutrality that the research says is not there.

Source: The Church News

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One in Three Americans Trust AI as Much as a Pastor

Survey data released this season puts a number on a shift many leaders have sensed. Research from Gloo and the Barna Group found that roughly one in three U.S. adults consider AI's spiritual guidance as trustworthy as a pastor's, a figure that climbs higher among Millennials and younger adults. The trend is not confined to the unaffiliated; a meaningful share of practicing Christians say AI has aided their prayer, Bible study, and spiritual growth.

The implications land hardest in communities built on personal relationship. Writing for Word In Black, the Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware drew out what the numbers mean for Black churches, whose strength has long been pastoral presence and mutual care. AI can summarize Scripture and answer questions at any hour, but it cannot sit with a grieving family or know a congregation by name. "If you are looking for personal guidance, nothing can take the place of a godly man or woman who hears from God and knows you," said the Rev. Ronald Covington.

That tension, real usefulness paired with real limits, is the heart of the matter for churches using AI. The technology is already woven into how younger members seek answers, which raises the stakes for how leaders teach about it. The risk is not that AI shows up in the pews; it is that it shows up without guidance, and congregants come to treat a chatbot as a spiritual authority on questions that call for a human, a community, and a tradition. The survey suggests that conversation can no longer wait, especially for the generations most willing to trust the machine.

Source: Word In Black

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Most Pastors Use AI. Almost None Have Written a Policy.

The clearest signal of where churches actually stand comes from the gap between practice and preparation. Drawing on Barna Group research, The Christian Post reported that about 60% of church leaders now use AI regularly, yet only about 5% of churches have established a formal AI policy. That mismatch is what stands out: adoption has become routine while oversight has barely started.

The same research shows leaders see the risks clearly. Nearly half of Christians say AI has helped them grow spiritually, while the overwhelming majority of practicing Christians, and nearly all pastors, worry that AI misinterprets Scripture. Researcher Daniel Copeland captured the contradiction: Christians say they trust AI with spiritual growth, he noted, even as large majorities are simultaneously concerned about the technology getting the Bible wrong. Pastors' fears extend to plagiarism, loss of authenticity in preaching, and the erosion of congregants' trust.

This is where a church AI policy stops being optional. The absence of written rules does not mean AI is absent: it means staff are making case-by-case choices with no shared boundary, no record of what an AI tool touched, and no agreed line between acceptable back-office help and the spiritual work that should stay human. Sensible church technology solutions start with that boundary: deciding where AI is welcome, such as drafting newsletters, scheduling, transcription, and multilingual translation, and where it is not, such as counseling and preaching. The encouraging news is that the conversation is moving from whether to use AI toward how to use it responsibly. A written policy, backed by real oversight, is how that intention becomes practice.

Source: The Christian Post

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Southern Baptists Head to Orlando for a Vote on AI

The largest U.S. Protestant denomination is set to put AI to a formal vote. The Southern Baptist Convention's Resolutions Committee released its slate for the 2026 annual meeting, and among the proposals addressing cultural questions is a resolution on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Messengers will gather at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on June 9-10, with resolutions presented for a floor vote on Tuesday, June 9 and Wednesday, June 10.

The move builds on history. In 2023, Southern Baptists adopted a resolution calling for "the utmost care and discernment" in developing and using AI, widely regarded as among the first statements on AI ethics from a major denominational body. A 2026 resolution would update that posture for a moment when the tools are far more capable and far more common in church life than they were three years ago.

A denominational resolution stops short of binding individual congregations, yet its weight is real. It signals to thousands of churches that their national body considers AI a matter worth formal deliberation, and it gives local leaders language and cover to set their own expectations. Coming in the same stretch as a papal encyclical and a major bias study, the SBC vote underscores how broadly the question of artificial intelligence and the church now cuts across traditions. For Baptist leaders specifically, the meeting is a chance to shape a shared position rather than leave each church to improvise, and for the wider faith world, it is one more sign that the governance conversation has arrived in earnest.

Source: Baptist Press

For the full analysis behind these developments, read Churches Using AI Race Ahead of Their Own Rules.

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Sources

• Pope Leo's encyclical: How Catholics reacted to teachings on AI (Deseret News)
• The Pope Just Weighed In On AI (Mind Matters)
• Do AI models omit religion? Here's what new BYU-led research says (The Church News)
• Survey: One in Three Americans Trust AI as Much as a Pastor (Word In Black)
• Most pastors, practicing Christians worry about AI replacing God but use it anyway: Barna (The Christian Post)
• Resolutions Committee releases slate for 2026 SBC Annual Meeting (Baptist Press)