Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, who polices your integrity? It's prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal by Rochon Fernandez about the fraud squad at Caltech. Here's the story. Caltech, a prestigious school in California, has formed a four-person fraud squad, a team that works through every student's application to make sure that they aren't making things up. Here's kind of the reason for that. Every year, about 11,400 students apply for admission to Caltech. The school only accepts around fewer than 4% of total applicants. Otherwise, it's a very hard school to get into. So there's temptation there for students all the time to inflate their resume to say they took classes they never did, had a gpa, they never did, pursued extracurriculars that they never did. And in the era of artificial intelligence, it gets pretty easy, or at least easier to be fraudulent, to even create supporting materials that really make it look like you said or did or accomplish the things you needed to in order to get into the school. So the fraud squad works like an investigative squad, actually looking at photos, articles, emails, videos, even calling them, quote, unquote evidence to make sure students have done, what they said. And what they say is that most students are honest. but the process is necessary. There are enough cases of fraud to make sure. You know, when I read this, I thought, man, two things. One is article. Artificial intelligence does not create the desire to be fraudulent. It just makes it come out in us because we think we can get away from it. In other words, because AI allows me to lie even better than I used to be able to lie. The desire to lie comes out in me because I think I'm gonna get away with it. And then I think about these kids, these students, and the 18 years their parents have had to teach them about integrity, about telling the truth about hard work, about. About sometimes even the necessary chapter of your story being disappointment and not getting in to the school that you want to get into. There's so many lessons that these kids obviously have not learned and taken to heart because they're cheating or trying to cheat their way into college. This is a wake up call for those of us in the church because we have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews who are growing up in the era of artificial intelligence. We have Kids that are going to be lured into this deceptive world of being able to lie and even make your lies look real, which means the lessons about integrity are even more important. You know, the idea here, the, Christian idea at least, is not that. Not just that lying is wrong, but that as believers, we're to be led by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. The Spirit who. Who tells us the truth, who leads us into truth which sets us free. Romans 8:14. The apostle Paul says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The challenge here for the kids in our care is to teach them to actually want to hear and follow the voice of God, that after they make a confession of faith, after they're born again, the access they have to God is the guiding principle of. Of their lives. You know, I've said this before on the podcast, but lying is a form of functional atheism. It's saying, I don't have to tell you the truth because you'll never know. And because you'll never know, there'll be no consequences. But for the Christian, the antidote to lying is to say, but God knows. God sees. God is watching. There is a God. He is all knowing, all seeing and holy. And out of fear and reverence for Him, I won't lie. Listen, we should have conversations with the younger generation about what integrity really means. about what it means to be a person who tells the truth, who avoids the ability to cheat, the ability to lie, the ability to defraud, even if you can get away with it. Students are increasingly going to grow up in a world where everyone does it. There's going to have to be a compelling argument for. For why we do not. But of course, you can't have a compelling argument if you're not talking about it in the first place. So make sure you're talking to your kids about why telling the truth matters. And in fact, while you're at it speaking from experience, why don't you talk to yourself? Because the truth is, you and I are just as tempted to use artificial intelligence in a number of ways that we know deep down, we shouldn't. One of the ways for the church to shine in a dark and crooked age is resist the temptation to use technology to cheat and to lie and to steal. Let's tell the truth, whatever the consequences, and let's raise a generation of truth tellers to the glory of God and for the good of the world. God loves. Hey, thanks for checking out Wake Up, Look Up for more content. Be sure to visit the Christ Community Chapel app or website cccchapel.com.

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