Magnifica Humanitas, Artificial Intelligence, and Amish Country
Magnifica Humanitas, Artificial Intelligence, and Amish Country
Publish Date: 2026-06-09 05:00:00
Source Domain: www.frontporchrepublic.com
They say that kids these days can’t get along without screens, but my teenaged daughter is an exception. On our most recent road trip, she came up with her own form of screen-free entertainment: she decided to keep a running tally of Teslas spotted along the way.
The first few hours were a bit disappointing. West Virginia and Pennsylvania offered little in the way of Tesla sightings, as they also offered little in the way of the wealth that produces them. Things were not much better when we reached Ohio, alas, and by the time we pulled into our hotel in Shipshewana, Indiana that night, my daughter had only made a few marks on her notebook page.
Fortunately, when morning dawned we discovered a more rewarding alternative: finding ourselves in the heart of Indiana Amish country, we would now begin counting horse-drawn buggies instead. Before we reached I-90 we had spotted 26 such carriages; the Tesla tally, by contrast, didn’t really start to pick up until we reached the North Chicago suburbs.
It was only a couple of days after our trip that Pope Leo XIV released his new encyclical on the social doctrine of the church and its application to the digital age, Magnifica Humanitas. What, the encyclical asked, should Christians and other people of goodwill do in response to the promise and challenges of this rapidly changing world and its astonishing technologies, especially AI?
Well, what would the Amish do, I wondered? We know what they would do in response to a Tesla, should it ever occur to them to consider allowing their members to own one. They would not respond reflexively; instead, as individual communities, they would discern through prayer, careful consideration, and deliberation whether or not to allow Tesla ownership as part of their particular Ordnung. As part of their approach (here’s a quick run-down), they would ask whether the innovation in question would draw them closer to God and each other or draw them away from…
