Resisting the AI Takeover: Celebrating our Divine Mandate to Create
Perhaps this past week you’ve seen this post circulating from The Gospel Coalition. Brett McCracken, senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition, published the organization’s “line in the sand” regarding AI usage in their writing. His points were clear from the beginning and succinctly described: The Gospel Coalition will not use generative AI in any part of the writing process, whether it be inspiration for ideas, editing, or even text generation itself.
McCracken courageously articulated his defense of this divisive position in a little under 2,000 words. I was encouraged by his writing. In a world where we’re seemingly bombarded with all things AI from every possible direction, I am beyond thankful to see Christian organizations take a stand against this onslaught.
I was equally discouraged, however, by the world’s response to this firm stance. McCracken and TGC were ruthlessly attacked for being “Luddites” about AI. People in their least charitable forms made comments like “because Jesus walked everywhere does this mean it’s a sin for me to own a car?” or “how dare you write this article on the internet and not on parchment with a quill pen!”
Without giving these bad faith arguments any more attention than they deserve, the point I am making is to demonstrate the overwhelmingly negative, snarky, mean-spirited responses McCracken and his colleagues received about this work. Our world and, even more specifically, the Christian world seems to have not only wholesale accepted AI but, in the short time since its inception, have grown so fond of it we take personal offense anytime AI is critiqued.
At Rambling Ever On, we regularly interact with culture, most specifically through the arts. We write about film and music and about the deep impact that art has on the soul. My own imagination has been captivated specifically by animation more than almost anything else. The way I fundamentally view the artistic world–through lenses such as human creativity, artistry, patience, respect, and technical excellence–is opposed to AI in nearly all of its forms. There are lessons to be learned from a few of my favorite animated films, and today I hope to highlight them.
I believe Pixar’s most profound and most cautionary film WALL-E provides ample warning to several common pro-AI arguments, and Studio Ghibli throughout their filmography has emphasized the unmistakable human element to art. This article, structured both as a response and an endorsement to TGC’s piece, as well as a detailed look into this deeply impactful and timeless thematic material, seeks to approach the AI discussion in a similar vein to that of our brothers and sisters that stand in concordance against the modern AI tidal waves. Drawing from the world of animation, I seek to summarize my anguishes over artificial “intelligence” as well as encourage and remind any reader of the God given blessing of human creativity and community.
WALL⋅E warns us of the dangers in putting our faith in the false promises of technology.
From the opening montage of planets, moons, and constellations, backed by the song “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” to the final shot of Earth beginning to grow again, Pixar’s 2008 masterpiece WALL⋅E is a story begging its audience to be wary of complete reliance on technology. WALL⋅E, without ever becoming preachy or didactic, does a masterful job at showing the ramifications of technological rule to anyone willing to lend their ear.
Aboard The Axiom, the massive ship containing what’s left of humanity, director Andrew Stanton and his team almost overwhelm their audience with the LED overloaded futuristic chaos. The world humanity has left to live in is one completely devoid of all art and beauty. Sacrificed at the altar of convenience and perfect efficiency, the very things that make humans human are gone. People talk through screens even though they are sitting right next to each other. They all wear the exact same clothes. They’ve become so reliant on their hoverchairs, they are incapable of walking.
It isn’t until their technology is stripped away that two characters make the first true human connection of the film, realizing what we’re told by the opening song—“there’s lots of world out there.” For what is probably the first time in these two characters’ lives, they see real beauty. They experience that beauty with someone else. They aren’t enslaved to the algorithms or advertisements. In WALL⋅E, it ironically takes a love story between two robots to make the humans finally understand the life they haven’t lived.
AI in the few short years of its existence has already proven to be more than a distraction. In response to McCracken’s article, one reader said, “Imagine if AI disappeared tomorrow. None of us would be able to do our jobs without it.” What a maddening and disheartening thing to hear, and the tragedy is I don’t doubt him. We are so prone to laziness, in 3 years of ChatGPT and Gemini, we’ve all but lost the ability to function without turning to AI as an answer. Imagine this trajectory continuing for another decade, as AI gets faster and promises more? WALL⋅E shows us the worst-case scenario of this world, and it’s a warning I take seriously.
The Wind Rises reminds us of the unbreakable bond between art and personal experience.
The Wind Rises is another example from film that teaches us important principles applicable to our modern discourse. Director Hayao Miyazaki, an icon in the world of animation from projects like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, brought to the world in 2013 his most autobiographical work to date. The Wind Rises follows Jiro Horikoshi, an aviation engineer whose heart is set on the sky. “The wind is rising, we must try to live,” a sentiment penned by French poet Paul Valery, is a constant reminder throughout this film of a key Miyazaki ethic.
Miyazaki lives in the tension between those words and the reality and hardships of life. This tension exists throughout the entire film; Jiro aspires to create, to pour his thought and imagination into his craft, yet is constantly interrupted and affected by the world around him. The parallel is clear; Jiro illustrating and breathing life into airplanes is Miyazaki illustrating and breathing life into animation.
The Wind Rises hangs on the question of our role in, oftentimes painstakingly, making the world a more beautiful place. It’s not a coincidence Miyazaki chooses war torn Japan to tell his own life’s story. Through Jiro’s eyes we see the importance of patience, pain, perseverance, and devotion necessary to create.
AI, however fast and efficient it already is and will become, will never be capable of creating any real experience. It will never have the God-given ability to subcreate as something made in His image. However close it can look to resemble real things, AI doesn’t “know” anything. It’s programmed to churn out the most likely possible answer, stripping away writing, painting, drawing, music, and any art form of its capacity to tell of redemption. AI at its best can imperfectly mirror a final product, and under its surface will always lack any emotional and spiritual depth. The complete acceptance of AI sets us on a trajectory for a world that worships speed, convenience, and efficiency over all else.
A world in which everyone accepts AI with open arms, even under the naive caveat that they won’t go too far with it, is a world devoid of creativity, artistry, imagination, and visual diversity. No matter how fast AI gets, or how human-like it can sound, AI will never have the ability to think, feel, love, or worship.
Rambling Ever On is a proud AI-free zone. We’ve written before how Rivendell is the ideal for our website. “Rivendell is a place of healing, peace, and rest for our heroes. It’s a sanctuary for weary travelers such as Frodo and his fellow Hobbits. It is a land of music, poetry, and tranquility.” I fail to see any world where the Elves consult ChatGPT as they carve beautiful ornate buildings or use Claude to help them sing as they walk the woods under the starlight.
Rambling Ever On believes the same, and our convictions lead us to follow this example.
- Resisting the AI Takeover: Celebrating our Divine Mandate to Create - August 12, 2026
- The Odyssey: A Conversation with The Helwys Society Forum - August 4, 2026
- Here’s How to Save Star Wars - June 26, 2026
Discover more from Rambling Ever On
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Good article. I’ve seen people say, “If you’re against AI now, you would’ve been against the Internet when it was invented”, which I think is a very unfair critique. Does the Internet do the work for you? Does it take away your imagination and ability to come up with original ideas? No. That’s what AI does. “Oh well it’s a tool it makes life easier just like the Internet”. Sure, but we were made to do work. Making tools to make the work easier is fine, but making tools that do the work FOR you goes against our purpose. “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people, knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” Colossians 3:23-24
This is outstanding, and even more, it’s a sober, well-reasoned, and accurate analysis of the danger involved in blindly embracing AI.