Because we are designed, we must be guided by values and not merely algorithms. It is good that we take time to learn, to appreciate beauty, to feel wonder, and to have burning questions about what is behind all that we see. God made us this way, so that, eventually, our seeking would lead back to Him. Though He intends to redeem us from the ravages of sin, He never intends to optimize us into efficient machines. 

Pixar’s Wall-E has proven to be among the most profound and prophetic films of the last 20 years. After hopelessly polluting the Earth and leaving an army of robots to clean up the planet, humans now live aboard a giant ship built by a company that promises to take care of all its passengers’ needs. Thus, humans are left with nothing to do but amuse themselves and eat a lot.  
Many Christians wrote off the Pixar classic because of its hyper-environmentalist message. However, the film’s commentary on human exceptionalism and vocation, specifically the inability of our machines to do our most important work for us, was spot-on. In the world of Wall-E, human beings have a purpose, or a telos that cannot be reduced to maximizing comfort, safety, and convenience.  
In the biblical account of reality, humans exist to glorify and love God, and to serve as His special representatives and co-rulers in creation. Human inventions should help towards achieving those ends, extending our abilities, and mitigating the effects of the Fall. Wanting to replace ourselves with our devices assumes that humanity is the central problem of the world that needs to be solved. 
Recently in First Things, Matthew Crawford argued that an anti-human worldview like the one parodied in Wall-E now dominates our tech and governing classes. Those who are behind everything from smartphone apps to pandemic policy share a basic belief that human beings are inferior to machines. We are, as he puts it, “stupid,” “obsolete,” “fragile,” and “hateful.”  
Crawford opens his essay with an example of a driverless car created by Google that froze at a four-way stop. Apparently, the drivers around the car didn’t behave as it had been programmed to expect.
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Trans activists have achieved cultural hegemony and are going after everyone who disagrees — even with doxing, death threats, rape threats, and violence. They are coming after public education, what’s left of the entertainment industry, and will inevitably demand that churches, religious institutions, and all remaining dissenters submit to their demands and play along with their delusions as well. The culture wars are, unfortunately, real conflicts involving real people and the futures of our countries. 

There is a certain faction on the Right, especially in the libertarian wing, that poo-poos the culture wars as unimportant. Issues like gender ideology, for example, are dismissed as crass attempts to gin up anger among people uncomfortable with the pace of social change and a mere distraction from more important issues like inflation, house prices, and jobs. These are boutique issues, the thinking goes, and thus the Right would be better off ignoring these issues and focusing on the “things that matter.”
This is wrong-headed for many reasons, but most significantly, those making this article underestimate the radicalism of trans activists. Consider, for example, the fact that J.K. Rowling — a pro-abortion, pro-gay progressive — has not been invited to the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter film. Trans activists are so brazen that Rowling has been almost constantly threatened with violence. Recently, her home address was posted online by activists who showed up in person, and Rowling noted that this was accompanied by ominous warnings:
I’ve now received so many death threats I could paper the house with them, and I haven’t stopped speaking out. Perhaps — and I’m just throwing this out there — the best way to prove your movement isn’t a threat to women, is to stop stalking, harassing and threatening us.
It’s not just Rowling, either. Other liberal feminists are also facing a backlash. As Rowling wrote on Twitter:
Over the last few years I’ve watched, appalled, as women like Allison Bailey, Raquel Sanchez, Marion Miller, Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry, Julie Bindel, Rosa Freedman, Kathleen Stock and many, many others, including women who have no public profile but who’ve contacted me to relate their experiences, have been subject to campaigns of intimidation which range from being hounded on social media, the targeting of their employers, all the way up to doxing and direct threats of violence, including rape.
In fact, trans activists are going further than that in attacking those to their Left. Lesbians are being accused of “transphobia” for not being interested in “trans women”— that is, biological men with penises.

If you are vaccinated and refuse to host loved ones who are not, what is your reasoning for this lack of hospitality? Surely it is not “the science”? Your vaccine should protect you. According to multiple studies, your loved one’s lack of vaccine doesn’t make them much more likely to contract or spread the virus.

There was no room at the inn for Jesus. And now that the categories of ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ have been adopted in Australian society, there will be no room at the Christmas table for many this year. Be challenged by this confronting word to both the rejectors and the rejected.
As the Christmas story famously begins in Luke 2:1, “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” Every citizen was required to return to the place of their birth.
So Joseph and his wife Mary travelled up from the Galilean town of Nazareth. They journeyed together, Mary heavily pregnant, arriving in Judea. Their destination was Bethlehem, also known as “the town of David”, as Joseph was of the house and family of David.
While they were there, Mary went into labour. But because of the number of travellers for the census, there was no room at the local inn. Moreover, no one showed compassion for the young woman giving birth and relinquished their lodging.
However, the innkeeper took pity upon them. He offered them the stable where animals were kept, and they gladly accepted.
So Mary gave birth to a son, her firstborn, and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger – the animals’ feeding trough.
Still today, we feel for Mary and Joseph in their predicament. We empathise and sing songs of our Saviour’s birth. Our mind’s eye can easily envision the proceedings. A blessed baby, destined to save the world. Such humble beginnings for God-in-flesh, the Messiah.
Oh, how the angels sang! The star shone in the sky above, the shepherds gathered around to worship. All of heaven rejoiced.
Reflecting on a Difficult Year
Fast-forward to early December 2021. What a year or two it has been.
Last year, many of us were denied travel to see our loved ones. As many have observed, Australia has returned to its roots as a penal colony, and the situation has hurt and outraged many of us.
We have shed tears and grieved the loss of lives – from the virus and other causes too. Many still haven’t hugged their babies or grandchildren. Others were forbidden to weep with their beloved parent or sibling at their passing.
“It’s all for our own good” is the mantra we have repeated. Many of us chose to believe this. Some still do.
It breaks my heart – and must certainly break God’s heart – to see the division across our country. 
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