AI is Becoming a Spiritual Authority, Even Among Practicing Christians

Practicing Christians are willing to trust AI with their spiritual growth. They are also deeply worried about what happens when AI starts acting like a spiritual authority. New research from Barna finds that the Christians most open to AI are often the same ones most unsettled by it.

A Surprising Level of Trust

When asked how much they would personally trust AI’s advice across a range of life domains, practicing Christians report noteworthy openness—and not just in practical areas. Nearly three in five (61%) say they would completely or somewhat trust AI with achieving financial stability, and 56 percent say the same for mental and physical well-being. But the trust extends into more personal territory as well: Majorities say they would trust AI with feeling happy and content with life (56%), understanding and expressing one’s true self (54%), having a sense of meaning or purpose (54%), and building meaningful relationships with others (53%). Nearly half say the same for growing spiritually (48%).

Across nearly every domain, practicing Christians express higher trust than non-practicing Christians, and in every category, they outpace pastors by a wide margin. Pastors’ trust in AI across these same domains cluster in the single digits to low teens: 12 percent for growing spiritually, 11 percent for feeling happy and content with life, 8 percent for building meaningful relationships, 6 percent for having a sense of meaning or purpose in life.

“What we’re seeing is that Christians are genuinely open to AI as a support for the domains that matter most to them—wellbeing, purpose, even spiritual growth,” says Daniel Copeland, Barna’s Vice President of Research. “That level of openness is higher than we might have expected, and it holds across multiple areas of flourishing.”

When AI Becomes a Spiritual Voice

That openness has a ceiling, however. When the question shifts from personal flourishing to AI’s role as a spiritual voice, concern runs high, and it holds across both Christians and pastors. 

The worries are not abstract: They cluster around scripture, divine authority, and the integrity of faith itself. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (74%) express concern about AI misinterpreting scripture. Among practicing Christians, that figure rises to 83 percent, and among pastors, to 94 percent. Nearly two in three practicing Christians (65%) express concern about AI beginning to act as a replacement for God, compared to roughly four in five pastors (79%). Seventy-two percent of practicing Christians are concerned about AI replacing the role of pastors or spiritual leaders, as are 63 percent of pastors. And nearly three-quarters of practicing Christians (73%) express concern about people losing their religious faith because of AI.

Not Everyone Draws That Line

Yet even those concerns coexist with a willingness, for some, to extend genuine spiritual trust to AI. When asked whether spiritual advice from AI is just as trustworthy as advice from a pastor, nearly one in three U.S. adults (30%) agree. Among practicing Christians specifically, slightly more than one in three (34%) agree, even as three in five disagree (60%). Among Gen Z, the share agreeing approaches two in five (39%); among Millennials, it climbs higher still (44%).

“This is where the data gets genuinely confounding,” says Copeland. “Christians say they trust AI with spiritual growth, and a meaningful share say its spiritual guidance is as trustworthy as a pastor’s—yet large majorities are simultaneously concerned about AI misinterpreting scripture, replacing God, or undermining the role of spiritual leaders. The use case and the underlying fear are both present, and they’re pointing in different directions.”

Christians’ willingness to engage AI personally—including spiritually—is running ahead of settled conviction about the role AI should play in the life of faith. Christians have not made up their minds about AI; they are extending trust and registering fear in the same breath. The research does not resolve that tension. It simply confirms how many people are living inside it.

This article is part of a yearlong Faith & AI series produced by Barna. in partnership with Gloo, as part of the State of the Church initiative. Read the first installment, Christians View AI as a Gift—and a Threat.