On Tuesday, we talked about paying taxes to a government that funds abortions, and today

the question is different, although somewhat related in the ethical entailments of proximity.

The question comes into us from Adam in Sydney, Australia, who asks, this,

Pastor John is a software developer, I worry my code could end up running a porn site

or a warplane in the future.

New developers of new technologies have responsibilities over how an innovation may be

reapplied for evil in the future.

I think of examples like nuclear science and the atom bomb, or a more contemporary example

would be artificial intelligence and sexually submissive robotics.

So Pastor John, what advice would you have for Adam?

Three factors come to mind for Adam to ponder and take into consideration, which I hope

will give some guidance.

The first one is that some things are so good and so right and so necessary that we

should go ahead and do them or speak them or create them, even though we are relatively

sure they're going to be misused.

And the example in the Bible that I think about is Paul's doctrine of justification by faith.

He says in Romans 3.28, we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of

the law.

Now, when he put that doctrine forward among people who are hostile, he knew what they

would do with it.

They would twist it and they would make it mean, oh cool, I don't have to do any works.

So Romans 3.8, why not do evil that good may come as some people slanderously charge

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