Brian returns after two solo AI episodes to ask where the line is between AI as an open portal and AI as a governed tool. Reggie opens the hood on how these models are actually built — and the Barna numbers show the church adopting AI far faster than it can discern it.

KEY TOPICS:

• How large language models are actually built — training, constitutions, priorities — and why none of it has a theological anchor

• Barna (Dec 2025): 87% of Protestant pastors use AI; only 12% are comfortable with it teaching, while 1 in 3 practicing Christians already are

• Portal vs. tool: the operator, not the model, decides whether AI is additive or corrosive

• AI psychosis and spiritual delusion spirals — why sycophancy plus blind trust is dangerous

• The landing: discernment, not withdrawal — test everything, hold fast to what  ...