Rev. Chris Hope: Extending the Beloved Community into the Digital Age

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that “the Beloved Community is the end goal of all social change.” I believe that call does not belong to the past. It belongs to us, here, in the digital age. If algorithms now shape our lives, then the Beloved Community must also be built in code.

German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” Today that test comes through artificial intelligence. Will our systems nurture dignity or deny it? Will they open doors of opportunity or lock injustice into place?

Jewish philosopher Martin Buber reminded us that true life begins in the I–Thou encounter — when we meet one another as sacred beings, not objects. But AI too often turns the “Thou” into an “It.” My mission is to insist that technology preserves the face of the other, never erasing it.

Emmanuel Levinas taught that ethics begins in the face of the Other — that responsibility for the vulnerable defines our humanity. When data hides the face, responsibility must still remain. The Digital Beloved Community is that responsibility made visible.

From the wellspring of Black liberation theology, James Cone declared, “Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor is not Christ’s message.” That is why I fight for AI accountability. A machine that encodes racial bias is not progress. It is oppression in a new disguise.

Through The Hope Group, I equip communities to use AI with wisdom and integrity. Through The Loop Lab, I prepare young people of color for careers in technology and media, opening pathways where exclusion once reigned. And through advocacy for the AI Civil Rights Act, I work to enshrine in law what King, Bonhoeffer, Cone, Buber, and Levinas all knew in their bones: that human dignity must never be optional.

Nonviolence remains our most powerful tool, even in the digital era. Dr. King said, “Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.” Nonviolence today is building institutions that heal instead of harm, coding justice where there was bias, and demanding transparency where there was secrecy.

This is my calling. To extend the Beloved Community into the digital world. To remind us that even in the age of algorithms, love must remain our language, justice must remain our compass, and humanity must remain our end.