By Rev. Joanna Shenk, the fourth and final sermon in a series at First Mennonite of San Francisco called “Living with Courage and Clarity in the face of AI.”

When I was growing up we read a lot of books together as a family. One significant book series was the Lord of the Rings – a fantasy trilogy about good and evil, with many Christian themes. 

The Lord of the Rings movie adaptations came out in the early 2000s and were an instant family favorite. No one loved them more than my youngest brother, Jonny, who watched all three movies 50 times each, as well as read the books and other writings of the author, JRR Tolkien. 

For those who aren’t familiar, Lord of the Rings is a deeply spiritual tale, reflecting on the nature of power and its ability to corrupt. In the story, the smallest and humblest creatures, the Hobbits, are tasked with saving the world from the powers of evil that are a destructive, extractive force. Although there are ways that Tolkien was problematic in his binary thinking, he was telling a story in response to the rise of fascism in his day. 

Jonny told me that Tolkien was always suspicious of people with grand plans and he was not a fan of technology. Tolkien believed that you couldn’t beat an enemy with their weapons, but instead had to use simplicity and creativity, like the earthy Hobbits or the angry Ents – ancient tree people – who destroyed Isengard, an evil fortress, by rupturing a dam.    

I was inspired to talk with my brother while writing this sermon because two of the most powerful AI tech companies draw their names from Lord of Rings – Palantir and Anduril. There are many others (over 20) including Valinor (the undying lands), Isengard (the evil fortress I just mentioned), & Sauron. 

Yes, Sauron, which is the death dealing force hell bent on destroying all living things not under its control. Sauron the company “is the first home security system that accurately identifies, understands, and deters threats” using military grade technology, facial recognition and AI predictive threat technology. 

But I digress.. Back to Palantir and Anduril. Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, who I mentioned in my sermon last Sunday. It is difficult to explain what Palantir does, but I found this helpful summary from the American Friends Service Committee: Palantir vacuums up massive amounts of data collected by governments and corporations. Palantir is used by militaries, police forces, banks, hospitals, and even your local pharmacy or favorite fast-food restaurant. Palantir’s AI algorithm then combines all this data into a single, gigantic dataset and looks for patterns that are hard to see.

Immigration enforcement uses Palantir to centralize data, which can include our addresses, phone numbers, driving records, credit history, immigration history, health data, and social media presence all in one place. Palantir’s tools have fueled some of the largest raids on immigrant communities in ICE’s history.

Palantir also works closely with the U.S. military. According to CEO Alex Karp, “Our weapons software is in every combat situation I’m aware of.” The Israeli government began using Palantir software in 2014 and significantly scaled up its partnership during its genocide on Gaza. Karp said, “I am proud that we are supporting Israel in every way we can.” The Israeli military has used Palantir technology to plan attacks in Lebanon and Gaza. A recent documentary by Israeli filmmakers, NAZA, interviews intelligence officers in the Israeli military who carried out these AI-supported strikes. 

In Lord of the Rings the Palantiri were spheres used for communication between evil forces. Gandalf, the good wizard guiding the Hobbits, cautioned them from using the palantiri because they were a corrupting force. In the story a wizard named Saruman thinks he can use a palantir without being overcome, but he is mistaken, and joins forces with evil. My brother suggested that Peter Thiel seems a lot like Saruman.

The other company, Anduril, is an AI weapons developer. When the CEO, Palmer Luckey, was asked in an interview recently if he had a red line around what he would not build, like nuclear weapons, for example, he responded, “I would definitely build nuclear weapons. I think that nuclear weapons have been one of the most stabilizing forces in history ever.”

On Thursday Defence Secretary Hegseth announced the creation of the Autonomous Warfare Command, including AI-enabled targeting. At the same time he also announced a new Pentagon project on the future of warfare led by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Palmer Luckey of Anduril, and trillionaire Elon Musk.

Unlike the corrupting palantiri in Lord of the Rings, Anduril was a righteous object. It was a symbol for Tolkien of the strength of the people to resist and defeat evil. I remember watching the movie and having a tear in my eye when the Anduril, a sword, was given to its rightful owner (Aragorn), who was a protector of the Hobbits. Anduril was a protector of all the communities resisting Sauron and represented their power of self-determination. 

The arrogance of men like Palmer Luckey, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, who believe they are the arbiters of justice with their righteous weapons and all-seeing spheres, illuminate this apocalyptic moment. Apocalypse means the pulling back of the veil – seeing clearly what we’re facing. In our scriptures, apocalyptic literature is resistance literature to kings and empire. Listen to the Ephesians passage in this light:

for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places

Or another version puts it this way:

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When Paul was writing about the principalities and powers, he was referring to the Roman empire and the violence it was doing to the earth, to non-citizens, and to the movement following Jesus. To get a better grasp on AI as a principality, I reached out to my friend Jim Perkinson who had written an article with Tim Nafziger on this topic. Jim reflected that in Ephesians Paul was writing not only to Jews but also to other people who had recently been ripped from their traditional lifeways by Roman legions and tax collectors. 

Ephesus was a city, like any city, dependent on extraction of wild things, creatures, and people to sustain its existence. From an indigenous perspective, he said, all of these formerly wild things were now used as “resources” for the empire’s infrastructure – like literally the buildings and roads made from stone, iron, trees and water. These beings now made subservient to empire, were no longer able to live in reciprocal relationship with their ecosystems, therefore becoming hungry ghosts. 

Now I know this might sound a bit out there, so I invite you, along with me, to just consider how this speaks to the spiritual sickness of our world today. If we believe that all the earth is sacred and spirit-filled, like our Indigenous kin teach us, then does the earth cease to be spirit-filled when it is taken from its ecosystem? 

One spiritual teacher of Jim’s, Martin Prectel, was a student of the Tz’utujil Mayan people in Guatemala, where he lived for many years. Specifically he lived in Santiago Atitlan, where our youth group visited with Karla Cuca (on a SEMILLA learning tour) last year. When the Tz’utujil would set out to make a knife blade, they would give back handmade beads to the earth for each extracted material – ore, wood for fire, the stone for sharpening. Every bead would take at least a couple hours to make. 

Jim reflected, “The point being here, to really live sustainably, Martin would say, is to live with deep ritual respect and embraced limitation on our uptake that is concretely mediated by giving beauty back for beauty taken.” (excerpted from “Can AI Be Embraced as Kin?,” Sept. 2025)

So it’s not that tools can’t be made from the earth, but this tool making (or technology making) must be done with reciprocity and respect to not cause spiritual harm (to the people and to the earth). This perspective illuminates how out of balance we all are – our cell phones alone would require more beads than we could possibly make in a lifetime.  

And it illuminates why these AI surveillance and weapons companies are so demented and honestly evil. They are ripping up and consuming resources at an unparalleled rate, while providing the technological infrastructure for mass death. So incredibly haunting. 

Their capacity to destroy the world is not just threatening humanity’s future, they have already destroyed a world in Gaza, and are seeking to do the same in Iran and Lebanon, while readying themselves for war with China, and any group of people who they deem a threat. Their spiritual deformity runs so deep. 

That’s a lot of bad news, I know, but it’s not the end of the story. Remember how I mentioned apocalypse as an unveiling? Well, we are not the only people who are seeing these companies for what they are, and boy oh boy, are we in a moment of mass movement. 

Have you heard that people across the political spectrum are organizing together to stop data centers? Across the country there are at least 430 local groups in over 40 states, representing half a million people, organizing against data centers. This is according to a June 2026 report (by datacenteropposition.com). Data Center Watch reports that $64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local opposition. 

Did you hear that Matt Boyer organized a march of over 1,000 nurses in San Francisco this week, who took over the block in front of the ICE building, protesting hospital contracts with Palantir? It was part of a global week of action against Palantir. And this hasn’t been their first action against Palantir this year. There were two others outside Palantir’s headquarters in Palo Alto, and they are a part of an ongoing Purge Palantir campaign. 

Did you hear that the little city where Eric and I live canceled our Flock contract this spring? Flock is a surveillance company within the Palantir realm that tracks vehicles and individuals and gives data to ICE and the federal government. Furthermore, did you hear that Flock is offering buyouts to its employees since public backlash is affecting their profits? 

Did you hear that Beverly, Gaby and I participated in an action targeting OpenAI on Tuesday in San Francisco and Gaby got to dress up like a robot? The action was coordinated by Bay Resistance as we called on OpenAI to cancel their contacts with ICE and the US military and defend democracy in the upcoming election. We got a lot of media coverage, including from Democracy Now, starting at min 13 in this video.

Beverly and I handed out (or tried to hand out) fliers to the tech workers who were coming to the OpenAI event and had a few interesting conversations. One tech worker thanked us for being there and said it was so weird for her to be on the inside. I said we needed her there to ask questions and push from the inside, just like we’re doing on the outside. 

At the action tech workers spoke and housing advocates and high school students and labor organizers and faith leaders. It was a beautiful cross-section of our community, who are united in our commitment to protecting each other and our future. 

As people of spirit, who are walking in the way of Jesus, we have wisdom to offer a world that is fixated on intelligence. They are not the same. We carry with us the wisdom of grief. We recognize the harm done to ourselves and to the earth in this extractive, haunted reality. It is a weight, knowing we cannot repay our debt to the earth. 

We carry with us the wisdom of kinship as we embody care for each other and for plants and creatures in our lives. This reweaving of relationship with the natural world and Indigenous practice is crucial for our healing. 

We carry the wisdom that faster and easier is not better. Colin shared a term with Sheri and me along these lines – friction maxxing – that actually describes something pretty familiar to Mennonites. For example, repairing clothes, appliances or furniture before replacing them or borrowing books from the library rather than instantly buying or downloading them or hosting friends at home instead of defaulting to a bar or restaurant. Sounds like simple living to me. 

We also carry the wisdom that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the intelligent; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are. (1 Corinthians 1)

In closing, along the lines of foolishness, did you hear that orcs showed up at the Palantir offices in Seattle this week, asking to be hired? (Orcs were the evil army in Lord of the Rings.) Matt sent me this hilarious video of people in orc masks taking over the Palantir lobby and declaring their allegiance to Alex Carp, the CEO, and trying to give staff their resumes. 

Although we might feel like we are just little Mennonite hobbits up against a powerful evil, that does not mean the evil will triumph. We know that the movement of foolish and weak people following Jesus struck fear in the heart of the Roman empire. We know how the story ends and that death does not get the final word. 

So may we live with courage and with clarity, knowing that the spiritual power within us cannot be stamped out by the forces of death. May our love for each other and for our world bear witness to this truth. Amen.

Joanna is a graduate of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Elkhart, Ind.) with an MA in Theological Studies, and is the author of Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship and The Movement Makes Us Human.