By Gavin Boyle
While most think of Silicon Valley as a place hostile to Christianity and its teachings, the bold faith of multiple prominent tech leaders has caused many in the tech industry to reconsider faith.
“It’s no secret that this region has been historically quite hostile to the Christian faith, in the sense that I think there’s always been some interest in spirituality and maybe more influence or eastern religions here,” said Denise Lee Yohn, the co-founder of the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work and Tech, which has about 2,000 people on their mailing list a year after being created. “But in the past, I think that Christianity has been looked down upon by many people in this region.”
“And so to have some very prominent, influential, very well-respected people identity as Christians and explain why they take seriously the claims of Jesus, and why they want to follow Him, I think it kind of prompts them to wonder, well, maybe this is something that I should look into also,” Yohn continued.
Related: Silicon Valley Embraces Christianity — What That Means for Culture
The most prominent of these leaders is Peter Theil, the co-found of PayPal and defense company Palantir. Many of his business talks include his faith both as he discusses his current success and the future. Other leaders in the industry that have openly discussed their faith are Pat Gelsinger, a former chief executive at Intel, and Garry Tan, a chief executive at the start-up accelerator Y Combinator.
Another Christian in the industry who allows his faith to influence his work is Dr. Francis S. Collins, the former director of the National Institute of Health and the leader of the Human Genome Project. After decades in the industry, he believes that faith provides people with a foundation that science cannot.
“What is the real basis of morality? Why am I here? What happens after I die?” Collins asked an audience during a recent speech. “Science can’t really give you an answer…[but] I’ve never really hit a situation where what I know was a rigorous scientist and what I believe as a Christ-centered Christian are in conflict.”
Some involved in the movement believe that Silicon Valley is turning to faith exactly because people are searching for something to root themselves in other than science. Pastor Ben Pilgreen, who runs a church in the heart of San Francisco, believes that the search began for many during the pandemic, when those in the industry saw that technology did not give them the control they thought it did. His congregation has more than doubled since 2020.
“I think COVID did something to us,” he told Vanity Fair. “I’m not sure about everything it did to us as a society or individuals. But it called people to think about what matters.”
Silicon Valley is not the only traditionally hostile place to begin to embrace faith in recent years. Hollywood is another space where faith is becoming more acceptable after decades of disdain.
“I think Christianity and values are just making their comeback [in Hollywood],” explained director Jon Erwin. “There’s a lot of executives in the entertainment industry that are just titans…that for a long they they were content…sort of keeping at day some of the more damaging trends in the industry, but I think there’s been a shift in content in the industry where it’s like, enough is enough. I have to align my values with my career.”
Praise the Lord for the way He is working in industries like Silicon Valley and Hollywood and how He reaches people who have been hostile towards Him.
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