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Beacon Lights AI Policy:

Recently, it has become increasingly commonplace to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to research and generate written articles and many other forms of media. As a result,  the Beacon Lights staff felt compelled to publish a written statement of guidelines and prohibitions surrounding the use of AI in the writing of articles used in the Beacon Lights publication.

The Beacon Lights was established by the Protestant Reformed Young People Federation with 4 goals in mind:

1. To unite all Protestant Reformed Young People’s Societies so that they may work in close unity and secure a sense of solidarity.
2. To seek the mutual edification of the members of this Federation and to strive for the development of talents as becomes Christian young people.
3. To strive to maintain our specific Protestant Reformed character with a united front.
4. To promote the welfare of the Protestant Reformed Churches, in which we have a name and a place.

For those who serve on staff or as contributors for the Beacon Lights, these principles must be sought after first and foremost.

These goals govern the use of Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT, Open AI, Grok, Claude etc.). The use of AI to improperly generate, interpret, edit and research articles written for the Beacon Lights is strictly prohibited. Goal #2 of the Mission Statement helps discern why. “[The goal of the Beacon Lights is] to seek the mutual edification of the members of this Federation and to strive for the development of talents as becomes Christian young people.” As stated in the first part of Goal #2, the goal of the Beacon Lights is for the contributors to be edified in their own work as they study and contemplate God’s Word, and to edify the readers as they read the articles.  Hebrews 13:15-16  provides additional guidance: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

The mind and soul of a renewed man is the ONLY being capable of offering sacrifice continually, doing good, giving thanks and communicating the glory of God, and therefore the use of AI in writing leads the writer to give a sacrifice of praise that is not truly from his/her heart. We as the Beacon Lights staff urge both contributors and staff members to remember that the writing of articles for the Beacon Lights is a deeply spiritual task and implore them to labor in such a way that God may be glorified in their work of writing and in the reading of their writing.

The second half of Goal #2 also specifically directs Beacon Lights contributors “to strive for the development of talents as becomes Christian young people.” Artificial Intelligence contradicts the talent development that the Beacon Lights prioritizes. One of the goals of Artificial Intelligence from its very beginning  is “to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves”.( McCarthy, J., Minsky, M., Rochester, N., Shannon, C.E., “A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence,” August, 1955). The goal of AI is not to increase the talents and abilities of the user but to turn the development and use of talents over to a computer.

The last part of the Goal #2  provides a strong prohibition to improperly use AI to write, edit,interpret and research for Beacon Lights articles. From a practical standpoint, the Beacon Lights exists so contributors can strengthen their abilities in writing, phrasing, editing, and researching as they write and work on the magazine. Developing these practical skills is important for Protestant Reformed youth so they are equipped to be effective in Christian roles in the church, school and home.  From a spiritual standpoint, contributors are called to grow in spiritual knowledge and wisdom as a work of praise unto God. We believe the use of AI in the work the staff and writers are called to do directly opposes the stated goals of the Beacon Lights. The use of AI does not develop the ability to research, discern and write and it certainly does not develop the spiritual talents that allow us to learn about and know God deeply. We recommend contributors who may be struggling with the practical or spiritual part of writing to turn to our many human English teachers, writers, professors, and other experienced believers for aid, rather than a computer program.

The third and fourth goals of the Beacon Lights also apply. To use an AI model that harvests data from millions of  internet sources from a strictly informational perspective, does not aid us in the goal to“…maintain our specific Protestant Reformed character with a united front.”. Artificial intelligence cannot truly consider and value the faith that the writers and readers of the Beacon Lights have. Artificial Intelligence models do not care about the Protestant Reformed churches, the people in those churches or the truth those churches preach. Artificial Intelligence is unable to create writing based on true faith, and Artificial Intelligence does not have a name and a place in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Only a Protestant Reformed believer can accomplish Goals 3 and 4 presented in the Beacon Lights Mission Statement.

We the Beacon Lights staff cannot possibly write a list of all the “do’s” and “do not’s” of AI, nor do we want to prohibit all use of technology in the work produced by the Beacon Lights staff and its contributors. However, we strongly recommend that all contributors to the Beacon Lights make themselves familiar with how Artificial Intelligence models work prior to utilizing them. Doing so will allow the writer to be able to make a judgement whether or not their use of Artificial Intelligence has kept them from abiding by the Beacon Lights Mission Statement.

Any writer found to be using AI to directly generate their articles or portions of their articles will have their articles revoked, and will not be asked to write in the future. If the Beacon Lights staff suspects AI is being improperly used in another way by any writer, the Editorial and Corresponding Contributors staffs will investigate and offer correction, with the possibility of dismissal from their writing responsibilities.

Sincerely,

The Beacon Lights Staff

2/11/2026