{"id":21988,"date":"2025-02-11T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21988"},"modified":"2025-02-11T16:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T16:23:20","slug":"silicon-valley-is-embracing-christianity-with-the-help-of-peter-thiel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21988","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley is Embracing Christianity (With the Help of Peter Thiel)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everything clicked when Peter Thiel gave the speech about God.<\/p>\n

The occasion was a 40th birthday party for Trae Stephens, who is Mr. Thiel\u2019s venture capital partner as well as one of the founders of Anduril Industries, a maker of high-tech defense systems and weaponry. It was a multiday affair, held in 2023 at Mr. Stephens\u2019s home in New Mexico. It began with an evening roasting the birthday boy, followed by another toasting him and then a brunch with caviar bumps, mimosas and breakfast pizza. At the brunch (the theme was the Holy Ghost), Mr. Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and right-wing kingmaker, delivered a talk about miracles, forgiveness and Jesus Christ. The guests were enthralled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe room of over 220 people, mostly in technology and venture capital, were coming up to us saying, \u2018Oh, my goodness, I didn\u2019t know Peter Thiel was a Christian,\u2019\u201d recalled Michelle Stephens, Mr. Stephens\u2019s wife. \u201c\u2018He\u2019s gay and a billionaire. How can he be Christian?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That reaction \u2014 eyebrows raised, curiosity genuine \u2014 gave Ms. Stephens an idea: Gather influential people, including in Silicon Valley, to talk about Christian belief. Last year, she started a nonprofit called ACTS 17 Collective, which holds events where the bigwigs of the tech and entertainment industries discuss their faith. For those seeking not just spiritually but also professionally, it\u2019s a chance to get close to industry demigods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Thiel was the featured speaker at the first ACTS 17 event last May, at the San Francisco home of Garry Tan, the chief executive of Y Combinator. He talked about how Christian theology informs his politics and which of the Ten Commandments he finds most meaningful. (The first and last: Worship God, and don\u2019t covet what others have.) A D.J. added ambience, mixing worship beats for the more than 200 attendees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Garry Tan, the chief executive of Y Combinator, at a fund-raiser for female Asian politicians. Mr. Tan has hosted events for ACTS 17, a nonprofit devoted to introducing Christianity to the tech world, at his home.<\/span>Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In October, the nonprofit hosted another talk at Mr. Tan\u2019s home, this time with Dr. Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, who has long talked about how he reconciles science with his Christian faith. Ms. Stephens is planning more events in San Francisco, as well as one in Los Angeles, and has reached out to potential speakers like Pat Gelsinger, the former chief executive of Intel, as well as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an activist and Muslim turned critic of Islam who converted to Christianity.<\/p>\n

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Everything clicked when Peter Thiel gave the speech about God.The occasion was a 40th birthday party for Trae Stephens, who is Mr. Thiel\u2019s venture capital partner as well as one of the founders of Anduril Industries, a maker of high-tech defense systems and weaponry. It was a multiday affair, held in 2023 at Mr. Stephens\u2019s home in New Mexico. It began with an evening roasting the birthday boy, followed by another toasting him and then a brunch with caviar bumps, mimosas and breakfast pizza. At the brunch (the theme was the Holy Ghost), Mr. Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and right-wing kingmaker, delivered a talk about miracles, forgiveness and Jesus Christ. The guests were enthralled.\u201cThe room of over 220 people, mostly in technology and venture capital, were coming up to us saying, \u2018Oh, my goodness, I didn\u2019t know Peter Thiel was a Christian,\u2019\u201d recalled Michelle Stephens, Mr. Stephens\u2019s wife. \u201c\u2018He\u2019s gay and a billionaire. How can he be Christian?\u2019\u201dThat reaction \u2014 eyebrows raised, curiosity genuine \u2014 gave Ms. Stephens an idea: Gather influential people, including in Silicon Valley, to talk about Christian belief. Last year, she started a nonprofit called ACTS 17 Collective, which holds events where the bigwigs of the tech and entertainment industries discuss their faith. For those seeking not just spiritually but also professionally, it\u2019s a chance to get close to industry demigods.Mr. Thiel was the featured speaker at the first ACTS 17 event last May, at the San Francisco home of Garry Tan, the chief executive of Y Combinator. He talked about how Christian theology informs his politics and which of the Ten Commandments he finds most meaningful. (The first and last: Worship God, and don\u2019t covet what others have.) A D.J. added ambience, mixing worship beats for the more than 200 attendees.Garry Tan, the chief executive of Y Combinator, at a fund-raiser for female Asian politicians. Mr. Tan has hosted events for ACTS 17, a nonprofit devoted to introducing Christianity to the tech world, at his home.Mike Kai Chen for The New York TimesIn October, the nonprofit hosted another talk at Mr. Tan\u2019s home, this time with Dr. Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, who has long talked about how he reconciles science with his Christian faith. Ms. Stephens is planning more events in San Francisco, as well as one in Los Angeles, and has reached out to potential speakers like Pat Gelsinger, the former chief executive of Intel, as well as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an activist and Muslim turned critic of Islam who converted to Christianity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21990,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21991,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21988\/revisions\/21991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}