WASHINGTON (AP) — Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice.
For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left: It can manipulate caring people into accepting all manner of sins according to a conservative Christian perspective, including abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and certain views on social and racial justice.
“Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies,” said Allie Beth Stuckey, author of “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.”
Stuckey, host of the popular podcast “Relatable,” is one of two evangelicals who published books within the past year making Christian arguments against some forms of empathy.
The other is Joe Rigney, a professor and pastor who wrote “The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and its Counterfeits.” It was published by Canon Press, an affiliate of Rigney’s conservative denomination, which counts Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth among its members.
These anti-empathy arguments gained traction in the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term, with his flurry of executive orders that critics denounced as lacking empathy.
As foreign aid stopped and more deportations began, Trump’s then-adviser Elon Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
Even Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, framed the idea in his own religious terms, invoking the concept of ordo amoris, or order of love. Within concentric circles of importance, he argued the immediate family comes first and the wider world last — an interpretation that then-Pope Francis rejected.
While their anti-empathy arguments have differences, Stuckey and Rigney have audiences that are firmly among Trump’s Christian base.
“Could someone use my arguments to justify callous indifference to human suffering? Of course,” Rigney said, countering that he still supports measured Christ-like compassion. “I think I’ve put enough qualifications.”
Historian Susan Lanzoni traced a century of empathy’s uses and definitions in her 2018 book “Empathy: A History.” Though it’s had its critics, she has never seen the aspirational term so derided as it is now.
It’s been particularly jarring to watch Christians take down empathy, said Lanzoni, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School.
“That’s the whole message of Jesus, right?”
Empathy is a sin.
Exposing pedophiles is a sin.
Protecting children is a sin.
Healthcare for Gaza is a sin.
Healthcare for Americans is a sin.
Military force against the American people is God’s will.
Not sure what kinda fucked up holy war people still supporting this shit believe they’re fighting, but it’s definitely not a Christian one and you’re commiting blasphemy by claiming it is.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.“Blessed are those who praise peace, for they shall bury the peacemakers.”
Shhhhh we don’t talk about that part of the bible
Matthew 23 is about these kinds of people. Recommended reading, even for fellow atheists. Keep in mind that the scribes and pharisees that Jesus calls out over and over again were the conservative leaders of his time - “pastors and politicians” - behaving just as ours do today.
He generally referred to them as “liars, Pharisees, hypocrites.”
If this lot encountered Jesus here on earth today, they would deport him
They’re the same people that crucified him in the first place.
Nonsense. They would’ve just sent him to alligator auschwitz and made him eat rotten food from a bowl on the ground with his hands tied behind his back.
Pam: “it’s the same picture.”
jesus can just tell his daddy and the angels to smite them, send 7 of them.
Its the opposite of a sin. When Jesus sumed up the law and the prophets into two commandments, the one dealing with other people was basically be empathetic.
" So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12 NIV.
Conservative christian culture makes people objectively worse.
Right wing Christians want empathy to be a sin because it goes against their politics.
Empathy is a sin because it goes against their Christian beliefs. They’re being persecuted.
11th commandment “Thou shalt not do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
Fun historical fact: Adolf Hitler was not actually an atheist as is often commonly believed. He was actually opposed to atheism and tried to establish a German “Reich Church” that would teach Christianity aligned with Nazi propaganda. Sound familiar?
Hitler was brought up Catholic.
The Church never excommunicated him.
Not surprising considering the commonalities between cult leaders and fascist dictators. “Us” in group vs scapegoat “them” out group degenerates of the week, calling themselves family to distance from biological families and social support, hierarchy with an unquestionable leader on top, love me or suffer my wrath, etc. Even the way they talk from the pulpit or podium, no justification for any claims, just vibes and biases exploiting.
This is insane
They are. Evangelicals are seriously so fucked in the head it’s like dealing with someone out of their mind on crack. And it runs deeeeeep.
the rapture is also thier creation too.
In the Bible they talk about how people will view the antichrist as virtuous. Jesus condemns the pharases who are the religious officials of the day, for hypocrisy. I understand when you regretfully have to disobey God’s words and want to call yourself a Christian, dispite your shame. I do not understand gleefully treating the sorjourner as an animal then chanting his name like you mean it. I call them antichrist-ians.
These jokers had like 2000 years of warning of what the antichrist would be like and still fell for it. Unreal.
I’m not religious, so this is in jest, but it’s still eerie.
Trump doesn’t tick all the boxes of the Antichrist (ex. he isn’t universally loved) but the Bible also says there will be many antichrists leading up to the Antichrist and he is certainly one of the them.
You sure bout that?
Universally loved / followed
The entire world follows his actions and words.
Anyway, there are 666 other reasons in that article that are pulled straight from the holey book.
I’m aware of his article. Pretty good one but even he concluded it doesn’t all align.
Nothing in the bible aligns.
But if there ever were one person who so closely fit, it is him.
The Pharisees were a competing group of reformers.
Jesus was a member of the Pharisaic tradition himself. His problem was that many, if not most, other Pharisees were selfish, self-centered, self-serving hypocrites. Just like the Rightist political and religious leaders of today. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Is empathy a sin? Some
conservative Christiansnarssists argue it can beMostly a venn diagram containing only one circle.
This is at the heart of it. They are mostly narcissist.
These dipshits clearly do not understand the parable of the Good Samaritan or anything Jesus did/said.
The parable where the good samaritan was deported for being a criminal foreigner? Or the sermon given by a young criminal who got hung at the cross?
That’s what they take away from the bible and seriously I can’t understand how someone like that can still call themselves christians. Tbh, that’s the definition of “taking the lord’s name in vain”.
The “Christian” Right: When you only care about Leviticus, and only the parts that let you hate the gays, and you actively ignore EVERYTHING Christ said.
“How to be worse than the pharisees”.
The pharisees at least followed the law themselves and didn’t only use it to justify hateing others.
They remember his famous speech that ends ‘do you feel lucky, punk? Well do ya!?’ And all the stuff about how ‘some percentage of people must necessarily starve so genocide is fine and good actually and its mot like the irish or indians are people anyway’
“Empathy is a sin” mfs when I kill them
Matthew 22:37-39 NIV. Jesus replied: “ 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 25:40-46 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
These aren’t even out of context. But I admit these are copied straight from the woke red bits.
But perhaps Kropotkin wrote it better. Mutual Aid,1902: “…in all these scenes of animal life which passed before my eyes, I saw mutual aid and mutual support carried on to an extent which made me suspect in it a feature of the greatest importance for the maintenance of life, the preservation of each species, and its further evolution.”
Kropotkin is my favorite Santa. One of his most eloquent quotes. Thank you.
I had a really good preacher growing up. Probably a big part of why I don’t hate all religion.
He spoke of compassion, of the teachings of the bible as he felt was to be a good person. Viewed being Christian as being like Christ as much as much as one was possible, but people fail to live up to it, that’s our failings, but to believe is to still keep striving for that perfection.
2001 happened, and the hatred to Muslims came. Then one day, the preacher is talking about an extremist, one that is hated by the government, outspoken to the government, that people hated and reviled. A man from the middle east. “That is our lord and savior.” You could have heard a pin drop in that room when everyone was figuring he was talking about a Muslim radical instead of Jesus. It was a call against the fear mongering, to love our neighbors even if we don’t believe the same, to not assume the worst about people. He described how we usually get Jesus wrong in looks, that he’d be one of those we’d be persecuting post 9/11 America because of his looks, showing a magazine cover where a group of anthropologists reconstructed what Jesus likely looked like based on what they knew of the people of that region of that time, had the magazine on display in the hall where people gathered after worship.
It wasn’t a year later that he was removed from being the preacher of that church. Probably a big part of why I’m not a believer anymore.
I think he won the best preacher’s pulpit, one no corrupt church leadership can take away: Your heart. It will beat to his words, for many more decades to come.
So this is only vaguely related but the look of white Jesus is probably based off of Alexander the great through a somewhat roundabout mess. Basically the Colossus of Rhodes was most likely modelled after Alexander this is based off of some surviving contemporary artifacts of Helios which the Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of, cut forward a couple centuries and due to a weird mess of synchronizing religious imagery and coding you end up with Jesus as being portrayed as Helios or at least based off of the Greek god. This is also where the halo most likely comes from, it’s probably derived from the sun beams Helio was portrayed with which sometimes had a halo of light.
Okay, that is cool!
I would like to subscribe to more obscure connections of modern iconography to unrelated mythology.
There’s a theory that the whole Christianity thing was just a conspiracy hy the (extremely banned) cult of bacchus that got way out of hand.
Oh no, you don’t get to drop something like that without further context!
I absolutely do. I’m not an expert and barely remember the discussion where i heard it.
Father Christmas/Santa Claus/Saint Nicholas in his modern gift giving portrayal is a synchronization of Odin, basically in a lot of Odins portrayals he is shown giving gifts as a reward for virtues namely wisdom and bravery. During christianization of both Germany and Scandinavia this element of the god was held onto and simply attached to the Saint.
Also because it’s an absolute mess I’m gonna note that the various cults of the Mother Mary probably have their roots in the cults of Venus/Aphrodite in her motherly aspect, also the Egyptian god Isis is in there somewhere. Frankly speaking early Christianity is a mess of mystery cults and lost context.
I’ve known about Christianity is almost the English of Religions as in it sneaks other religions in the alley, knocks them over the head and riffles through their pockets for traditions, and weirdly knew about the Santa comes from Odin…
I did not know anything about the Mother Mary side though, that is really fantastic to learn.
Yeah it’s on the more esoteric side of things that is only kinda understood. As I noted early Christianity was more or less just another mystery cult who’s defining feature was that it came out of Hebrew traditions rather than Hellenic. Just to give you an idea of how weird it got there’s evidence that early Christianity and the Anubis cults got along weirdly well and may have even merged in some cases, best guess as to why is that they were both cults with close associations with death and thusly were similarly shunned.
