Empathy is not a sin

And other ways the Right is wrong

If you have the blessed assurance of a life without social media, the news of the Very Big Kerfuffle over something Bishop Marianne Budde said to the Current Occupant of the Oval Office during the traditional “Service of Prayer for the Nation” at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and Paul (AKA “The Washington National Cathedral”) may not have reached your ears.

Blessed are you, O Favored One! Allow me to fill you in or briefly refresh the memories of those of us who struggled through it.

Near the end of her 15-minute sermon, Bishop Marianne looked down from the pulpit into the eyes of the new POTUS and, citing his belief about being saved by God from assassination and said: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

Budde's plea mentioned “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families,” across the country, who fear for their lives.”

Bishop Marianne also spoke up for immigrant workers, including those who may not “have the proper documentation,” saying the vast majority of them are “not criminals” but rather “good neighbors.”

The Current Occupant demanded a public apology from the Episcopal Church and the bishop, who he called a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way” and was “nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart” on Truth Social the next day.

Speaking at the White House afterwards, Trump said the service was “not too exciting” and added, “I didn’t think it was a good service…They could do much better.”

It’s always projection with that one.

Part Duh from the MAGA right came later that day from Ben Garrett, a deacon at Refuge Church in Odden, Utah, who posted this on X, formerly known as Twitter:

The Sin of Empathy. You remember that in Scripture, don’t you? Jesus talked about it All. The. Time. “Woe to you who commit the sin of empathy, for you shall lose your identity.” That’s in Two Guys from Corinth, second verse, same as the first.

So, now that the dust has settled on that a bit, let’s get a few things straight, as it were.

I’m from Massachusetts, and I grew up hearing then-Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neal, say, “Before you discuss or debate, you must define your terms.”

First up, let me say what it’s not: Empathy is not synonymous with kindness. One needs empathy for compassion, but it is not compassion. Empathy is more of a cognitive function. At its core, empathy is the ability to understand others’ perspectives — what they feel, what they think, what they fear, what they want.

That understanding can be wielded in service of a greater good. It can also be used to exploit people. We have lots of current examples of that.

Michael Ventura, author of “Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership,” puts it this way: “Empathy, in psychological terms, comes in different forms. Affective empathy (the ability to feel what others feel) is distinct from cognitive empathy (the ability to understand what others feel). Many people have both. Others, like narcissists and sociopaths, often possess only the cognitive sort, if they have empathy at all.”

This is where things can get dangerous.

Michael continues, “More and more, across banking, tech, media, and politics, there is a rise in leaders who reject affective empathy while using cognitive empathy to their advantage. In other words, their cognitive empathic skills are so great that they know how to pitch their message so that they create the emotional response they want.”

”They discredit the vital skill of affective empathy as a weakness, yet fine-tune their messaging to trigger precisely the reactions they need from financial backers, voters, and followers. Their ideological dog whistles are unmistakable. They shroud their fearmongering and overreach in the guise of protecting democracy.”

The Current Occupant has “long derided empathy as naïve, casting strength as synonymous with domination, suggesting that to care is to lose — and to control is to win.” It’s like watching a WWE Wrestling Match with toxic levels of testosterone, posturing and posing, grunting and growling as evidence of strength and ability.

I don’t know about you, but there isn’t enough eye wash in the universe to erase from my eyes the image of the South African Car Salesman running around the stage with a chainsaw to the absolute delight of the CPAC audience, even though he was cutting important jobs and services without caring two figs about the personal impact of his random acts of budgetary and personnel violence.

Christian circles - well, those on the Evangelical right - are no strangers to this conversation about empathy and compassion. Joe Rigney is a “fellow of theology” at New Saint Andrews College, “a private classical Christian college" in New Moscow, Idaho, which purports to “offer no undergraduate majors, but follows a single, integrated classical liberal arts curriculum from a Christian worldview in its associate's and bachelor's degree programs.”

In 2019, he wrote a two-part essay on the web page “Desiring God,” concerning … wait for it … “the demonic distortion of the virtue of compassion.” The first part was entitled, “Killing Them Softly: Compassion That Warms Satan’s Heart.” The second was “The Enticing Sin of Empathy.”

The man fancies himself a C.S. Lewis and writes his essays in the style of The Screwtape Letters, with him as Uncle Scratchpot (Screwtape - the chief demon) writing to Mugwort (Wormwood - a novice) about how to tempt humans.

He really thinks himself quite clever.

He’s not.

It seems the man has issues with emotions. He has also authored a number of books, one entitled More Than a Battle: How to Experience Victory, Freedom, and Healing from Lust. Oh, those lucky, lucky students of his at St Andrews in New Moscow.

Apparently, he was just laying the groundwork. Last October 2024, Allie Beth Stuckey published her book "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion". The thesis of the book is simple: when politics are driven by empathy rather than truth, innocent people pay the price.

It could have been written by Screwtape himself as a response to the identity politics of the Left. No, I didn’t buy the book. No, I didn’t borrow it from my local library (which didn’t have it on their shelves but promised to get it for me). Here’s a summary from the author’s website:

”Stucky argues that empathy has become a tool of manipulation by left-wing activists who bully (NB: that’s right, bully!!) people into believing that they must adopt progressive positions to be loving. She explores the five most heated issues through which toxic empathy is deployed: abortion, gender, sexuality, immigration, and social justice. Progressives use catchy mantras to present their perspective as empathetic, like “abortion is healthcare,” “love is love,” or “no human being is illegal,” but in each case, they ignore the other side of the moral equation. For example, abortion is presented as compassionate for the woman, but what about the human life the procedure kills?”

Get it? It’s Calvinism on steroids. Calvin’s notion of total depravity on crack cocaine.

These types of writings present the idea that empathy is simply an emotion that is not connected to the actions of love or kindness, that it just means feeling what someone else is feeling, and that it can lead to sympathizing with wrong ways of thinking and promoting or condoning what the writers believe to be sinful choices, therefore making the feeling sinful as well.

The progression of this thinking can be clearly seen in Ben Garrett’s tweet. It leads to people being closed off from wanting to hear or even consider the perspectives of people they think they may not agree with. The refusal to hear other perspectives can eventually lead to a place where you don't view people you disagree with as human beings, which leads to much more dangerous places.

When have we seen this dynamic before? Where are those “dangerous places”? We’ve seen it during all the wars, the ones with other countries and the wars we wage with people who are in our country but are from other countries.

It begins when you have an enemy - someone you’ve been told is doing you harm, or intends to do you harm, or is taking your job, or raping the women, or trafficking the children for porn or prostitution.

Then, you dehumanize the enemy. You give them names: Krout. Gook. Towelhead. Wetback. Immigrant. Illegal. Alien. Undocumented. Non-citizen. Vermin who are “poisoning the blood of our country”.

You assign to them the worst moral impulses: They are rapists. Murders. Drug dealers. They’re eating your cats. They’re eating your dogs.

Clearly, to feel any empathy for these monsters is …. well, it’s a sin, is what it is.

And, as backup for your position, you have God on your side in the form of a whole group of uber-Calvinists on the Right who are simply breaking a sweat, waiting and ready to take the Jesus they hijacked a few decades ago and turn him on his on his head as well as everything he said.

Empathy is sin. Compassion is corruption. Emotions are a ‘gateway’ drug to lust which is sin. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Welcome to 1984.

Except it’s 2025 and we know better.

The truth is that the word ‘empathy’ is not found anywhere in scripture. However, the concept of empathy is deeply rooted in biblical teachings and practices, often expressed through virtues like compassion, sympathy, and love.

It’s clear in miracle story after miracle story that Jesus himself is the model of empathy and compassion. You’d have to be blind to miss it, but even then, Jesus would be filled with empathy and compassion and heal you. In Matthew 9:36, it's recorded that when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.

In scripture, compassion often refers to a deep feeling of sympathy and concern for others, especially those in need. It's related to the Hebrew word for "womb" and the Greek word for "softening," emphasizing a nurturing and tender emotion.

God’s nature is consistently described as compassionate:

Exodus 34:6-7 : God declares God’s very self as "compassionate"
Micah 7:19: God's compassion is promised as God forgives the people
Luke 15:20: The prodigal father, filled with compassion, runs to embrace his son.
Psalm 103:13: God shows compassion as a father shows compassion to his children.

And then, of course, there’s the New Commandment that Jesus gave us: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Scripture also encourages Christians to be compassionate towards others. This is seen in verses like Ephesians 4:32 - “and walk in love, just as Christ loved you and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” - which calls for Christians to be kind and compassionate to one another.

But, don’t tell the uber-Calvinists any of this. They don’t want to hear of the difference between empathy and compassion, much less the scientific definition or scriptural basis for the difference. Facts only confuse them. Their minds are already made up.

But do have mercy on them. Not because it might make them more merciful. It won’t.

Do love them, as Jesus loves you and surely (but remarkably) loves them. Like us. Anyway. Not because it might make them love you. It won’t.

But it will make you a kind person. A compassionate person. An empathetic person.

You know, just like Jesus. Which makes you more than kind, compassionate, and empathic.

It makes you a person who more nearly and clearly and dearly follows the teaching and life and example of Jesus.

It makes you a Christian.