The Sin of Empathy is not real

Evangelical Christians have started calling empathy a sin. This is ridiculous and not an actual thing.

So this week a tweet started circulating with some random white man saying that we should not commit the sin of empathy that the snake is our enemy and we should “properly” hate in response. This was because Bishop Budde asked Donald Trump to show mercy to immigrants.

The only thing that I as a former Christian can say is WTF? Like I have read the bible cover to cover a couple of times and the Gospels of Jesus easily over 100 times in my life. I spent a lot of my life in church and the Bible was the only book available /and I would have read the tax code if it stayed still long enough.

I have spent the time trying to figure out what they mean so you don’t have to. Apparently according to John Piper’s Desiring God, Satan is corrupting us when we feel compassion. Some rando evangelical wrote a whole book about this. Apparently when we show compassion to the people that they call sinners, we are committing the sin of empathy.

Bless their hearts, you have to compartmentalize at an Olympic level to make that one work. I’m actually kind of impressed with this one b Jecause wow, the hatred is ridiculous.

Now, let’s start with some passages where Jesus instructed us to commit the sin of empathy. My favorite is the least of these passage. Basically, he wants you to feed the hungry, take care of the prisoner, and shelter the stranger. And if you don’t, you are cast into the fiery pit for not following God. The Parable of the Good Samaritan talks about how the righteous Jews ignored the injured man on the road and the Samaritan who was not Jewish stopped to help and was therefore more righteous. Rich man asks Jesus what it takes to get to heaven. Jesus tells him to sell his possessions and give to the poor to put up treasure in heaven. He chooses not to do that and goes away sad. In the epistles, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faith. And as Christians we are supposed to embody those. I can even sing a song about this one.

I could go on and on and on about this. I love the movie Pollyanna. There is a line about how God tells us to be glad and rejoice 800 times. I have never counted the times that the bible tells us to love and be kind and to show compassion for those in trouble, but I bet it is a lot. So we must be being instructed to kindness and love and compassion, and empathy and anyone telling us not to show it is full of shit and trying to sell you something.

Probably a book and a political agenda.

Look, I left Christianity behind 10 years ago and choose to live in the I don’t know about the after life and what is to come, but I find value in the words of the book and especially the words of Jesus and I’d rather err on the side of love and empathy than on hatred and evil.

So, do what you want, but know that those of us sitting over here watching with open mouths and slightly terrified eyes are confused at empathy being classified as a sin.