Apostolic Truth vs. Modern Inclusion: The Christian Call to Transformation

[MattY]

One word that I don't think has come up here yet is sympathy. I think both sympathy and empathy fall under the broad category of compassion, but we have defined them slightly differently. Sympathy is feeling pity, sorrow, and compassion for someone in their misfortune/grief/hardship and understanding what they're going through, while empathy is about putting yourself in their shoes and sharing in their feelings and emotions in a deep and intimate way. Or to put it another way, sympathy is feeling for someone while emphathy is feeling with them. I think, depending on personality, some people are more empathetic, while other people tend to be more sympathetic, and both are valid expressions of compassion. Sympathy might sound a little more distant, and it probably is more emotionally distant, but it doesn't mean that one actually is distant or doesn't care; a sympathetic person can still care very much and get involved in helping others.

And I don't think there is anything wrong with empathy properly expressed. One can feel someone's pain deeply while still using their mind and keeping fact, faith, and feeling in the proper order. Compassion in any form should always be consistent with truth. So I don't think we ought to discard empathy or call it a sin, and I think the "sin of empathy" thing is misguided and even toxic in some circles - in that I agree with Szdfan. Where I disagree is that the impetus behind it is a desire to treat people badly. (Ironically, I'm trying to treat their argument empathetically here). I think what they're seeing is weaponized empathy, using empathy to justify and overlook sin in the lives of people we care about - particularly justifying homosexuality and transgenderism, as HondurasKeiser pointed out. The sin is not empathy, but weaponizing empathy to reject truth and justify sinful behavior. The solution is not to reject empathy, but to remain fully committed to Biblical truth while being compassionate about hurting and misguided people.

[JohnL]

I would suggest that you are both right. Empathy is an important part of the Christian witness, but empathy must never over-rule Truth.

One word that I don't think has come up here yet is sympathy. I think both sympathy and empathy fall under the broad category of compassion, but we have defined them slightly differently. Sympathy is feeling pity, sorrow, and compassion for someone in their misfortune/grief/hardship and understanding what they're going through, while empathy is about putting yourself in their shoes and sharing in their feelings and emotions in a deep and intimate way. Or to put it another way, sympathy is feeling for someone while emphathy is feeling with them. I think, depending on personality, some people are more empathetic, while other people tend to be more sympathetic, and both are valid expressions of compassion. Sympathy might sound a little more distant, and it probably is more emotionally distant, but it doesn't mean that one actually is distant or doesn't care; a sympathetic person can still care very much and get involved in helping others.

And I don't think there is anything wrong with empathy properly expressed. One can feel someone's pain deeply while still using their mind and keeping fact, faith, and feeling in the proper order. Compassion in any form should always be consistent with truth. So I don't think we ought to discard empathy or call it a sin, and I think the "sin of empathy" thing is misguided and even toxic in some circles - in that I agree with Szdfan. Where I disagree is that the impetus behind it is a desire to treat people badly. (Ironically, I'm trying to treat their argument empathetically here). I think what they're seeing is weaponized empathy, using empathy to justify and overlook sin in the lives of people we care about - particularly justifying homosexuality and transgenderism, as HondurasKeiser pointed out. The sin is not empathy, but weaponizing empathy to reject truth and justify sinful behavior. The solution is not to reject empathy, but to remain fully committed to Biblical truth while being compassionate about hurting and misguided people.

I agree with you both. I'm going to add my own thought too. While empathy can be a part of compassion it's not always necessary to act compassionately. Sympathy is always present as a part of compassion. Empathy isn't always present. And empathy is never more important than God's teaching.

[JohnH]

I think the entire "sin of empathy" thing is a toxic, profoundly unbiblical concept advocated for in certain conservative Christian circles to justify poor treatment of people they don't like. It's a polemic to justify exclusion. However, there's nothing in the Bible that suggests empathy is a sin. The Scriptures call for empathy towards those who are on the margins. As Romans 12:15 puts it, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." That suggests something more than just compassion and something more like empathy.

The Bible does not teach we are to have “empathy” for people who choose to engage in sin like murder, beating their wife, and so on, but rather we are to offer a gospel of repentance that makes it possible to run away from these sins. The fact a murderer on the run is “on the margins” is not a reason to be “empathetic” I see in the scripture at all.

This parable of Jesus comes to mind --

To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire."

But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

What’s that got to do with empathy? Instead, it’s a call to repent, and that if I am up on a high horse feeling good I’m not a murderer, or a wife-beater, or a rapist… I may need to pause and consider other sins in my life that are very grievous to God.

[Szdfan]

The Bible does not teach we are to have “empathy” for people who choose to engage in sin like murder, beating their wife, and so on, but rather we are to offer a gospel of repentance that makes it possible to run away from these sins. The fact a murderer on the run is “on the margins” is not a reason to be “empathetic” I see in the scripture at all.

This parable of Jesus comes to mind --

To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire."

But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

What’s that got to do with empathy? Instead, it’s a call to repent, and that if I am up on a high horse feeling good I’m not a murderer, or a wife-beater, or a rapist… I may need to pause and consider other sins in my life that are very grievous to God.

Jesus’s parable wasn’t directed at the tax collector or the obvious sinners, but at the religious people who thought they were better than others. What strikes me in these conversations is how often the focus falls on other people’s repentance. The issue is other people’s sins and other people as the problem. As Jesus’s parable points out, the Pharisee’s sin was his lack of empathy and self-reflection. He could catalog other people’s sins but refused to see his own need for grace. That’s the danger he’s warning us against.

[HondurasKeiser]

This parable of Jesus comes to mind --

What’s that got to do with empathy? Instead, it’s a call to repent, and that if I am up on a high horse feeling good I’m not a murderer, or a wife-beater, or a rapist… I may need to pause and consider other sins in my life that are very grievous to God.

Jesus’s parable wasn’t directed at the tax collector or the obvious sinners, but at the religious people who thought they were better than others. What strikes me in these conversations is how often the focus falls on other people’s repentance. The issue is other people’s sins and other people as the problem. As Jesus’s parable points out, the Pharisee’s sin was his lack of empathy and self-reflection. He could catalog other people’s sins but refused to see his own need for grace. That’s the danger he’s warning us against.

I think that’s right. His empathy, though didn’t extend to dismissing or minimizing the sin of the marginalized, either. That’s the error of the welcoming and affirming churches. They begin the “process” sometimes genuinely, of trying to understand the other and to not make the other’s sin larger than any other’s. They quickly move along though to affirming and blessing the other’s sin. That I think is the mistake of allowing empathy to supersede and subsume all other values.

[JohnH]

This parable of Jesus comes to mind --

What’s that got to do with empathy? Instead, it’s a call to repent, and that if I am up on a high horse feeling good I’m not a murderer, or a wife-beater, or a rapist… I may need to pause and consider other sins in my life that are very grievous to God.

Jesus’s parable wasn’t directed at the tax collector or the obvious sinners, but at the religious people who thought they were better than others. What strikes me in these conversations is how often the focus falls on other people’s repentance. The issue is other people’s sins and other people as the problem. As Jesus’s parable points out, the Pharisee’s sin was his lack of empathy and self-reflection. He could catalog other people’s sins but refused to see his own need for grace. That’s the danger he’s warning us against.

The missing part is “go and sin no more”.

Of course, if we can’t get agree on what sin is, then that parts ends up missing. But no, I don’t think there is a lack of “empathy” for unrepentant murderers, wifebeaters, rapists and so forth, nor do I think the problem with much of Christianity is not enough empathy for such people.

[JohnL]

His empathy, though didn’t extend to dismissing or minimizing the sin of the marginalized, either. That’s the error of the welcoming and affirming churches. They begin the “process” sometimes genuinely, of trying to understand the other and to not make the other’s sin larger than any other’s. They quickly move along though to affirming and blessing the other’s sin. That I think is the mistake of allowing empathy to supersede and subsume all other values.

Yep.

[barnhart]

Jesus’s parable wasn’t directed at the tax collector or the obvious sinners, but at the religious people who thought they were better than others. What strikes me in these conversations is how often the focus falls on other people’s repentance. The issue is other people’s sins and other people as the problem. As Jesus’s parable points out, the Pharisee’s sin was his lack of empathy and self-reflection. He could catalog other people’s sins but refused to see his own need for grace. That’s the danger he’s warning us against.

I think that’s right. His empathy, though didn’t extend to dismissing or minimizing the sin of the marginalized, either. That’s the error of the welcoming and affirming churches. They begin the “process” sometimes genuinely, of trying to understand the other and to not make the other’s sin larger than any other’s. They quickly move along though to affirming and blessing the other’s sin. That I think is the mistake of allowing empathy to supersede and subsume all other values.

I agree with this.

[ken_sylvania]

I thought about this thread when I read Deuteronomy 19 this morning. Several times, the Israelites were exhorted that if a person sinned against another, they were not to pity the wrongdoer, but rather to mete out justice. Is there a principle there that we ought to remember?

They weren't told to punish despite their pity - they were strictly prohibited from pitying the wrongdoer.

[barnhart]

Al Mohler and Joe Rigby go further in their analysis of the sin of empathy by theorizing women are inclined to this sin by nature which is why men are dictated to be leaders in the Bible.

While I am more Complementarian than Egalitarian, this feels like something that could easily be weaponized to defend terrible things. I bring this up to serve as an example of what can happen when we "create" sins to address actual error. Al Mohler is not an internet kook in his mother's basement but the president of the largest and most influencial Southern Baptist seminary.

https://albertmohler.com/2025/02/19/joe-rigney/