{"id":2381,"date":"2025-10-28T10:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=2381"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:10:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T00:10:59","slug":"toxic-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=2381","title":{"rendered":"Toxic Empathy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

If you ever needed confirmation that we\u2019re living in an \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d world where up is down, night is day, and hate is love \u2026 consider this.<\/p>\n

Empathy is toxic.<\/p>\n

Yup. You read that right.<\/p>\n

Empathy, the willingness and ability to share and relate to another\u2019s experience \u2013 be it a family member, a neighbor, a friend \u2013 has, for some, become an insidious and evil emotion that threatens to ruin civil society.<\/p>\n

Apparently, some think that Jesus\u2019 claim that one of the two greatest commandments –\u00a0 \u201clove your neighbor as yourself<\/a>\u201d – was a bad idea.<\/p>\n

And guess who thinks that Jesus got it all wrong \u2026 (drumroll) \u2026<\/p>\n

You guessed it! The religious right!<\/p>\n

According to Allie Beth Stuckey<\/a>, empathy is being \u201chijacked\u201d by progressives who are using empathy to get conservatives to be, well, empathetic. Joe Rigney<\/a> goes a step further. He classifies empathy as a \u201csin!\u201d NYTimes writer Jenifer Sazali<\/a>, notes that Rigney and Stuckey believe that radical liberals are using empathy to \u201ctrick Christians into tolerating abortion access and gay marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

How dare they!<\/p>\n

Oh, and then there\u2019s Vice President JD Vance, a professed Catholic, who suggests there\u2019s a Christian \u201cempathy hierarchy<\/a>.\u201d According to the Vice President:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He must have missed reading Jesus\u2019 parable of the good Samaritan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Musk<\/a>, the father of 14 children by four different women. He calls himself a \u201ccultural Christian<\/a>.\u201d According to him, \u201cThe fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,\u201d and that \u201cforeigners\u201d are \u201cexploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.\u201d For Musk \u201clove your neighbor\u201d should become \u201cloathe your neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. \u201cToxic empathy\u201d is an oxymoron. It is a desperate attempt to relabel a human virtue \u2013 in my opinion, a \u201cGodly virtue\u201d \u2013 as a vice.<\/p>\n

What empathy actually is (and isn\u2019t)<\/h2>\n

Empathy isn\u2019t pity, and it isn\u2019t just \u201cbeing nice.\u201d At minimum, it\u2019s the ability to understand\u2014sometimes feel\u2014what someone else is going through.<\/p>\n

Empathy is a critical step that moves us beyond pity to action. Sympathy says, \u201cI care about your pain.\u201d Empathy says, \u201cI can sense your pain.\u201d Compassion goes a step further: \u201cI want to help relieve your pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Empathy isn\u2019t the slippery slope; callousness is.<\/p>\n

Empathy is the distinctive characteristic of the Christian God<\/h2>\n

The irony of the claim by some Christians that empathy is \u201ctoxic\u201d is that empathy is a distinctive characteristic of the Christian God.<\/p>\n

At the core of Christian belief is that \u201cthe Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.\u201d That means that God, in the person of Jesus, shared our pain, our fears, our shortcomings, our frustrations, our misgivings, our passions. For Christians, empathy isn\u2019t optional\u2014it is the unique shape of the gospel. The life of Jesus is a witness to a God who is empathetic to the human condition. No other religion or faith can match that claim.<\/p>\n

Empathy Myths vs. Realities<\/h2>\n

Here’s the myth vs. the reality of empathy:<\/p>\n

Myth – Empathy makes you weak.
\nReality – Empathy strengthens relationships and trust.<\/p>\n

Myth – Empathy excuses bad behavior.
\nReality – Empathy helps you understand motives while still holding people accountable.<\/p>\n

Myth – Empathy is a political tool.
\nReality – Empathy is a human virtue\u2014and a divine one.<\/p>\n

Empathy vs. Polarization<\/h2>\n

We live in a polarized world where disagreement quickly leads to dehumanization. Empathy is how we resist that slide. It humanizes the other side long enough for us to hear, understand, and\u2014when needed\u2014challenge. It\u2019s not moral mush; it\u2019s the precondition for moral persuasion.<\/p>\n

When critics say empathy is a progressive plot, they inadvertently prove the counterpoint: that lack of empathy is what turns political opponents into targets and neighbors into abstractions.<\/p>\n

If your theology or politics requires you to feel less with people in pain, you\u2019re moving away from Jesus, not toward Him. If your empathy ever tempts you to excuse harm, that\u2019s not empathy\u2014that\u2019s avoidance.<\/p>\n

I think Erich Bridges<\/a> put it simply: \u201c<\/p>\n

Toxic empathy isn\u2019t our problem; hardness of heart is.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ever needed confirmation that we\u2019re living in an \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d world where up is down, night is day, and hate is love \u2026 consider this. Empathy is toxic. Yup. You read that right. Empathy, the willingness and ability to share and relate to another\u2019s experience \u2013 be it a family member, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2381"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2398,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions\/2398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}