{"id":28622,"date":"2025-08-22T09:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T13:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28622"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T13:34:07","slug":"the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_28625\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28625\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28625\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28625\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some conservative Christian leaders and influencers are warning their audiences about what they call \u201ctoxic empathy,\u201d while others argue that empathy is a Christian virtue\u2014or at least not a harmful one. The debate centers on how empathy is being framed, who is driving the critique, and how other Christians are responding.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2024, Allie Beth Stuckey, a conservative Christian author and content creator who runs a podcast called <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Relatable<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, published a book titled <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/711740\/toxic-empathy-by-allie-beth-stuckey\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite what the title (and certain critics) suggests, Stuckey does not believe that empathy is inherently toxic. In her book, she defines empathy as the \u201cability to place yourself in another person\u2019s shoes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0She goes on to write that \u201cempathy is a powerful motivation to love those around you. It precludes unfair criticism and presumptuousness and motivates us to help people who need it. This kind of empathy can help us become better neighbors, friends, and parents, as we consider how to treat people the way we\u2019d like to be treated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stuckey notes that this sounds a lot like Jesus\u2019s command to love one\u2019s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:31).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Stuckey and other conservative Christians claim that empathy is being exploited to further political progressivism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stuckey lays out several examples of what she calls \u201ctoxic empathy\u201d pushed by politics:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you really care about women, you\u2019ll support their right to choose.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you really respect people, you\u2019ll use preferred pronouns.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re really a kind person, you\u2019ll celebrate all love.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re really compassionate, you\u2019ll welcome the immigrant.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re really a Christian, you\u2019ll fight for social justice.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Essentially, Stuckey argues that\u00a0 toxic empathy is when a political position is cast as the morally right way to think, and disagreement is cast as immoral and inhumane.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stuckey is not alone. In 2025, theologian Joe Rigney published <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/canonpress.com\/products\/the-sin-of-empathy?srsltid=AfmBOoou-UYA6I9Aa21Vn5cFbNUWsWg9vv8tOXW0fu5YCi7Q3rZgc0zD\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And just a few months before Stuckey published <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toxic Empathy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Megan Basham wrote <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/shepherds-for-sale-megan-basham\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rigney resonates with Stuckey\u2019s wariness about empathy being used as a political tool. And Basham shares Stuckey\u2019s disdain at certain other evangelicals who they believe have fallen for toxic empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rhetoric surrounding toxic empathy has extended far beyond the pages of these books. In April 2025, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xwwaEuDeqM8\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pleaded for mercy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from President Donald Trump on behalf of immigrants and queer youth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0In response, one Utah pastor <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tompawnbadil\/status\/1882115502061068777\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">posted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on X:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Do not commit the sin of empathy.<\/p>\n<p>This snake is God\u2019s enemy and yours too. She hates God and His people. You need to properly hate in response.<\/p>\n<p>She is not merely deceived but is a deceiver. Your eye shall not pity. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JBKT3Y0BUw\">pic.twitter.com\/JBKT3Y0BUw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Garrett (@tompawnbadil) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tompawnbadil\/status\/1882115502061068777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joel Berry, managing editor of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Babylon Bee<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a Christian satire site, affirmed the idea of toxic empathy. He <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JoelWBerry\/status\/1847287148271271994\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shared a quote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from Flannery O\u2019Connor, the master of southern grotesque literature:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If other ages felt less, they saw more, even though they saw with the blind, prophetical, unsentimental eye of faith. In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long cut off from the person of Christ, is wrapped in theory. When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror. It ends in forced-labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">One of America\u2019s greatest modern writers Flannery O\u2019Connor defines \u201ctoxic empathy:\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf other ages felt less, they saw more, even though they saw with the blind, prophetical, unsentimental eye of faith. In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KT7Jdk3zoT\">pic.twitter.com\/KT7Jdk3zoT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoelWBerry\/status\/1847287148271271994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of the Christian defenses of empathy have come from progressive and mainline Christians. Two months after Bishop Budde\u2019s plea for mercy, Rev. Canon Dana Colley Corsello at the Washington National Cathedral devoted an entire sermon to defending empathy as a virtue, not a sin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Corsello <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cathedral.org\/sermons\/the-sin-of-empathy\/#:~:text=I%20would%20argue,of%20the%20incarnation.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tied empathy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the doctrine of the Incarnation, saying:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would argue that if Jesus is anything, he is empathic. If compassion is being willing to suffer alongside another, empathy is understanding how they feel. Jesus, as God, embodied empathy by coming to earth as a man and enduring the human experience. This is what we mean when we refer to the doctrine of the incarnation.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, not all defenses of empathy have come from mainline Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Shane Claiborne, an evangelical Christian and author of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/zondervanacademic.com\/products\/the-irresistible-revolution\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, countered the Utah pastor who echoed Rigney\u2019s \u201csin of empathy\u201d rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Claiborne <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShaneClaiborne\/status\/1907482206156595605\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">writes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cThere is no such thing as \u2018the sin of empathy.\u2019 God is love. And the world will know that we are Christians by our love.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some conservative Christian leaders and influencers are warning their audiences about what they call \u201ctoxic empathy,\u201d while others argue that empathy is a Christian virtue\u2014or at least not a harmful one. The debate centers on how empathy is being framed, who is driving the critique, and how other Christians are responding. In 2024, Allie Beth&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christians clash over \u2018toxic empathy\u2019\u2014is it a political trap or a Christlike virtue? Leaders and pastors debate what it means for the church.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christians clash over \u2018toxic empathy\u2019\u2014is it a political trap or a Christlike virtue? Leaders and pastors debate what it means for the church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-22T13:34:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John San Nicolas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far","description":"Christians clash over \u2018toxic empathy\u2019\u2014is it a political trap or a Christlike virtue? Leaders and pastors debate what it means for the church.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far","og_description":"Christians clash over \u2018toxic empathy\u2019\u2014is it a political trap or a Christlike virtue? Leaders and pastors debate what it means for the church.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-08-22T13:34:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John San Nicolas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far","name":"\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-22T13:34:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-22T13:34:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Christians clash over \u2018toxic empathy\u2019\u2014is it a political trap or a Christlike virtue? Leaders and pastors debate what it means for the church.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Empathy-Sin_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/the-sin-of-empathy-why-some-christians-say-compassion-has-gone-too-far#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cThe Sin of Empathy?\u201d Why Some Christians Say Compassion Has Gone Too Far"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28631,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28622\/revisions\/28631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}