“Power Without Empathy Is A Sin”

Can someone have too much empathy? No. Only misdirected empathy. In this photo a group of people on the Ithaca Commons participated in a protest. A sign in the foreground has a fake newspaper clipping depicting Elon Musk doing a Hitler salute with the headline “Richest Man Destroys Aid To The Poor.” | Image courtesy of DanielGoldhorn, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Only the Weak Will Fail

“Only the weak will fail.” (Donald Trump) “Power Without Empathy Is A Sin” (Noah Harley, Anthem)

People are discussing empathy. According to news reports, the world’s richest man and a top advisor to US President Trump, Elon Musk, said on the Joe Rogan Show that some people have too much empathy. A recent meme in conservative Christian circles is that “empathy is a sin” or “the sin of empathy.” What are we coming to?

Empathy means compassion for, compassion for the weak, the suffering, the helpless. Identifying with them emotionally. It goes beyond pity or sympathy to solidarity.

Misdirected Empathy

Can one have too much empathy? No. But one can have misdirected empathy. For example, if a person were to have empathy with a serial killer in prison, that might count as misdirected empathy. But one cannot have too much or wrong empathy for/with children who have grown up in America and are about to be deported back to a country where they very well may be forced into a drug gang or even killed by one.

Can someone have too much empathy? No. Only misdirected empathy.

Power without empathy is evil. I detect no empathy in the current American government, at least not at the top. And that, by itself, should stand a reason to oppose it. It is cold, calculating, mean-spirited, and cruel.

God’s Forgiving Grace

A Christian cannot support cold, calculating, mean-spirited and cruel leadership wherever it may be found. That is why Jesus opposed the Pharisees.

To be like Jesus…one has to have empathy for the weak, the powerless, the suffering, the vulnerable, the afraid, the down-and-out. And empathy acts.

Empathy cannot be a sin; even misdirected empathy is no sin. Unless it is empathy FOR the powerful, the rich, the comfortable. But that is really no empathy, whatever one calls it. We Christians can and should even have empathy for sinners. Jesus did. That doesn’t mean supporting sin; it means feeling that we, too, are sinners and sinners are suffering, whether they know it or not. Unless they are forgiven sinners enjoying assurance of God’s forgiving grace.

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