Is empathy a weakness? Recently The Atlantic published an opinion piece by Hillary Clinton titled “MAGA’s War on Empathy.” The Trump Administration, she writes, equates empathy and compassion with weakness and cruelty with strength. At the same time, the New York Post published an op ed on the “perils of toxic empathy.” The author of the latter, Bethany Mandel, blames empathy for the current unrest in Minneapolis. She argues that empathy is an emotion “that’s strangling any hope of reasoned debate on law enforcement and illegal immigration.” And Elon Musk really did say that ‘The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
How widespread is Mandel’s perspective, I wondered. I found an Associated Press report from 2025 headlined “Is empathy a sin? Some conservative Christians argue it can be.” Well, this is news, I thought. The report quotes conservative Christians saying that empathy becomes “sinful” if it causes one, for example, to support LBGTQ rights or access to legal abortion.
See also “Why the Christian right are preaching that empathy is a sin” in The Independent. Most of the people interviewed in The Independent didn’t think empathy per se is sinful, but they resent the idea that progressivism gets more credit for empathy than conservatism. But one pastor named Joe Rigney complained that “feminists” take empathy too far. He pointed to President Donald Trump’s inaugural prayer service in 2025 and the sermon by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde. The Bishop pleaded with the president to “have mercy” on immigrants and LBGTQ people, which infuriated Pastor Rigney. “Budde’s attempt to ‘speak truth to power’ is a reminder that feminism is a cancer that enables the politics of empathetic manipulation,” Rigney said. If you missed the sermon, you can view the prayer service archived at CSPAN and judge for yourself. I personally thought Bishop Budde’s remarks were entirely appropriate and reflected the teachings of Jesus.
What Is Empathy?
You may never have seen the word empathy in English translations of scripture. That’s because it’s a relatively new word that entered the English language sometime after 1900. It’s are from the Greek empatheia, “in feeling.” But it was modeled from the German Einfühlung, “in feeling,” which itself was coined in the 19th century. In art appreciation theory, Einfühlung refers to the ability of viewers to project themselves into the art being viewed. In the decades that followed, psychologists adapted the concept to explain how we understand other people. By the mid-20th century, empathy was understood as an interpersonal skill. (See “The Origin of Empathy” at Yale University Press.)
What sets empathy apart from similar concepts, such as sympathy, is that empathy is an awareness or sensitivity to the feelings and experiences of others. In sympathy we feel sorry for, but in empathy we feel sorrow with. Empathy is closely related to compassion. Compassion might be defined as empathy plus an active desire to help other people in distress.
Psychologists say that empathy has both cognitive and emotional components. The cognitive component is an intellectual ability to understand an experience or situation from another person’s perspective. Empathy is more than “just an emotion,” although the emotional component is important also. Psychologists say that most people are capable of empathy, but it doesn’t always develop. It’s a skill, they say, and not everybody learns it. People who lack empathy tend to have trouble forming deep relationships. They are uncomfortable with expressions of emotion and may respond inappropriately to other people’s emotions, such as making jokes in response to grief. Theyalso may be dismissive and judgmental about other people’s suffering. See also “5 Steps for Developing Real Empathy” at Psychology Today.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and postulate that many of the people who think empathy is a weakness are lacking it themselves.
The “Emotion vs. Reason” Question
Western philosophy has had a long and complicated relationship with emotions, especially in contrast to reason and intellect. The Stoics of ancient Greece and Rome saw emotion as a reaction to or initial judgment of something that should be replaced by dispassion and reason. Through the centuries a number of influential philosophers warned that emotions would overrun reason and must be kept under control. Today if you wade into social psychology lit you can find no end of studies measuring empathy and rationality in various groups to find out how one impacts the other. Conclusions, um vary. However, many have found that empathetic people can use reason and critical thinking skills as well as anyone. And many psychologists will tell you that reason and empathy are two kinds of intelligence that both have important things to tell us. You don’t have to suppress one in order to access the other.
Still, there is prejudice toward emotion in western culture. Gender stereotypes tell us that men are coo-headed and rational but women are too emotional to think about things clearly. I was born in the 1950s and heard too many times over the years that women are “too emotional” to be trusted with this or that important job, which of course I believe to be hooey. One hears less of that these days, but it isn’t completely gone. We also have raised several generations of men who are out of touch with their own emotions, a condition called “normative male alexithymia.” But pretending something isn’t there doesn’t keep it from sneaking up and biting you, which may be why, for example, men are far more likely than women to get into bar fights.
Does empathy cloud our rational judgement, or enhance it? Certainly strong emotions such as anger or fear can sometimes compel us to do foolish things. But does that apply to empathy? A long time ago I heard someone say, “Sometimes you have to be able to feel before you can see.” This suggests that empathy can give us a deeper understanding of someone else’s situation. And a person who can deny or suppress emotions can also deny biases and blind spots. Lacking empathy doesn’t make one wiser or more knowledgeable.
Is Empathy a Weakness? What Scriptures Say
The scriptures of the world’s great religion contain many pointers toward empathy and its cousin, compassion. One of the oldest is from the Torah, Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Rabbi Hillel the Elder (d. 10 CE) famously said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest commentary..” Rabbi Hillel’s words are echoed in the Christian New Testament, in Luke 6:31: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” See also Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” In Galatians 6:2, we find “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And here is a lovely talk by Imam Adam Jamal on empathy in the Quran that I recommend.
The Hindu Upanishads teach that all beings are interconnected and share the same divine essence, which is Brahman. The Chandogya Upanishad tells us, “In the hearts of all creatures dwells the same Atman.” Recognizing this leads to greater empathy and spiritual growth. The Sikh tradition considers compassion to be the essence of the faith.
The Buddha taught that we are to cultivate four qualities or divine virtues. Loving kindness and compassion are the first two. The third is mudita, which might be translated as “empathetic joy.” It is joy in the good fortune of others, an important antidote to the poisons of greed and jealousy. The final virtue is upekkha, equanimity, or not being pulled into extremes. What I’m not finding in the world’s scriptures is advice that we harden our hearts to the suffering of others and get tough with them for their own good.
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