The Radical Empathy of Christ

As a night owl, I’ve always enjoyed late-night talk radio. Years ago, one of my favorite late-night shows was Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. It was the radio equivalent of The X-Files, exploring every conspiracy theory imaginable, including alien abductions, ghosts, and, of course, the Illuminati, a clandestine world organization dedicated to establishing a “one-world” government. It was Q before Q became cool, but it was just entertainment back then.  

Art Bell often spoke of a trend he called the “quickening.” This was his term for the accelerating pace of change and chaos in the world. He frequently noted how these fringe ideas and the resulting ideologies were rapidly entering mainstream consciousness at an ever-increasing rate. 

The “quickening” that Art Bell described can be seen today in the chaos gripping religion and politics. Words are weaponized, their meanings contorted to seize and maintain control, birthing a dangerous alternative reality where “alternative facts” take root, up is systematically redefined as down, and the very essence of good and evil is perverted.

Alternative Facts: Good is Evil

Consider the concerning trend among some evangelical Christians to label empathy and mercy as detrimental or even evil in God’s eyes. This may sound bizarre, but it’s a real challenge to fundamental Christian theology and a risk to the very foundation of our democracy.  

Proponents of this movement attempt to paint empathy as “toxic.” Merriam-Webster defines empathy as the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, which seems inherently positive. However, some, like Allie Stuckey, in her book Toxic Empathy, argue it’s a manipulative tool used by the “left” to sway Christians into accepting sin.

Stuckey’s reasoning is not necessarily new. The idea that Christians should avoid associating with non-believers and the marginalized has been prevalent in many Christian communities for some time.

Take, for example, the belief among some Christians that associating with someone like a member of the LGBTQ+ community and showing compassion and concern for them will somehow weaken or taint a Christian’s faith.

This is similar to the belief in ancient Israel that touching a leper would transfer their sin and sickness to them. In addition, the theory goes that it will support their “lifestyle” and therefore enable them to continue in their alleged “sin,” which in itself is considered a sin. Those who believe this feel called to attempt corrective action by confronting them “with love” by quoting scripture and pointing out their “sin” directly. However, what they fail to see is that what they are really doing is condemning them without love, done in a “nice” way.

Intriguingly, even avowed atheist Elon Musk, who has strangely become a “saint” of the religious right, echoed similar sentiments in a recent interview with Joe Rogan, calling it “civilizational suicidal empathy”, a term borrowed from Gad Saad, a fellow atheist and proponent of biological and social Darwinism.  He further suggested that empathy is a “bug” in Western civilization that is being exploited.

This raises the question: Is empathy truly an existential threat? 

To those with a scarcity mindset who view the world as a zero-sum game where resources are finite and competition is paramount, empathy for the less fortunate and marginalized is seen as a cost, a sacrifice of valuable resources, social standing, or power. 

This fosters a transactional society in which relationships are based solely on what people can do for each other in the moment, rather than on compassion and concern for one another, regardless of worldly costs, as Jesus calls us to do. 

The resulting “me first” perspective aligns with a worldview where such altruism is considered harmful or even evil. It is a self-centered and anti-Christian attitude that naturally progresses to the ultimate end, which is a place where we demand everything and leave nothing for others. 

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” Isaiah 5:20

The Way of Jesus

However, the Christian perspective, as exemplified by Jesus, offers a powerful counterpoint. 

The gospels repeatedly show Jesus modeling radical empathy at personal cost. 

He empathized with us when He FELT the sadness we feel at the loss of a loved one by weeping with those mourning the death of His friend Lazarus.

He FELT our fear as He cried out to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane the night before He was crucified.

He FELT the same hunger and temptation by Satan that we feel as we travel through our own deserts of life.

He FELT our sickness by showing compassion for the sick by healing them.

He FELT our yearning concern for the marginalized by fellowshipping with them and commanding us to take care of “the least of these” as if they were Christ Himself.

He FELT our anger when He called out the Pharisees and the Temple priests for turning His father’s temple into a house of greed and profit.

Jesus also showed empathy by associating with those considered the dregs of ancient Jewish society. He scandalously dined with tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, and He touched and healed lepers. He never condemned them “with love” or shunned them so as not to “support their lifestyle.”

Rather, He fellowshipped with them and embraced them with open arms and overwhelming love. As John tells us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

And yet, quite amazingly, Jesus’ faith was never shaken, and He did not become like those with whom He embraced. However, those whom He embraced had their lives changed forever, which would never have happened if Jesus had followed the precepts of His religion, calling Him to avoid them at the cost of worldly cleanliness.

And finally, we see Jesus displaying the ultimate act of empathy by enduring the pain of the cross while asking for mercy for His executioners by declaring, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

As Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

In other words, His empathy for humanity was so great that He died for us even though we were His enemies and undeserving of God’s mercy.

This was not a one-time transaction or “deal” where both parties traded something valuable. Humanity had nothing to offer but everything to gain from the mercy Jesus showed on the cross. We could do nothing for Him, but He still gave us everything. 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 

An Unholy Alliance 

So, why this seemingly unholy alliance between secularists and some Christians against empathy? If empathy is about understanding and serving others as Christ commanded and modeled, its opposite serves those who benefit from division and the control it provides. 

For instance, one of the tools used by many authoritarian political movements to remove empathy is the process of scapegoating, which focuses anger on innocent and vulnerable minority groups – a tactic Rene Girard identifies as a primary weapon of Satan, defeated by Jesus on the cross. 

The process starts by dehumanizing the scapegoat to remove any semblance of their God given image. 

In the Christian context, this dehumanization morphs into demonization, whereby the scapegoat is seen as an existential evil that must be defeated at any cost.

Empathy is a great threat to scapegoating because it makes demonizing and mistreating others difficult. The more we know someone, the more we recognise our shared humanity, moving us towards compassion and understanding rather than indifference and intolerance. 

In contrast, keeping people distant and using scapegoating makes manipulating the group into demonizing others easier, for all they will see is the false and distorted picture presented by the manipulator.  

As Girard notes, empathy is an enemy of the scapegoat mechanism, just as Jesus’ actions on the cross were.

Scapegoating empathy itself, highlighting instances where it has material costs while ignoring its eternal rewards, is a tactic to discredit it entirely. It is also a primary tool of Satan.   

Throughout the ages, many empires and political movements, driven by greed and power, have co-opted Christ’s message, warping it from a call of selfless service of our fellow man into a selfish and corrupting tool, resulting in harm to the poor and marginalized.

On the world stage today, we still see these Empirical actors doing this to gain political control, co-opting some Christian traditions, particularly among evangelicals. They allow support for political agendas antithetical to Jesus’ call to care for the needy and marginalized, justifying cuts to essential programs and the persecution of enemies instead of loving them. They lead us down a path that diverges significantly from the Kingdom of God described in the Sermon on the Mount.

A New Way

Rather than scapegoating and condemning, we are called to follow Christ by carrying our own crosses and helping others to carry theirs. This stands in stark contrast to the “me first” movement, which antithetically demands that we drop our crosses and build crosses for others instead.

This profound love of Christ, born of radical empathy, inevitably manifests as compassion and mercy, mirroring the essence of the cross itself. This is our defining purpose as the body of Christ in the world. To erode empathy is to strike at the heart of the gospel message, and it is something we must resist. 

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Matthew 16: 24-26