Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion

by Allie Beth Stuckey

But, Satan may say: Isn’t that legalistic? Isn’t that pharisaical, overly religious, divisive, judgmental? Aren’t you called to tolerance, acceptance, and empathy? How do you think that person feels? They’re oppressed, marginalized, in pain. Wouldn’t you like someone to affirm you and celebrate your choices? Surely the empathetic approach will win them over. You can worry about the rest later. Just a little compromise. Just a slight softening of the truth. Just a slight departure from Scripture. Just a small dose of worldliness. It’s kind. It’s for the greater good. What will it hurt? “You will not surely die…” Satan is crafty, but he’s not creative. Through toxic empathy he’s dishing out the same lie to women today that he hissed to Eve in the Garden. Many of us are falling for it. Yes, toxic empathy is satanic. It is a tool of the Deceiver to convince women that biblical love means affirming someone’s sin. It makes its victims weak-kneed and simpleminded, convincing them that standing up against evil is mean and that niceness is an acceptable replacement for obedience to God. When God Is Right, He’s Right Christians are commanded to love, and empathy can help us love well. But empathy without biblical truth isn’t love at all—it’s hate. It’s hate, because—just as Satan did with Eve in the Garden—affirming sin means nudging someone off the edge of the cliff. It means helping them toward the thing that’s going to destroy them and those around them. It means both spiritual a...