The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits

by Joe Rigney

In our intense cultural battles, conservative Christians are often reminded that because we must love our enemies and show the meekness of Christ, we should, therefore, avoid “culture-warring” or “politicizing the faith.” Rather, we are told, we need to be “winsome” and find a way to transcend the divisions of our day. We are to lay down our rights, for the “world is watching.” Any pursuit of power will, supposedly, discredit the church’s public witness. Any attempt to “win” is characterized by our opponents as a mere power-grab and selfish pursuit of privileges. Critics claim that such pursuits of political victory reveal that we have made politics superior to our faith, that we instrumentalize the faith for partisan ends. They argue that, in so doing, we may win the world, but we definitely lose our souls. . . . The winsome framework inhibits our ability to act in accord with proper political prudence. This tricks us into thinking that we need to highlight the flaws in all sides with equal airtime or to put all issues on the same level, thus resulting in false moral equivalencies on issues and strategies, producing a crippling inability to recognize and publicly admit when there is moral asymmetry between contemporary sides and among the issues themselves.9