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GUEST: PASTOR JOE RIGNEY, author, Leadership and The Sin of Empathy
Have you ever wondered why so many feminists support biological boys who identify as girls being able to compete against and defeat biological girls in girls’ sporting events?
Or why is nary a peep uttered by those on the left against Somali Muslim immigrants in Minnesota who defrauded taxpayers of over $9 billion? But in the next second these same people are out on the streets screaming and interfering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who are tasked with finding and deporting illegal immigrants, many of whom having committed additional crimes while here?
The animating motivation behind these scenarios and countless more is a misguided form of empathy.
Empathy means “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” It has some crossover with sympathy and compassion, which are biblical qualities. God is compassionate. Christ understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses and sufferings and believers are to be like Him.
Hebrews 4:15 confirms this: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
Colossians 3:12-13 extols that we show compassion: “as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
So while sympathy and compassion are biblical virtues, there is a corrupted form of empathy today which serves as a sacred virtue of the left that is blind to moral truth and negative consequences because the object of their empathy holds an idolized status of being oppressed.
So going back to the aforementioned examples, girls missing opportunities in sports or getting injured or defeated by biological boys is ignored for the greater good of helping the purportedly oppressed “trans community” feel accepted.
It’s more important to be welcoming to our Somali Muslim neighbors than to worry about billions in taxpayer fraud. And the illegal immigrants in the shadows among us need protection, never mind that they broke the law to enter and many have committed serious crimes, all the while taking advantage of our taxpayer funded social services like welfare, education, and health care.
Our guest this weekend, Joe Rigney, author of Leadership and The Sin of Empathy and associate pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, will explain how untethered empathy goes far beyond the biblical call for compassion and instead is used to manipulate people into supporting leftist power and policies. Because how cold, bigoted, hateful, racist, and homophobic must you be to not share in their so-called empathy?
When you begin to see this emotional blackmail taking place in our society and the church, you will see how important it is for Christians and pastors to speak clearly and boldly with truth and grace.
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