Zen-ish Thoughts About the Sin of Empathy

Most of us use empathy and compassion as synonyms, or at any rate would be hard-pressed to say how they differ. Technically, sympathy, empathy, compassion, and compassionate action are four steps one may traverse in response to someone else's distress. In recent times, some conservative Christians have invented "the sin of empathy", where empathy refers to being anywhere along this 4-step progression.

"The sin of empathy" sounds very un-Christian, and it is. Leviticus 19:18 (Old Testament) says, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself." Relying on that, when asked to summarize Judaism as briefly as possible, Rabbi Hillel said, "What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor. That is the whole Teaching ("Torah"). The rest is commentary." According to Matthew 7:12 (New Testament), Jesus continued the tradition, saying, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Many Christians say that the Golden Rule (a 1600s name for the do-unto-others injunction) is the essence of Christianity, just as Hillel said it was the essence of Judaism.

(Finding this sentiment across all religions is an easy task. As a Zen-ish note, compassion and loving-kindness are two of the four principle values of Buddhism, and across its various sects compassion is a necessary virtue of the highest spiritual attainment.)

So what could possibly motivate conservative Christians to convert this into a so-called sin? Jesus is universally portrayed as preaching and living out kindness for and community with the outcast. Conservative Christianity is afraid that if you have sympathy, empathy, or compassion for people who are not conservative Christians (and specifically people in the LGBTQ community), you will treat them decently.

Stated more plainly, they have taken their narrow-minded bigotry, their grotesque lack of compassion, and framed it as a virtue and sacred duty.