A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
About the Author
Allie Beth Stuckey is the author of You’re Not Enough (And That’s Okay) and the host of the podcast Relatable, where she analyzes culture, news, and politics from a biblical perspective. In addition to podcasting and writing, she speaks to various organizations across the country about the importance of constructing a biblical worldview. She and her husband are the proud parents of three children.
Introduction
Empathy is the ability to live in another person’s shoes; how, then, can empathy ever be toxic? It becomes toxic when the meaning of empathy is changed, it is used to contradict God’s Word, exclusively for political ends, it employs Christian-sounding words with unChristian meanings, and employs emotional language instead of logical argumentation. So, for example, advocates of this kind of empathy will say, “If you really care about women, you’ll support their right to choose.”
Table of Contents
Lie #1 “Abortion Is Health Care”
Lie #2 “Trans Women Are Women”
Lie #3 “Love Is Love”
Lie #4 “No Human Is Illegal”
Lie #5 “Social Justice Is Justice”
Selected Quotes
- The entire purpose of the American government is to protect America and Americans. That is its number one job. As long as we have unchecked illegal immigration that undermines our sovereignty, our safety, and our culture, the government is failing at its job.
- Some Christians who oppose stricter immigration laws argue that the Bible orders us the foreigner. But God’s command to love the foreigner or sojourner must be understood against the backdrop of God’s character: namely, His orderliness.
- But like many once universally positive words of our day, when it comes to public discourse, “empathy” has taken on a new and broader meaning beyond the practice of understanding a person’s struggle or situation. Like “tolerance,” “acceptance,” “justice,” and “love,” the word has been hijacked for the purpose of manipulation and coercion. More explicitly, it’s been co-opted by the progressive wing of American society to convince people that the progressive position is exclusively the one of kindness and morality.
- But like many once universally positive words of our day, when it comes to public discourse, “empathy” has taken on a new and broader meaning beyond the practice of understanding a person’s struggle or situation. Like “tolerance,” “acceptance,” “justice,” and “love,” the word has been hijacked for the purpose of manipulation and coercion. More explicitly, it’s been co-opted by the progressive wing of American society to convince people that the progressive position is exclusively the one of kindness and morality.
- As always, there’s a flip side to the one-sided empathy narrative. As Christians, as thinkers, and as truth-seekers—people who care about what is “good, right, and true” (Eph. 5:9) as well as what’s loving—we’re required to go beyond putting ourselves in Samantha’s shoes. We must consider this story from Halo’s perspective.
- Toxic empathy is a cancer. It is used to pressure women to undergo abortions and to convince everyone else that abortion is okay. It leads to the murder of the smallest, weakest, and most vulnerable children in horrifically gruesome ways. It pulls on heartstrings through half-baked stories and emotional talking points to persuade women and men that getting rid of their child only way out of whatever predicament they are in. And it leaves those same women and men with the wound of knowing deep down that they destroyed a miracle that God had brought to life.
- The church must be what it has always been in times of tumult: a beacon of clarity to combat confusion, courage to combat cowardice, and compassion to combat callousness.
- So certainly I have empathy for people who desire to become parents, and I understand that the inability to have children is painful. But I do not accept toxic empathy, which demands that we agree that that pain should be alleviated by whatever means necessary. Instead, we must show true love, which has compassion person’s desire to be a parent while insisting that children’s rights supersede adults’ desires.
- A few years ago, I came up with an alliteration to me remember why God’s definition of marriage as between and a woman is so important: Biblical marriage is Rooted in creation; Reiterated throughout Scripture; it’s Repeated by Jesus; it’s Representative of Christ and the church; and therefore it’s Reflective Gospel.
- Ultimately, bearing one another’s burdens is at the heart of Christianity. It’s what Christ did for us on the cross. And it’s what Paul directs us to do for one another (Gal. 6:2). That’s what true love is—choosing to suffer for the benefit of someone else. that is deeper and more life-giving than any empty slogan love is love” or empathy-driven affirmation of someone’s preferences.
- Toxic empathy demands our empathy only go one direction—toward the party the progressive worldview deems oppressed. When they say “no human is illegal,” they’re really saying is every illegal immigrant is like Maribel borders shouldn’t stop such people from living in America. But the reality is, there are people on both sides of the immigration debate that deserve our compassion. There is pain felt loss endured by both citizens and those here illegally.