A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Benjamin J. Montoya, PhD
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”
Summary
Lie #1: “Abortion Is Health Care”
Toxic empathy claims that abortion is just another form of healthcare and that women should have the right to choose to have a baby or not. Advocates of this position say that if the woman does not want to have the baby that an abortion should be an option. Since the infamous court-case of Roe v. Wade, this precedent has been allowed. After the Supreme Court overturned that case, some states have outlawed abortions unless the mother’s life is in danger. But many people still support this perspective, seeing abortion as an option, even if for other political purposes. For example, many social elites have been proponents of abortion as means of population control. This view has received plenty of support from billionaires; Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and the likes of the Rockefellers have funded these ideas. But, just because the idea is popular does not make it true.
How should Christians respond to the lie that abortion is healthcare? First, abortion is murder from a biblical standpoint; unless murder is justified in certain instances, abortion is immoral. Second, people are made in the image of God, even as babies in the womb. They are not just a mass of cells. Some Christians have tried to twist different parts of Scripture, redefining terms, as mentioned previously, but the consistent testimony of Scripture is that God hates murder and bloodshed, and abortion is every bit of that. Third, Christians must vote for policies that outlaw abortion. Fourth, there is real forgiveness for women who have had abortions, whether it is one or many. Fifth, just because this historically recent development of changing the meaning of the term “empathy” is popular, toxic empathy is a cancer; pressuring women to undergo abortions and trying to convince everyone else that abortion is a legitimate healthcare option are both heinous sins that God hates. Sixth, Christians ought to seek to employ truth and love in all instances, but especially these. . . .
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