Newfound Empathy for... Empathy

Dear Second Thinkers:

From time to time, an experience occurs that causes me some regret for a musing I’ve previously written. While I will not make a full review of my erroneous confidences, today I am thinking I failed in being too dismissive of empathy. To quickly summarize my empathic dismissal, I expressed concern that empathic feelings were replacing compassionate action, and as Christians we are not compelled to merely feel bad for those suffering—we are also supposed to do them some practical good. (You may read my previous and now somewhat regrettable discussion of the topic here.)

What has compelled me to rethink the whole issue is something I never imagined, and that is a cadre of policymakers completely void of empathic guidance. In the past, public policy was guided by feelings which often resulted in extreme inefficiencies born of a disjuncture between perceived need and real problems. But now we have entered a troubling new cycle where empathy is not only jettisoned as a guiding virtue but is being disparaged as a fundamental and fatal flaw of Western civilization. (I will not provide detail here, but if you Google search “empathy weakness musk” you will find sufficient evidence to understand my concern.) The virtue touted by this Randian (as in Ayn Rand) objectivism is concern for civilization as a whole without being bogged down by concern for individuals. A logic that once destroyed villages in order to save them.

What seems to be happening is the dismantling of policies or programs that consider the amelioration of unnecessary human suffering in the name of bolstering a more cohesive culture. If one believes that public funding should only be applied to the betterment of society as a whole, then it is perfectly reasonable to ignore any agony inflicted on any individuals or subgroups when the larger culture is enhanced. As a result, for example, if it is deemed important that our foreign policy exclusively supports the Zionist cause, then research funding for infant inflammatory bowel disease should be eliminated if the larger educational institution where that research is housed seems to be equivocating in their undying support for Israel. To do less, some believe, is to provide tacit support for antisemitism. The test becomes ideological loyalty and purity to the culture as envisioned. Medical research at major universities is being eliminated because of something said across campus in Student Services or the Sociology department.

This, of course, stands in fundamental opposition to the divine priority expressed in Scripture. Empathic policy is not a call to private benevolence; it is a challenge for national priority. The Psalmist wrote of the king seeking justice: “May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence, he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.” (Psalm 72.11-14) And Jesus himself suggested how empathic motivation will hold consequences in how nations will be judged (Matthew 25.32-45).

What I would like to add to my earlier thoughts on empathy is how it crucially motivates compassion. More than that, empathy also provides the means whereby we are able to triage our priorities in the midst of social complexity. Without empathic connection, we will not—we cannot—recognize, encourage, defend or protect anyone who is suffering; their cries are drowned out by the greater din of illusive progress. And for that, we will be judged.

Seeking your empathy on second thought, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh 
Your Pastor