Dr. Paul, Is Empathy a Sin?\"

If you've watched in a social media, you will have run into someone pontificating that "empathy is a sin" and even worse, expressing their worry that women are have to fall into that trap more than men. Amazing!

Floating around on the Internet these days about the "sin of compassion" which, in my opinion, is a distortion of the very teachings of Jesus and the Early Church as they understood those teachings. This is not the first occasion in the history of the church that this distortion has happened. It seems to arise whenever it feels threatened and needs to align itself more with nationalism than with being a living reflection of the kingdom of God.

Please Do Not Mistake Your Google Search with my Theology and Biblical Literature Degree

It's one thing for this distortion to be floating around on the Internet and quite another for it to be taught in Christian churches by pastors who have all the resources they need to discover it is a fallacy. Sitting by and watching without saying anything It's no longer possible and my "don't mistake my theology degree for a Google search" led me to write this.

The Compassion Gap: Understanding Jesus' Words and Depth of Meaning

I recently wrote "The Compassion Gap: Understanding Jesus' Words and Depth of Meaning" as a comprehensive review of how the words attributed to Jesus about compassion and empathy, would've been heard as he spoke it in Aramaic. How it was translated into Greek, the Latin, and then English with some distortions that are always present in translations.

Here is the ink to the pdf version

Here's My Short Response

Jesus’ original words were deeply physical, emotional, and universal. The Greek translation effectively preserved this depth, but later Latin and English translations introduced distortions that shifted the focus from action-driven compassion to passive pity.

Augustine's Ordo Amoris changed how compassion was applied, sometimes in ways that conflicted with Jesus’ teachings.

Today, as we navigate discussions about love, justice, and inclusion, we must return to Jesus' example.
The compassion Jesus taugt and the stories about him modeld demonstrate that it was active, boundary-breaking, and universal.

Key Takeaways

Jesus' Aramaic words for compassion carried deep, physical, and relational significance, compelling action rather than mere sympathy.
2. The Greek translation preserved the emotional and physiological depth of compassion, particularly through "splagchnizomai."
3. The Latin translation introduced terms like "misericordia," shifting the focus toward pity and sorrow rather than action.
4. Augustine’s Ordo Amoris created a hierarchy of love that was later used to justify exclusion rather than inclusion.
5. Modern misapplications of Ordo Amoris, particularly in Christian Nationalism, distort Jesus' radical, boundary-breaking compassion.
6. To follow Jesus' example, compassion must be universal, active, and unbound by social or political divisions.

Link to the free pdf file

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