ON THE THIRD day of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, I saw a tweet that assaulted my spirit. A Utah church deacon and self-described “Christian husband and father” named Ben Garrett went viral for posting a picture of the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, with the following caption: “Do not commit the sin of empathy. This snake is God’s enemy and yours too. She hates God and His people. You need to properly hate in response. She is not merely deceived but a deceiver. Your eye shall not pity.”
The day before, Budde had preached a pastoral and prophetic sermon at the inaugural prayer service for Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. She made a direct plea to President Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now” — specifically naming transgender and undocumented children who feared what the new administration would mean for them. Garrett’s tweet — which received almost 5,000 likes and nearly 24 million views — was a rebuke of Bishop Budde’s call to have empathy toward two groups of people who Trump and his supporters have consistently demonized, attacked, and marginalized.
When I researched the phrase “the sin of empathy,” I was led to some right-wing Christian influencers and writers, whose arguments often boil down to the old directive to “love the sinner, hate the sin.” Far too often, I’ve found this to be a mere pretext to act against individuals and groups in fear- and hate-driven ways that can result in violence. Empathy doesn’t mean you have to agree with someone’s choices or perspective. Instead, it enables us to get more proximate to people’s pain and perspective as we honor the image of God that is within every person.
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