In our age of expressive individualism and cultural decline, one counterfeit virtue is being weaponized to dismantle the remaining moral framework of the West—toxic empathy. Promoted by the Neo-Marxist progressive left and increasingly adopted within misguided corners of the Christian Church, toxic empathy demands not that we help others, but that we surrender to their perceptions, affirm their delusions, and suspend all moral judgment. It is not compassion; it is emotional blackmail masquerading as virtue. And it is hollowing out the moral spine of the West.
This post expands on the urgent warning articulated in a July 2025 letter to the editor, drawing deeply from The Sin of Empathy by Joe Rigney. While biblical compassion reflects the holy character of God, toxic empathy serves as a satanic counterfeit—a manipulative force that disables truth-telling, rewards delusion, and punishes discernment.
The Difference Between Compassion and Toxic Empathy
Biblical compassion, as modeled by Jesus Christ, is holy and discerning. He felt genuine compassion for the hurting (Matthew 9:36), yet never coddled sin. Jesus was moved by the suffering of the leper, the woman caught in adultery, and the outcast Samaritan woman, but He also confronted sin and commanded repentance (John 5:14; 8:11). Godly compassion is never divorced from truth; it motivates people toward what is good, true, and righteous, even when that journey is painful.
By contrast, toxic empathy demands emotional conformity. It insists not that we love the other person through sacrificial care, but that we feel what they feel, agree with their perspective, and surrender judgment altogether. To resist is to be called “hateful,” “violent,” or “unloving.”
This perversion is evident when feelings—not facts—become sacred. Toxic empathy confuses affirmation with love. But Christian love (agape) is grounded in truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). It doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing or affirm self-destruction. Yet in today’s culture, to refuse affirmation is to be denounced as a bigot.
The Weaponization of Emotion in Public Policy
Toxic empathy is now the primary moral tool of the progressive movement, especially in the areas of immigration, gender ideology, race relations, and environmental policy. It exploits genuine suffering and tragedy to force emotional capitulation. Consider how illegal immigration is framed in today’s discourse.
The left does not typically argue from constitutional law, economic impact, or national sovereignty. Instead, it appeals to sentiment: “These people are suffering—how could you turn them away?” This appeal avoids the hard realities: cartels exploiting children, fentanyl pouring across the border, communities overwhelmed, and law-abiding citizens paying the price.
The result is policy by pathos—where objective justice and truth are discarded in favor of emotional narratives. Anyone who dares to apply biblical discernment or practical reason is labeled cruel, racist, or xenophobic. As Rigney warns, it is not about helping others; it’s about hijacking emotion to manipulate political behavior.
The Cost of Empathy Unmoored from Truth: The Rotherham Scandal
Toxic empathy is not harmless. In the United Kingdom, for over two decades, more than 1,400 white, working-class girls were groomed, drugged, raped, and prostituted in Rotherham and other towns. The primary perpetrators were older Pakistani Muslim men. The victims were not believed. Social workers, police, and politicians feared being labeled “racist” or “Islamophobic.”
Empathy for the cultural “outsider” silenced compassion for the vulnerable child. In a chilling inversion of justice, those who should have protected these girls instead sacrificed them on the altar of multicultural sensitivity and political correctness.
This is the fruit of toxic empathy: the powerful protect their image and ideology while the innocent suffer.
Intersectionality’s Hierarchy of Suffering
Toxic empathy does not treat all suffering equally. It is governed by the intersectionality matrix, a Neo-Marxist framework in which victims are ranked according to race, gender identity, sexuality, and religion. In this system, truth becomes subordinate to identity.
Consider the attack on Jewish victims in the U.S. by anti-Semitic Jihadists—like the brutal murder of a young Jewish couple in Washington, D.C., or the firebombing of elderly Jews in Boulder. These attacks received scant media attention and minimal outrage. Why? Because Jews are often wrongly cast as “privileged oppressors” in progressive ideology.
By contrast, the lived experience of a “marginalized” individual—no matter how subjective or false—must be believed without scrutiny. This is especially evident in the area of gender ideology.
Gender Ideology: The Tyranny of Emotional Affirmation
If a biological male says he is a female, the demand of toxic empathy is instant validation. It is no longer enough to tolerate this claim; one must believe it. If you dissent, even respectfully, you are now “harming” them—despite the fact that their confusion may be rooted in trauma, mental illness, or spiritual rebellion.
Children are especially harmed. Educators hide social transitions from parents. Physicians inject puberty blockers into healthy bodies. Lawmakers pass “conversion therapy bans” that criminalize biblical counseling. All of this is done in the name of empathy—yet it is nothing less than a war on truth and the created order of God.
The true victims—confused children, grieving parents, or detransitioners living with permanent scars—are silenced. The narrative must remain intact, and truth must bow to emotion.
Women, Emotion, and the Hijacking of Compassion
God has gifted women with a deep capacity for nurture, compassion, and relational care. These are good and beautiful traits—reflections of the image of God. However, like all virtues, they can be distorted when disconnected from truth.
Everyone knows a codependent mother or wife who enables addiction, sin, or irresponsibility under the guise of “love.” This pattern is now widespread in society. The progressive movement, understanding the emotional nature of many women, floods the culture with stories and tears—appeals to emotion, victimhood, and guilt.
As a result, many women are drawn into activist causes—believing they are showing compassion when they are often empowering delusion and immorality. Social justice becomes the new religion, empathy the new sacrament.
But biblical womanhood does not abandon truth. The Proverbs 31 woman speaks wisdom and kindness (v.26), not lies and delusion.
The Broader Strategy: Semantic Warfare and Emotional Capture
The left knows how to frame the debate. They name bills like “The Equality Act” and “The Respect for Marriage Act,” though both undermine biblical truth. They accuse conservatives of “book banning” when parents object to pornographic materials in schools. They speak of “healthcare” while referring to genital mutilation of minors and the slaughter of the unborn.
In each case, language is manipulated to shield the lie. The goal is to disable rational and moral resistance by making it emotionally unthinkable to object. Guilt and shame are the enforcement tools. If you object, you’re not just wrong—you’re evil.
This is not compassion. It is coercion.
The Christian Response: Compassion with Conviction
The Church must recover its moral courage. Christians must learn to say, as Joe Rigney puts it: “I care about you, but I will not lie to you.” We must return to the conviction that truth is loving, and love without truth is not love at all—it is flattery that leads to death.
We must boldly affirm:
- I will not indulge your delusion.
- I will not affirm your sin.
- I will not medicate your guilt or confusion with platitudes and lies.
- I will speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), even when it wounds.
This does not mean we become hard-hearted. Jesus wept. Paul grieved for lost souls. Compassion is vital. But biblical compassion never tells the prodigal son that he is fine in the pigsty. It points to the Father’s house and says, “Repent and come home.”
Recovering a Culture of Truth
America cannot survive as a nation governed by feelings. The West will not endure if law, order, science, and theology all bend the knee to emotional tyranny. If we continue to allow toxic empathy to guide our institutions, we will forfeit everything: truth, order, justice, freedom, and even love itself.
We must cultivate discernment (Philippians 1:9–10). We must teach our children to recognize manipulation. We must train our churches to distinguish between true and false compassion. And we must demand that our leaders protect the innocent, even when it is emotionally unpopular.
The alternative is chaos.
Conclusion: The Duty to Resist
Toxic empathy is not just an emotional error—it is a moral and spiritual threat. It surrenders truth to the tyranny of feelings. It rewards sin. It punishes love. It enables injustice. And it disguises all of this in the clothing of virtue.
The Church must reject it.
As believers, we must recapture a biblical vision of compassion—one that feels deeply, acts rightly, and speaks truly. Our Savior entered into human suffering, not to indulge sin, but to redeem from it. He wept over Jerusalem, but He also overturned tables. He forgave the sinner, but He never affirmed the sin.
Let us follow His example. Let us love, serve, weep, and rescue—but never lie.
S.D.G.,
Robert Sparkman
rob@basedchristianity.org
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