It’s the day after Inauguration Day in the United States. Many of Washington’s powerful (and rich) are packed into Washington Cathedral for the National Prayer Service, listening to Bishop Mariann Budde, when she ends her homily by addressing the new President himself. She pleads for mercy for marginalised groups, many of whom are terrified that their hard-won rights will be stripped away under this Administration. In her plea, she specifically mentions LGBT children from families across the political spectrum, who ‘are scared for their lives right now’, as well as undocumented migrants who do the menial jobs that many Americans won’t, and refugees ‘fleeing persecution in their own lands’. She reminds him that ‘Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all strangers in this land’. (A transcript of the pleas can be found at the bottom of this blog). So far, so Christ-like. She is espousing the very foundation of Jesus’ teachings: to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34); that what you do to the least of us, you do unto him (Matt 25:40); that the merciful are blessed and will be shown mercy (Matt 5:7).
The response? As well as a moving amount of support and kudos towards Bishop Budde from Christians and non-Christians, Americans and non-Americans alike, there arose a huge furore from the American Right. Many conservative pundits and media sites attacked Bishop Budde, many called for her to apologise, to be sacked, not to be allowed back into the Cathedral. President Trump himself demanded an apology for a sermon that he called ‘nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart’. A Republican Representative from Georgia, Mike Collins, wrote on X that she ought to be ‘added to the deportation list’.
A reaction that caused a lot of attention online came from a podcaster and Deacon called Ben Garrett, who wrote on X:
‘Do not commit the sin of empathy. This snake [Bishop Budde] 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 is a deceiver. Your eye shall not pity.’
There’s a lot to unpack here, but the thing that really caught attention was the phrase ‘the sin of empathy’. It seems antithetical. How can having empathy for your fellow humans, particularly those from marginalised communities (i.e. ‘the least of us’ that Jesus mentions), be a sin?
From a psychology perspective, empathy has been found to be hard-wired into us. Infants as young as 14 months old can act based on inferring another’s mood or intention and can be observed trying to comfort a parent[1]. Empathy develops through childhood and into adolescence and is a useful trait to have as an adult navigating relationship of all kinds. It is thought that empathy was a useful survival tactic for early humans, as the ability to read or understand another’s intentions could keep the tribe safe. Empathy is a core human trait.
However, I suspect that Garrett wasn’t referring to empathy as a biopsychological trait but as something that we “bleeding-heart” liberals flaunt in order to progress an agenda, rather than adhering to the “truth” of their interpretation of Christianity. To the Christian Right, Christianity is a hyper-individualistic clique, one that has a duty to keep out ‘unworthy’ people – a far cry from what Jesus talks about in Matthew 25.
There seems to have been a trend of conservative Christians decrying empathy as a bad thing. A simple google of the phrase used by Garret in that X post shows books and podcasts by pastors who argue that empathy is used by ‘progressives’ to exploit victimhood. The argument also includes that there is loss of objectivity, and that you become more concerned with the victim than with God. Books such as The Sin of Empathy by Joe Rigney and Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion by Allie Beth Stuckey espouse how empathy is somehow the opposite of ‘truth’, and how progressives ‘ignore the other side of the moral of the equation’[2] (disclaimer: I have not read either of these books but have picked up quite a lot of the intention from their blurbs).
When empathy is put in a binary with concepts such as justice, truth and goodness, it makes it seem like there can be no interaction between them, but that simply is not true. Empathy is vital in court cases, for example; for juries and judges to make their decisions – not just for defendants but for victims too. This is why we have victim statements, and verdicts that differentiate intention (i.e. murder, manslaughter etc) or whether the defendant was in their ‘right mind’. These could not be made without empathetic reasoning.
It seems to me that this whole issue is a small matter in the larger culture war that has been dividing society over the last few decades, while Christian Nationalism has been steadily gaining traction. Such is the disdain that conservative religion has for the left that things that are the hallmarks of progressivism are demonised. Following the words of Christ in Matthew 25 shouldn’t be seen as radical or political but, in the year of our Lord 2025, it seems like even the simplest and most human traits are somehow partisan political decisions, and that is a sad thing indeed.
What can we do to counteract this? My suggestion is to be loudly, unapologetically compassionate. Approach every situation with the words of Micah echoing in your mind: walk humbly, love mercy, do justice. Resist the creeping authoritarianism by loving unconditionally and showing people that everyone is worthy of God’s - and our – love.
Bishop Budde’s Appeal to the President:
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, wadara and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands, to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. The good of all people in this nation and the world.”
Written by Jen Nicholas. Jen works for SCM as Finance and Fundraising Administrator, and is completing an BsC in Psychology with Counselling with the Open University.