The Posture of Empathy: Holding Truth Without Throwing People Away

Of all the controversies I’ve experienced in my life, I never expected empathy to be one of them.

A while back, the religious right and some Christian nationalists were talking as if empathy is suspect. It’s too “woke,” too feelings-based, too sinful, while people on the left treat it as essential. But empathy, at its simplest, just means this: to unders…