We Need More Splanchna In Our Lives!

Reading Empathy in Matthew 9:36

Abstract

Conservative Christian commentators argue that empathy is a toxic trait. When thinking about emotional behavior, toxic empathy in personal relationships is when someone takes on the emotions of another to the point that the emotions become their own, often to the point where they keep the person from their own responsibilities. In the world of conservative Christian culture, toxic empathy is the idea that “left-wingers often manipulate well-meaning believers into adopting sinful, argumentative, and political positions by exploiting their natural religious tendency to care for others. For Allison Beth-Stuckey, toxic empathy is the type of empathy that makes one check one’s specifically conservative politics. In this essay, the author reads Matthew 9:36 in opposition to the concept of toxic empathy while arguing for an expansion of splanchna identified as Jesus’ compassion and embodying Jesus splanchna is required in our contemporary contexts.