In the musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Lucy fills her younger brother’s head with little-known facts (aka stuff she made up). Bugs make the grass grow, snow comes up from the ground. An increasingly distraught Charle Brown finally shouts, “I can’t stand idly by!” and challenges her assertions.
 
I find myself at a “Can’t Stand Idly By” moment. Recently, there’s been a push to proclaim empathy as unbiblical and, hence, unchristian. There’s even a book on the topic! So here I am: a Christian doing my Charlie Brown best.
 
We Christians come in more flavors than Baskin Robbins ice cream. Some love smells and bells; for others, simplicity in worship is the key. Some baptize by sprinkling; others dunk. Some keep a vow of silence, while others speak in tongues. But what we all have in common is Jesus: his life, ministry, and teachings.
 
Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus noticed his listeners were hungry and He fed them. Jesus wept with two friends, sharing their grief even as he prepared to reverse their brother’s death. He healed those sick in body and mind, (sometimes on the Sabbath, to the disgust of religious leaders more interested in feeling superior than in feeling compassionate). When dying on the cross, Jesus offered hope to a fellow death-row inmate. And, on His resurrection, Jesus conversed with a guilt-ridden Peter: understanding both the man’s weakness and his potential, and guided Peter into becoming the leader we read about in Acts and in the Epistles.
 
Empathy is deeply Christian, because Jesus practiced empathy every day of His ministry. So these folks proclaiming an anti-empathy faith need to call themselves something other than Christian. Because their goal is to give us permission to care about nothing but ourselves. To close our hearts to the stranger, the poor, the sick, the prisoner—all whom Jesus embraced as family: “…just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40).”
 
If you are a Christian, join me in debunking this assault on our faith. If you are not a Christian, please know that of all the flavors of Christianity that exist, this one is not even on the menu.
 
What are your thoughts on empathy and faith?