Yesterday we meditated on the important lesson of Passover: that of empathy. Empathy is the “central message” of the 8-day season of Passover, stated Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of the UK.
Empathy and compassion lie on the middle of Jesus’ teachings as effectively. “Be compassionate as your Creator in heaven is compassionate” summarizes his life and educating and even the rationale for his dying that we bear in mind this week. Thomas Aquinas known as compassion “the fireplace that Jesus got here to set on the earth.” Teachings of compassion lie on the core of plentiful parables of Jesus, from the Good Samaritan to Matthew 25 and plenty of extra.
In distinction to the Passover custom of Judaism and from Jesus, this headline arose not too long ago in The Guardian: “Detest thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian proper are waging conflict on empathy.”* Writer Julia Carrie Wong underscores how “Trump’s actions are irreconcilable with Christian compassion. However an unholy alliance seeks to solid empathy as a parasitic plague.”
The lawless effort to maintain union member, father of three and admittedly harmless prisoner Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a infamous Salvadoran jail by the present administration just isn’t solely blatantly unlawful but additionally blatantly with out empathy for him, his spouse and household, co-workers and extra.
Arguments why it’s potential emanating from the present regime (together with attorneys who ought to know higher) are strongly suggesting {that a} conflict in opposition to empathy is on the coronary heart of the administration’s agenda– although all 9 SCOTUS judges agreed that he must be returned.
I extremely suggest studying Wong’s article and what it tells us concerning the present regime and all these Congress individuals who help it with out a lot as a peep. A lot of them love to point out off their so-called Christianity at a drop of the hat (Mr. Johnson, Republican Home speaker main amongst them).
Wong begins her article with a public assertion from Elon Musk about how empathy is “the basic weak point of western civilization,” and the “empathy response” constitutes “a bug in western civilization.” As a substitute of being “your commonplace, golden rule-type stuff,” Wong factors out, evangelical creationists and vice chairman JD Vance, reprimanded by Pope Francis, each need to declare that immigration and overseas help represent a sin of an excessive amount of empathy.
The aim of the rightwing motion in opposition to empathy is to squash “our capability to acknowledge and reply to struggling” and is “a flashing crimson gentle warning of fascist intent.” It makes room for mass deportation with out due course of, draconian cuts to home and overseas help applications, and a set of “overseas insurance policies that quantity to a prescription for mass struggling and dying.”
Allow us to not miss home insurance policies promising mass struggling and dying by deconstructing Social Safety, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, scientific analysis and extra.
When Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde preached to Trump on inauguration day asking for “mercy upon folks in our nation who’re scared now,” a “Christian podcaster” named Ben Garrett tweeted: “Don’t commit the sin of empathy. This snake (Budde) is God’s enemy and yours too.”
Pastor Joe Rigney excoriated Bishop Budde for her “clear instance of the man-eating weed of Humanist Mercy.” His e book, The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits, was launched this February. Wong tells us that “Rigney’s views are more and more interesting to evangelical Christians.”
For Susan Lanzone, creator of Empathy: A Historical past, “the disparagement of empathy is…a deliberate effort to arrange a permission construction to dehumanize others.”
* Julia Carrie Wong, “Detest thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian proper are waging conflict on empathy,” The Guardian, April 8, 2025.
See Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice..
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society.
And Fox, The Pope’s Warfare: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Campaign Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
And Fox, Authentic Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth.
Banner Picture: “The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Messina Church of the Miraculous Medal Home of Hospitality, Collereale,” G. Conti. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
How involved are you concerning the disappearance of empathy being perpetrated by so-called Christians and others in league with Trumpian insurance policies and politics and the construction it’s creating to dehumanize others?
Really helpful Studying
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the which means and follow of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and international therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the way in which towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Properly price our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had all the time shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and concern. Nonetheless, given at this time’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this e book using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this e book with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For quick entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for quick obtain.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox gives a brand new theology of evil that basically modifications the normal notion of fine and evil and factors the way in which to a extra enlightened therapy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Japanese custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to suppose creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we will do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anybody single science. A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, creator of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics
The Pope’s Warfare gives a provocative take a look at three many years of corruption within the Catholic Church, specializing in Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The remaining part within the e book focuses on birthing a very catholic Christianity.
“This e book must be learn by all people, not just for its ferocious braveness, but additionally for its imaginative and prescient for what must be saved from the harmful forces that threaten genuine Christianity.” ~ Andrew Harvey, creator of The Hope.
“Within the gripping The Pope’s Warfare, Matthew Fox takes an unwavering take a look at the layers of corruption within the Catholic Church, holding ethical reality in opposition to energy.” — Jason Berry, creator of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Energy within the Papacy of John Paul II
Authentic Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a complete new route for Christianity—a route that’s in reality very historical and really grounded in Jewish pondering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is usually uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed means.
“Authentic Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human neighborhood a radical treatment for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these could have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each spiritual and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by way of which we study to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the reward of and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a typical floor for spiritual seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Apply.
“I’m studying Liberating Items for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox. He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand spanking new life regardless of a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
