Upon Googling, I discovered that Ben #Garrett did not come up with the repulsive phrase "the #sin of #empathy": there has for several years existed a whole cottage industry of right-wing Christians dedicated to propagating the idea that empathy is a sin. I've been calling out #Christian #hypocrisy for as long as I can remember, but I think never in my life have I seen any doctrine quite so contrary to the #Gospels as this.
@medigoth Well now you've got me searching for this phrase and concept.
From what I'm seeing here initially, is a focus on the difference between
- empathy (feeling the distressed feelings of someone else) vs
- sympathy (feeling for someone in distress) and
- compassion (actions taken to help someone out of distress).
...with a value statement from bad to good in sources advocating for "the sin of empathy" view. A focus on my own feelings matching your feelings is unhelpful or even bad. Acting to help you out of distress is good. And feeling bad for you is somewhere in the middle - tied to emotions and potentially driving the action.
Am I getting the gist or missing the emphasis due to only looking at this for a few minutes?
@medigoth as a Humean, this horrified me...
For reference:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-moral/#ear