Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith & Culture Is Empathy a Sin? (with Tim Muehlhoff)
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May 13, 2025 
Tim Muehlhoff, a communications professor at Biola University, dives into the role of empathy in today’s society, questioning if it’s being weaponized to sway Christian beliefs. The discussion tackles the balance between genuine compassion and accountability, especially towards offenders. Muehlhoff highlights the moral limits of empathy within biblical texts and critiques contemporary feminism, advocating for nuance. He emphasizes the need for empathy to coexist with truth in Christian communication, ensuring that compassion doesn’t compromise biblical values.
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Empathy's Biblical Dimensions
- Empathy involves perspective taking, affective feeling, and genuine concern for others’ welfare.
- Biblical passages illustrate empathy’s cognitive, emotional, and compassionate dimensions.
Empathy Extends Beyond Christians
- Biblical empathy explicitly applies strongly to Christians, but Scripture also calls for compassion towards non-Christians.
- James urges caring for all in distress, not only believers.
Toxic Empathy Is Untethered Concern
- "Toxic empathy" arises when empathy lacks genuine concern and merely adopts others’ views without challenge.
- This 'untethered empathy' fails to call people beyond their pain out of love.
