Toxic empathy and the spirit of antichrist
Christian philosopher Rene Girard once suggested that we face two types of evil: The evil of the far right, which he labeled as "Satan," and the evil of the far left, which he labeled "antichrist."
The idea is that Lucifer was overtly proud and power-hungry. The Nazis were possessed by the Luciferian spirit.
But the far left is more subtle. Its evil is also Satan-inspired, but it’s more deceptive because it seeks to pretend to be more Christian than Christianity. It’s antichrist because it uses the teaching of Christ like love for the individual, concern for the marginalized, and justice for the oppressed and seeks to redress these issues while denying the person of Christ and the saving message of the Gospel.
The apostle John wrote about these kinds of teachers, saying, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19), and we can know that “This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:22).
The conceit of the far left is to take the values and moral intuitions of the Bible while denying their connection to Christ himself.
These antichrist doctrines give us compassion without sin, judgment without forgiveness, and love without salvation.
This reveals that behind these movements is not just another satanic power-grab but one that works better in a society heavily influenced by Christian ideals. Concepts like compassion, empathy, and love are being untethered from the Gospel, truth, and the rest of Scripture and are being weaponized against those who actually follow Jesus.
These antichrist doctrines give us compassion without sin, judgment without forgiveness, and love without salvation. They try to achieve justice through injustice, to overcome racism through racist acts, and to enforce equality through unequal application of the law.
John was the last apostle to write his New Testament books, and he saw that the greatest threat to the church would not come from those teaching the antithesis of Christ but those who distort the message of Christ. Even in his day, he warned that “many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18).
That’s why we’re seeing Christianity succeed in Asia and Africa — because of its power to overthrow satanic strongholds — while at the same time shrinking in the West because the Western church hasn’t learned to overthrow the spirit of antichrist.
One example that I’ve seen personally is how many churches are afraid to teach biblical truths about the family because it might make those experiencing broken families feel bad. This is empathy weaponized against the truth.
Many churches want to be a hospital for the broken by neglecting our call to train disciples. It’s like a country deciding not to teach reading out of compassion for the blind. This is not Christ — this is antichrist.
Yes, we need compassion and empathy for those who are suffering, but without falling prey to the strategy of antichrist to use kindness to shame us from speaking the truth.
Antichrist in the West is growing and splitting up families, churches, and whole denominations.
So when you hear Christian leaders hiding clear teachings in Scripture out of a toxic compassion, you can know that “this the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and is now in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:3-4).
This essay was adapted from an article originally published at Jeremy Pryor's Substack.
Toxic empathy: Pastor Ray Ortlund’s call to support Kamala Harris
Ray Ortlund, emeritus council member of the Gospel Coalition, is using his platform to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“Never Trump. This time Harris. Always Jesus,” Ortlund wrote in a social media post on Threads.
But this isn’t the first time he’s engaged in leftist talking points. In 2020, Ortlund posted alongside a photo of George Floyd, “Dear racists, why do you keep treating me well? Don’t you understand yet that I identify with the man on the pavement, not the man in power? So if you’re going to keep behaving in your racist ways, then come after me too. I demand it. I too am the man you hate — but God loves.”
Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” believes Ortlund is giving “a really great example actually of toxic empathy.”
“He says I am the man, I identify with the man on the pavement. Well, when it comes to justice, when it comes to these big statements that can inform policy, that has an effect on people’s lives. It really doesn’t matter whom we identify with. What matters is what is true,” Stuckey says.
“We don’t show partiality to someone because they’re rich, because they’re poor, because they’re influential, because they have no influence, white or black, because we perceive that they are on the side of the oppressed or we perceive that they’re on the side of the oppressor. That is not the truthful proportionate and impartial justice that God doles out,” she continues.
The problem with toxic empathy, Stuckey explains, is that “when we feel how someone feels so strongly, we become blinded to both reality and moral reality and we no longer are able to make right judgments.”
In 2021, Ortlund received blowback for another post made on social media, where he said that he rejoices “at the decline of Bible Belt Religion.”
“It made bad people worse — in the name of Jesus,” Ortlund wrote.
While Ortlund had made some points in his post that Stuckey agrees with, the overall message was one she did not.
“If we are champions of God’s authority and his ways and his rightness then it should be seen as a good thing when the culture becomes more Christian,” she says.
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Kamala’s ‘Call Her Daddy’ catastrophe: Lies, propaganda, and toxic empathy
“Call Her Daddy” is a widely successful podcast geared toward young women, which is why it’s so important that Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with the host, Alex Cooper, for an interview full of propaganda and lies.
“She doesn’t really know what she’s talking about at all,” Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” says of Cooper. “It’s not just that she has a valley girl voice, but underneath all of that is some scholarly, really deep, and wise person. No. She is very superficial.”
But that’s not all.
“I mean, who knows how many hearts have been broken, how many bodies have been harmed, how many relationships have been severed, how much mental stability and peace have been robbed from women because of Alex Cooper’s podcast,” Stuckey says.
“So, you have the authority to talk about this in the same way that Satan has the authority to talk about righteousness,” she adds, noting that it didn’t take more than 20 minutes for Harris and Cooper to start talking about abortion.
The pair, of course, wholeheartedly agreed in a textbook display of “toxic empathy” that “the woman is actually the victim in the abortion scenario” and that “these laws restrict a woman from being able to exercise her bodily autonomy.”
Cooper brought up the case of rapes prior to abortions, which make up less than 1% of all abortions in America.
“The rapist should get the death penalty,” Stuckey says. “Not the baby who did nothing wrong.”
Harris also made the case for abortion in the interview by saying that “the government shouldn’t be telling people what to do.”
She of course seems to have forgotten the mandates her administration imposed on Americans for the COVID-19 vaccine, which many got under threat of job loss and ostracization from society.
“Kamala Harris understands that. She actually believes that the government should be able to tell you a lot of things that constitutionally they can’t do,” Stuckey says, adding, “She was completely behind requiring nurses, frontline workers, to take an experimental vaccine that led to the laying off of many nurses when there was already a shortage.”
Harris also went after late-term abortions, telling Cooper that the idea that women are seeking them out is “a bold-faced lie.”
“We remember Governor Northam a few years ago on the radio saying that if a baby survives an abortion, the baby will be put off to the side. And then the parents and doctor can decide what to do with that baby,” Stuckey explains.
“And under Governor Walz’s watch, at least eight babies were born alive during botched abortions between 2019 and 2021. All eight of them died. None of them received any care attempting to save their lives,” she adds.
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Toxic empathy: Why voters should support mass deportations
The policies that each presidential candidate represents undoubtedly have an effect on the lives of each tax-paying American citizen — which is why Allie Beth Stuckey believes a vote for Donald Trump and JD Vance is the right one.
“Back in 2016, I was squeamish when Donald Trump was talking about the wall. I have been absolutely changed on this subject,” Stuckey tells Matthew Peterson and Jill Savage of “Blaze News Tonight.”
“As I was writing my book, it’s called ‘Toxic Empathy,’ and it basically explains how progressives exploit Christian compassion to get, especially women, into believing that the progressive side of an issue is the most compassionate one,” she explains.
Stuckey believes that Trump’s stance on illegal immigration, namely his call for mass deportation, should be enough reason to cast the Republican nominee a vote.
“The chapter that I was most passionate about writing, that made me the angriest, was the immigration chapter. Telling the stories of Kate Steinle over again, the last words that she uttered, ‘Help me, Daddy,’ before she died in his arms because an illegal alien took her life. Mollie Tibbetts, same thing, and Laken Riley,” Stuckey says.
All three of the young women Stuckey mentioned were found to be murdered by illegal immigrants.
“I wrote the book because they hoist up a victim, whether it’s the woman who needs an abortion or the mom of three who’s fleeing Colombian gang violence, and through toxic empathy, they blind you to both reality and morality,” she explains, adding, “Through this emotional manipulation, they make you feel like you’re a good person by voting for the Democrats.”
“There’s a misplaced nurturing there, and they think that they are taking care of these marginalized communities by voting with social justice policies.”
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