Christian nationalist pastor McPherson: "Empathy is aligned with hell."

Servus · 2026-02-14T08:39:37-0600

2PhiloVoid said:
I can very well understand what you're saying, but I don't think being empathetic to the pain that other people have requires anyone to be 'drawn' into someone else's world, and I don't think naturally having empathy specifically implies that one will become so absorbed. At the same time, I will continue to advocate for Christian compassion as being over and above mere empathy.

I don't think there's any mere about empathy. I think it has the potential to draw someone in on a deeply personal level. Your pain is my pian. Your anger is my anger. Your desire is my desire, and so on.

2PhiloVoid said:
That could be the case, and I understand that some folks out there have had to deal with narcissist. However, my background in dealing with the mental and emotional problems of others comes from a different experience set than that of the one you're referring to here, and out of that past experience I've had to learn some things about neuroscience that I put up front and center.

Well of course the narcissist is just one of many examples. Narcissist can be replaced with a multitude of other types of people. Or causes for that matter.

2PhiloVoid said:
Perhaps, but I only see empathy becoming 'toxic' when the usual denotation of that term is changed and there also exists an accompanying demand for conformity to that new usage of the term. As a philosopher, I will simply decline the new usage if I don't think it has any evidence to support it.

Well as I recall the word only recently became controversial. At least to the level it's now reached. And it seems a foregone conclusion the reason for that is because a particular spin has been put on it.

Akita Suggagaki · 2026-02-14T09:23:46-0600

Servus said:
How much have you heard about young children "gender questioning" in your lifetime? Now you hear about it all the time. And so do they. Which is why it's happening so much now.

Kind of like other undiagnosed disorders, better to stay ignorant about them and pretend they don’t exist.

Servus · 2026-02-14T10:28:32-0600

Akita Suggagaki said:
Kind of like other undiagnosed disorders, better to stay ignorant about them and pretend they don’t exist.

What other disorders do little kids have with names like pansexual omnigender two-spirit? What's the equivalent to that? Autism? NVLD? PDD-NOS?

2PhiloVoid · 2026-02-14T11:25:03-0600

Servus said:
I don't think there's any mere about empathy. I think it has the potential to draw someone in on a deeply personal level. Your pain is my pian. Your anger is my anger. Your desire is my desire, and so on.

Well of course the narcissist is just one of many examples. Narcissist can be replaced with a multitude of other types of people. Or causes for that matter.

I'm going to I say that dealing with a severely schizophrenic family member is a bit different than dealing with a narcissistic family member.

Servus said:
Well as I recall the word only recently became controversial. At least to the level it's now reached. And it seems a foregone conclusion the reason for that is because a particular spin has been put on it.

I'm not surprised a spin has been put on it. In fact, when I was in college, I directly encountered quite a few of the sorts of folks (professors mainly) through whom the new spin was being manufactured. But I didn't let all of that daunt me. .............. which, as I think about it, probably explains why the usual curriculum for Philosophy in my nearby higher institutions of learning have been replaced by a thoroughly Post-modern regimen of Critical Theory philosophy. Out with 'old dead white men' like Bertrand Russell or Wittgenstein and in with..........................whatever else.

But again, eschatologically speaking, I'm not surprised. So, I will remain undaunted and even attempt to extend empathy and Christian compassion to everyone caught in the existential angst of this world in which we live.

o_mlly · 2026-02-14T12:15:41-0600

notyourenemy said:
Are Christians being "guilted" into "going along" with the way others want to live, or are Christians just being asked to *let* others live as they want to live?

Thomas Harris' 1967 book, "I'm Ok - You're OK" explained transactional analysis as a method of achieving healthy adult relationships. Unfortunately, he portrayed "I'm not Ok - You're not OK" as one that descends into despair and disengagement.

Henri Nouwen, on the other hand, published, "The Wonded Healer" in 1972 giving us, I think, an improved understanding of how healthy adults relate. We acknowledge our shared fallen state ("I'm not Ok - You're not OK") as wounded, and in charity with God's grace become healers of each other through fraternal correction following Our Lord's prescription (Mt 18:15-20).

notyourenemy · 2026-02-14T16:29:57-0600

Servus said:
Christians aren't keeping the world from doing that

Then what's going on here?

Tennessee House passes bill allowing Ten Commandments displays in public schools Tennessee House passes controversial bill allowing Ten Commandments displays in public schools

Servus · 2026-02-14T21:39:20-0600

notyourenemy said:
Then what's going on here?

Tennessee House passes bill allowing Ten Commandments displays in public schools Tennessee House passes controversial bill allowing Ten Commandments displays in public schools

How is that preventing others from living as they want to live? Your question was: are Christians just being asked to *let* others live as they want to live? With an emphasis on let. Meaning Christians aren't letting them, as in exerting control that prevents it. How does a display of the Ten Commandments accomplish that exactly?

notyourenemy · 2026-02-14T22:09:25-0600

Servus said:
How is that preventing others from living as they want to live? Your question was: are Christians just being asked to *let* others live as they want to live? With an emphasis on let. Meaning Christians aren't letting them, as in exerting control that prevents it. How does a display of the Ten Commandments accomplish that exactly?

Others want to live in a society whose government doesn't show favoritism to one particular sectarian tradition.

Servus · 2026-02-14T22:24:08-0600

notyourenemy said:
Others want to live in a society whose government doesn't show favoritism to one particular sectarian tradition.

Okay, but how is it preventing others from living as they want to live?

notyourenemy · 2026-02-14T22:48:08-0600

Servus said:
Okay, but how is it preventing others from living as they want to live?

"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
---Jerry Falwell

Servus · 2026-02-14T22:55:08-0600

notyourenemy said:
"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
---Jerry Falwell

How does someone's fantasy from 45 years ago amount to Christianity currently preventing others from living as they want to live?

notyourenemy · 2026-02-14T23:05:18-0600

Servus said:
How does someone's fantasy from 45 years ago amount to Christianity currently preventing others from living as they want to live?

It's not so much Christianity as it is what some want to do with it.

What is Christian Reconstructionism − and why it matters in US politics What is Christian Reconstructionism − and why it matters in US politics

Servus · 2026-02-15T00:09:04-0600

notyourenemy said:
It's not so much Christianity as it is what some want to do with it.

What is Christian Reconstructionism − and why it matters in US politics What is Christian Reconstructionism − and why it matters in US politics

Okay so there's a small movement that wants domination. Isn't there a similar movement within just about every political party and religion?

partinobodycular · 2026-02-15T00:20:41-0600

Servus said:
How does someone's fantasy from 45 years ago amount to Christianity currently preventing others from living as they want to live?

Good question, and yet somehow you seem to think that having empathy for people who're different than you is suddenly going to force God's church to abandon their sense of right and wrong. Personally, I think that it wouldn't be forcing them to abandon it, rather it'd be helping them to find it.

Servus · 2026-02-15T00:52:28-0600

partinobodycular said:
Good question, and yet somehow you seem to think that having empathy for people who're different than you is suddenly going to force God's church to abandon their sense of right and wrong. Personally, I think that it wouldn't be forcing them to abandon it, rather it'd be helping them to find it.

I think that the church should not be endorsing, promoting, and celebrating LGBTQQIP2SA+ PRIDE.

partinobodycular · 2026-02-15T01:41:33-0600

Servus said:
I think that the church should not be endorsing, promoting, and celebrating LGBTQQIP2SA+ PRIDE.

Have you ever considered the possibility that you may be tilting at windmills? In that the enemy that you perceive at the door isn't really an enemy at all, maybe it's God, standing at the door and knocking... wondering if you'll let Him in, or turn Him away.

Servus · 2026-02-15T01:56:33-0600

partinobodycular said:
Have you ever considered the possibility that you may be tilting at windmills? In that the enemy that you perceive at the door isn't really an enemy at all, maybe it's God, standing at the door and knocking... wondering if you'll let Him in, or turn Him away.

God is opposed to worldly ideology, philosophy, and reasoning. He makes it very crystal clear that the church is to resist worldliness. To stay away from it, to oppose it, and stand against it. That which is not of God, is of the world and therefore ultimately of Satan. In this case it's Satan knocking at the door, not Jesus.

partinobodycular · 2026-02-15T02:32:42-0600

Servus said:
God is opposed to worldly ideology, philosophy, and reasoning. He makes it very crystal clear that the church is to resist worldliness. To stay away from it, to oppose it, and stand against it.

I can't help but wonder though... are they already winning. For God gave you a commandment to love thy neighbor, and it just seems that in this case, out of fear, you've stopped doing that, so you tell me who's winning? You're so convinced that they'll change you, that you've forfeited the opportunity to change them.

They, whoever they are, knocked at your door and you turned them away.

Servus · 2026-02-15T04:15:03-0600

partinobodycular said:
I can't help but wonder though... are they already winning. For God gave you a commandment to love thy neighbor, and it just seems that in this case, out of fear, you've stopped doing that, so you tell me who's winning? You're so convinced that they'll change you, that you've forfeited the opportunity to change them.

They, whoever they are, knocked at your door and you turned them away.

Loving ones neighbor has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with worldly systems, groups, movements etc. Loving your neighbor does not mean you support whatever worldly thing they're into.

Like if your son is a cigarette smoker, and you're against his cigarette smoking, and you try to get him to stop, that does not display a lack of love, or compassion or empathy. Instead it actually means you care about him.

The interpretation you seem to be presenting is love and empathy mean one enables, encourages, supports, advocates, defends and celebrates anything and everything their neighbor is into.

notyourenemy · 2026-02-15T05:54:02-0600

Servus said:
Okay so there's a small movement that wants domination. Isn't there a similar movement within just about every political party and religion?

Perhaps, but how many are getting governmental endorsement?

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Christian nationalist pastor McPherson: "Empathy is aligned with hell."

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