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Kylerus says to be honest, part of me kind of feels sorry for 47. He's got all those sick offense, all those minions, but does he have actual friends somehow I doubt it? And he's all and he's all the poorer for it. I'm with you. I'm with you. Now that's really interesting. That's really interesting because I have been receiving a whole lot of emails about empathy. People in particular asking me
to pray to speak about the quote unquote sin of empathy because apparently there's a bunch of of right leaning pastors, maga pastors who are and I'm not saying conservative. I'm being very careful on this. It's not a matter of conservative versus liberal. It's this element that's out there who have who have decided that their Christianity needs to be about pointing people to
Trump to to maga to Christian nationalism to white nationalistic white supremacist groups. So they're saying empathy. Empathy is a sin. It's it's something that must be avoided at all costs as a matter of fact Dan McClellan did a video today on it. I didn't get a chance to see it. I just saw his
empathy a sin. So I'm looking forward to checking that out. But on Twitter all kinds of different people are X or whatever it's called today are saying things like, you know, empathy is a trap. Empathy is empathy is of the devil. Empathy is evil. Empathy is this. Now what Kylaura here is describing is is connecting empathetically to Trump. Right? Connecting empathetically to Trump. So
empathy is the action of understanding being aware of being sensitive to and being vicariously and vicariously experiencing the feelings thoughts, the experiences of another and what Kylaura describes is is empathetically connecting with with Donald Trump to some extent. And that allows us to to feel compassion for it allows us to feel sympathy. We can put ourselves in his shoes
we can look around and say, okay, well, all these people want something from him obviously. All these people are this and all these people are that and and he approaches life from a very particular perspective. Yeah, how many how many actual friends can a person who behaves like this actually have? How would how would you even even trust your family? Could you even truly trust your
family? Like I can only imagine that that one day you wake up and you look around and you go on, there's nobody. That's to me, that's terrifying. So I'm with I do feel bad for Trump. I don't think a healthy person makes the decisions he makes. I don't think an emotionally healthy person says the things
that he says. I don't think a spiritually healthy person behaves in the way that he behaves. I don't think he's a terribly healthy individual, mentally, physically, spiritually, psychologically, emotionally. I don't think so. People who are healthy just simply don't exhibit. Don't do the things that he does. They
don't say the things that he say they don't behave. They don't act in the ways that he behaves and acts. So I do feel for him as I think about him and I think about his life as I in my way can act now. Real quick. Empathy is not a sin. No place in the Bible. No place in the Bible does the scripture of say empathy is a
sin. Empathy is in fact essential for the Christian life. Whether it's a new concept or an old concept, the idea that we learn, we hear one another stories, hearing one another stories is essential to connecting. It's essential for building community. It's essential for building trust. It's essential for coming to a place of understanding and ultimately it's essential to love.
How could I possibly want the best for you if I don't know you? How could I possibly truly love you as Jesus calls me to love you if I don't know you? How can I have mercy for you if I if I don't know you? True mercy. How can I forgive you if I don't know you? See all of those things the more I know you, the easier
forgiveness is the more I know you know where you come from, know what you've been through, know who's hurt you, know who you've hurt, all that stuff, the more I know about you, the easier it is to connect to you. On deeper levels. It's essential. It's essential for pastoral care. And again, I think it's
essential for for living a Christian life, especially in relations to others. But I can understand, I can understand why those maga pastors are holding it up as sinful because it is while it's essential for a Christian life, it is
it is the enemy. It is the enemy of the maga Christian life. It's the enemy of the white nationalist Christian life. It's the enemy. It's the enemy of all of those people, all of those preachers, all of those quote unquote Christian leaders
that would point us towards someone like Donald Trump, point us towards ideology, like Christian nationalism, point us towards understandings and values that are held by by maga. Empathy is the worst for those folks because empathy. Well, empathy gets in the way of hatred. Empathy gets in the way of blame. Empathy gets
in the way of of our desire to destroy another or a group of people. And for what it's worth, Christian nationalism is all about all about the dangers of the other, all about pointing out the how dangerous this group is or how dangerous that group is and how
you must be careful of this group. We must be careful of that group. We must ultimately, we must expel them all. Empathy is the enemy of Christian nationalism. It is a danger to the very idea of Christian nationalism because empathy stops us. It stops us from hating
others. It stops us from despising others because we come to understand them. We stop seeing them. We stop seeing them as this general amorphous collection of individuals. Well, they're criminals. No, they're not. They are not criminals. They are all individuals, just like we are all individuals. They are all here for different reasons. They all came
for different reasons. They are all living different lives. They are all practicing and benefiting the communities that they live in in different ways. They are not a general amorphous group that we can lump together in stereotype. They are a collection of beautiful, unique and wonderful individuals. They have families, they have friends, they've made connections. They are
making their neighborhoods, their towns. They are making their, the companies that they work for better. They are beneficial to the community. Empathy flies in the face of Christian nationalism. Empathy flies in the face of Maga. Empathy flies in the face of Trump because they
Trump, Maga, Christian nationalism. They need us. They need us to make big, bold, ridiculous, vague, blanket, generalized assumptions. Empathy prevents us from doing that. Empathy is not a sin, but it is the enemy of Maga. Empathy is not a sin, but it is the enemy of
Christian nationalism. Empathy is not a sin, but it is the enemy of the vitriol of the warnings. It is the enemy of, well, it's the enemy of people like Trump who are, who gain power by convincing
their followers that there are enemies out there lurking around. Faceless, nameless, enemies out there lurking and waiting for us because empathy ultimately gives everybody a face. An empathy ultimately gives everybody a name. Empathy allows us to connect even with people
that the Maga crew simply do not want us connecting with because if we connect with them, we won't hate them and if we won't hate them, we won't do horrible things to them and we won't allow others to do horrible things to them. Empathy is not sinful. Empathy is the enemy of hatred.
Empathy is not sinful. Empathy is the friend of love and mercy and connection. Amen.
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