The English language has undergone a lot of changes since the Second World War. The emergence of new liberal buzzwords has changed society into one being afraid of being labeled racist, homophobic, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and now transphobic. The power of language has been the left’s greatest weapon. And I would argue that empathy is among these words which have emerged to subvert American culture.
The sympathy empathy dichotomy has emerged, and even Christians argue that empathy is morally superior to sympathy. Hebrews 4:15 is a proof text that says otherwise: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” Modern Bible translations are getting around this by changing this verse to accommodate their view. The NIV reads, “or we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses.” But going back to the King James, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” Hebrews 4:15 speaks to Christ’s compassion, so why in the last 100 years has the word empathy arisen to replace sympathy as described?
Keep in mind that while empathy is on the rise, sympathy is still the more widely used word in English vocabulary. Slightly before WWII, empathy arises as a term, and now in the 21st century, many conservatives feel it is morally superior to sympathy.
I like how a commenter said it on Evangelical Dark Web
The roots of the current cultural elevation of empathy as a value, I believe, lies in the New Age/ Occultism. The prestige and status given to these “enlightened” ppl who are supposedly hypersensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others, such as mediums, is undeniable. I believe it definitely plays a large part.
Indeed, there is some precedent for it in New Age as well as science fiction. The Betazoids in Star Trek are empaths with a heightened sensitivity to the emotions of others. The Next Generation does seem to precede the sharp increase in the 90s, but so too does the rise of political correctness in college campuses in the early 1990s.
The rise of political correctness ultimately paved the way for Black Lives Matter and the latest waves of feminism, culminating in an entire nation being trained so that in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, they would participate in struggle sessions whilst American cities burned. Similarly, the helpless refugees who crossed the border illegally must never be deported, even as they commit subsequent crimes and contribute to a housing crisis.
Empathy has been used to convince Americans to destroy their own nation. Emotional hypersensitivity has now plagued American society and also the church. The Southern Baptist Convention foolishly chose empathy over duty when they launched the Guidepost investigation and waived attorney-client privilege. Sympathy would not have forwent fiduciary stewardship.
Empathy is unbridled emotionalism. It is not a Christian value. It is the value of a feminized society. It is a great thing that Christians are leading the conversation on this topic, be it Allie Stuckey in her book, Toxic Empathy, or Joe Rigney in his upcoming book, The Sin of Empathy.
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I’m not sure the NIV change is because of this. KJV says “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;” but being touched implies passibility, and classical theism (aka Calvinism) teaches a God who is impassible and cannot have emotions, so this may just be Calvinist bias in the NIV. Empathy in its proper dictionary definition is simply KNOWING the feelings of others, not being touched by them, and that definition might help the Calvinist slip their cold unfeeling god of the pagan philosophers into Hebrews 4:15. Of course they can also play it out to women that they mean what they think, and thus hide the Calvinist bias. This is similar to why Isaiah 53:10 now says “it was the Lord’s will to crush him” rather than “it pleased the Lord to bruise him;” as Calvinists like RC Sproul prefer the term “crushed” when they get up and sermonize that the Father literally damned the Son and suchlike nonsense.