#christian-right

#christian-right

On Thursday morning, my inbox was empty, and then I saw the news on Slack. A few minutes after that, a friend texted: "JAMES DOBSON IS DEAD!!!!!" I looked at X and read the headline again. I started to believe it. My husband walked into the room, where I sat on our bed, and I told him. He said he'd bring me Champagne that night.

Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice. For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left: It can manipulate caring people into accepting all manner of sins according to a conservative Christian perspective, including abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and certain views on social and racial justice.