PRRI Survey on Empathy | Song: Look Away |

Friends,

Today I close up the vacation part of my trip and head to Honolulu for "work". Is it really work to attend a friend's ordination as Bishop? I'm simply delighted I have the opportunity to support someone who changes people's lives.

Elizabeth

Show A Little Empathy?

PRRI has released a study showing 54% of white evangelicals think that empathy can lead people away from God's word. Luckily 68% of people in the United States think empathy is foundational to creating a healthy society. The study suggests that christian beliefs hurt empathy--in contrast 83% of people who are un-affiliated prioritize empathy as a positive value and 80% of non-christians. In between these extremes there is quite a bit of variety, people who are Jewish or Hispanic Catholic are fans for empathy, and everyone else leans, not necessarily strongly, toward support.

It's an interesting concept, but one that is more complicated than this study can explore. Who do you have empathy with? In every interpersonal interaction, the empathy can go many ways. Is your empathy stronger for the immigrant's difficult journey, or for the citizen who believes he has lower pay because of that immigrant? Both support for a trans athlete and support for the person who is upset they came in 5th instead of 4th are describing empathy.

In my own circle of friends we've recently wrestled with empathy with regard to the death penalty. When a person scheduled for execution comes close to their date, years have passed since we all were horrified by their crime. At the sentencing most of us have complete empathy for the victims and their families. Now we turn to empathy for this victim of the US justice system. Neither position addresses the complexity of our feelings.

Essentially, I want a system where the families and victims can have no empathy for the perpetrator. I think they have every right to wish that the murderer is dead. Heck sometimes I long for a neighbor who annoys me to die. No victim of violence should have to consider the tough childhood the perpetrator experienced when they were young.

But, as a society, we do want to consider the larger picture. We must care about the causes of violence. We want a safer community which is dependent on more than the details of one violent action. The legal system cannot be swayed by the empathy that swings one way or another. It must be built on treating individuals equitably, and it must prioritize the safety of the community. The system must not focus on who deserves our empathy, rather it must focus how can we prevent further harm.

Of course this again winds back to empathy. It is often those with empathy for the plight of people who are poor and have grown up with violence and oppression that recognize that what we need is not punishment, but transformation.

And yet, it is unlikely that setting up competing empathies are what will bring about change. Instead we should look at the data: punishment does not reduce crime, and the cost of long prison sentences hurts our shared community budget. It is logic, not empathy, that argues for spending more on reducing the poverty and childhood violence that leads to much crime. It is logic, not empathy, that points out that almost all crime is committed by people under age 35. It is logic, not empathy, that reminds us that our death penalty system is riddled with unequal judgements and the possibility of killing someone who is innocent.

We do not need empathy to recognize that our system is cruel and ineffective. But we do need empathy to care that our system is cruel.

I wish that everyone had the ability to imagine the feelings of another person, including a person they don't like. I wish we could adapt our behaviors and beliefs to take into account those feelings. Certainly empathy is an unequivocal good in individual interpersonal relationships. We are called to love our neighbors, and our enemies. To have those feelings will improve our society.

But our systems are not as straightforward. Empathy that leans a bit too far one way or the other can keep us from making wise, logical decisions that would build a stronger, safer, community. The ability to have empathy for those involved, while, at the same time, creating fair systems seems to be the direction we lack.

What's going on with empathy in your church? Is it helping? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
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PRRI survey on empathy among people in the United States.

Kate Campbell's song Look Away is about the burning of a historic landmark in the south--a plantation home. (5:16)

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