There’s an argument going around evangelical circles that "empathy" is more dangerous than compassion, with the analogy of jumping in to save someone in quicksand, but getting stuck yourself (empathy) vs throwing someone a rope and keeping your footing (compassion). Like if you understand a bad person's thinking too much, you are dragged into their sin.

There’s even a tinge of women being more empathetic and "susceptible" than men.

It’s how it sounds.

Dig into the argument, and they all eventually end up focusing on dangerous progressive causes as tempting Christians, basically, and it feels like they're trying to twist scripture into current MAGA doctrine. JD Vance (a Catholic, not evangelical IIRC) said something related on immigration, that loving your family and those close to you comes before loving distant neighbors, which the Pope very pointedly refuted.

Not a pastor, but this is what a certain used car-company salesman is spouting:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/elon-musk-rogan-interview-empathy-doge/index.html

I posted a comment here with the context

https://sopuli.xyz/comment/15650366