The Empathy Trap - 9/3/26

Bishop Barron says Christian charity offers the antidote to suicidal empathy. The popular bishop reviewed Gad Saad's new book, Suicidal Empathy, Dying to be Kind, and agreed with the author that empathy not governed by reason and virtue could be the end of the Christian West. In his book, evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad argued that the West has twisted a natural and otherwise noble capacity to feel another person's suffering into Irrational altruism. Society is told, for example, to prioritize criminals over victims, illegal aliens over citizens, racial identity over competence, adult sexual expression over childhood innocence, and men identifying as women over biological women.

The endgame, SAD said, is civilizational self-destruction. Bishop Barron agreed, but drew a distinction between empathy and the Christian virtue of charity or love. To love is not to have positive feelings about someone. It's not to empathize with someone. To love is to will the good of the other. A professor who gives a student an honest C grade, for example, may wound the student's pride, but he's telling the truth and urging improvement. It's an act of justice and love. Meanwhile, over at The Loop, Florida has banned flock cameras on state highways.

And did Netflix just make the best case for trad wives? Today is the Feast of St. Gregory the Great. St. Gregory has been given a special place with Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome as one of the four key doctors of the Western Church. I'm Josh Mercer, editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today's Loop. And while you're at it, subscribe to get The Loop in your inbox every morning. Again, that's zeal.co.