{"id":8559,"date":"2009-06-03T17:21:46","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T22:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=8559"},"modified":"2009-06-03T17:21:46","modified_gmt":"2009-06-03T22:21:46","slug":"whenever-did-empathy-become-a-bad-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/whenever-did-empathy-become-a-bad-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Whenever did empathy become a bad thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sotomayor nomination has put the strangest ideas into circulation. The latest rallying cry is that — brace yourself — she is a judge who might<\/a> have empathy<\/a>. Oh, no! This is apparently a very bad<\/a> thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which raises the question: How would Jesus judge? <\/p>\n

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

-Matthew 7:12<\/p>\n

He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

-James 2:13<\/p>\n

But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

-Psalm 86:15<\/p>\n

14 Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

-Alma 41:14<\/p>\n

I think it’s a pretty good bet that Jesus would judge with empathy. What do you think?<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

President Obama said, in the statement that helped launch the discussion, <\/p>\n

I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, at least one politician is looking for someone who might judge like Jesus would. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, let us appoint judges, to judge this people according to our law; and we will newly arrange the affairs of this people, for we will appoint wise men [ed: or wise Latina women?] to be judges, that will judge this people according to the commandments of God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

-Mosiah 29:11<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Now, I realize that judges have an important job, and that deciding who is best qualified for the job involves some balancing of values. A candidate may be very strong in one area but not strong in another; I don’t mean to suggest that empathy is a trump card. Obviously there are other important considerations.<\/p>\n

But let’s not lose track of the basics. Empathy is a very good thing<\/em>. Full stop. <\/p>\n

Ceteris paribis, a judge with empathy is always better than one without. And a person with empathy is better than one without. Empathy is a great, wonderful, strongly positive, Christlike value, and we could all stand to have more of it. Even judges.<\/p>\n

Let us speak up, loudly, against the profoundly unChristian idea that empathy is somehow a bad thing. <\/p>\n

And shame on you, Orrin Hatch, for your own remarks disparaging the idea of empathy in a judge.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sotomayor nomination has put the strangest ideas into circulation. The latest rallying cry is that — brace yourself — she is a judge who might have empathy. Oh, no! This is apparently a very bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-8559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics","tag-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8570,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559\/revisions\/8570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}