Jeweled Breadcrumb #43 : woe to Christian Pharisees and their narcissist tyrants
Dear Christian Pharisee, woe to you and your contemptuous narcissist tyrants. Your hidden hurts, shame and fear will be exposed.
Did you know there are folks who dare to call themselves Christian and claim empathy is toxic, even a sin? These straying souls insist, if you feel too much with others, you will fail to hold them to account for their sin. Apparently, Jesus did not get that memo.
Was it not Jesus who defended a woman accused of adultery, sending her shamefaced accusers away and telling her to sin no more? (John 8.1–11) And of course there was Jesus’ empathetic concern for hungry folk; feeding multitudes of four then five thousand (Matthew 5.29–39, 14.13–21), and putting the local Pharisees in their place by insisting mercy is more important than following religious customs when Jesus’ disciples pick and eat heads of grain as they are passing through a field on the Sabbath. (Matthew 112.1–8) Even the precious religious purity laws take second place to mercy (empathy) for Jesus who allows a bleeding woman to touch him and be healed (Matthew 9.20–22), who places his hand on a leper, (Matthew 8.1–4) and counsels an expert in religious law on what it means to love your neighbor by telling the famous wisdom tale of a traveler who is beaten and left for dead at the side of the road, is passed by by a priest and political official but cared for by a foreigner. (Luke 10.25–37) Hummm? Empathy is toxic? sin?
And then there is the troublesome bit about Jesus consenting to a brutal execution rather than subordinate himself to the unjust, unmerciful, non-empathetic dictates of imperious political and religious officials. The actual message of the Christian wisdom literature is this. If you follow The Way of Jesus there can be no excess of empathy.
So, to you Christian Pharisees, married to your rules and religious ceremonies I say, you are not Christian. You are co-dependent; unhealthy, lonely, likely possessed by guilt for your own thoughts and behavior. In your inordinate desire to feel worthy or important you ally yourselves with narcissists, those political and religious leaders compelled by an excess self-importance and grandiosity and a tragic absence of empathy. In your demand for certainty you may be certain of one thing; those imperious narcissist leaders of yours are using you for their personal gain.
Dear Christian Pharisee, woe to you and your contemptuous narcissist tyrants. Your hidden hurts, shame and fear will be exposed.
Thank you for reading these words, created by grace and the grit of a real human being. Debra Asis
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The assignment that brings me to the writing of these words is to unapologetically tell the story of how God nudges, cajoles, drop kicks and masters me to be the real human being that I am … becoming … following God’s Jeweled Breadcrumbs. My daily writing challenge for 2025 is to share the Breadcrumbs with you.
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