Toxic Empathy, Illegal Immigration, and the Courage to Enter the Fray

Why Christians must stop retreating, stop apologizing, and start engaging a confused nation with truth and love

Christians Need to Enter the Moral Fog

We are living in a cultural and moral fog.

Emotionalism has replaced wisdom. Moral seriousness has been displaced by sentiment. Public debate is no longer about what is true or good, but about who feels most aggrieved. And Christians—far too often—have responded by retreating. By softening. By staying quiet. By convincing themselves that silence is humility.

It isn’t.

Silence in a moment like this is abdication.

This article is not about staying “above the fray.” It is a call to enter it rightly. To step into the confusion of our time with clarity, courage, and obedience. To stop outsourcing moral reasoning to cable news or social media. And to stop allowing emotional manipulation to dictate what Christians are permitted to say.

If Christians do not engage the moral fog of this moment, it will not clear on its own.

The Accusation Christians Are Expected to Accept

Few questions are deployed more effectively to silence Christians than this one:

“How can you claim to follow Jesus and support deporting migrants?”

The question is not designed to invite reasoning. It is designed to impose guilt. It assumes without argument that law enforcement is cruelty, that borders are immoral, and that compassion and order cannot coexist.

Many Christians feel the pressure immediately. They hesitate. They back down. They assume that if an argument sounds compassionate, it must be Christian.

That assumption is wrong.

And it has left the Church morally disarmed.

What People Mean by “Toxic Empathy”

Borrowing a term popularized in conservative Christian discourse by commentators such as Allie Beth Stuckey, toxic empathy describes a distortion of a genuine virtue.

Empathy itself is good. Scripture commands compassion. Jesus is repeatedly moved by suffering.

Empathy becomes toxic when it is untethered from truth, wisdom, and consequence—when emotional appeal becomes the highest moral authority and questioning outcomes is treated as cruelty.

Scripture gives us a category for this problem. The apostle Paul writes of his fellow Israelites:

“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2, ESV).

Sincerity is not righteousness. Zeal is not wisdom. And compassion, divorced from truth, does not become more loving—it becomes more dangerous.

Government Is Government--And That Is Not a Moral Failure

One of the most basic confusions in modern Christian discourse is the collapse of roles between the Church and the state.

Scripture is unambiguous: civil authority is real, legitimate, and God-ordained.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God… for he is God’s servant for your good” (Romans 13:1–4, ESV).

And again:

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution… to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13–14, ESV).

The government exists to govern. To enforce law. To maintain order. To restrain wrongdoing.

That does not make it merciful or cruel. It makes it a government.

Expecting the state to function as a church is not compassion. It is category confusion—and it produces chaos.

Agapē: Love That Seeks the True Good

At the heart of this debate is a deeper question: What is love?

Biblical love, agapē, is not defined by emotional softness or immediate relief. It is defined by its aim: the true, long-term good of the other.

Scripture is explicit:

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves… For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:6, 11, ESV).

I discipline my children not because I enjoy restraint, but because I love them. I want their formation, not their indulgence. Scripture speaks plainly:

“Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24, ESV).

Discipline is not opposed to love. Discipline is one of love’s forms.

That moral logic does not disappear when we scale up from families to societies. Love that refuses boundaries is not love. It is negligence.

Loving the Foreigner Does Not Require Abolishing Law

Christians are commanded to love the sojourner, and that is good.

“The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34, ESV).

But that command exists within a legal framework, not apart from it. Scripture also insists:

“There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you” (Exodus 12:49, ESV).

Biblical compassion does not suspend law. It applies it equally.

The idea that borders are inherently unloving is not biblical. It is ideological.

Illegal Immigration Has Real Victims—And They Matter

Toxic empathy focuses exclusively on the most visible suffering and refuses to count downstream effects. Scripture warns against this kind of moral shortsightedness:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12, ESV).

Unchecked immigration enforcement produces real harm: increased crime in some communities, overburdened schools and hospitals, depressed wages, housing strain. These costs are borne disproportionately by the poor and working class.

Ignoring these realities is not mercy. It is moral negligence.

Christians are called to love all their neighbors—not just the ones featured in emotionally compelling narratives.

Legal Immigration and Christian Love Are Not Opposites

Christians are not choosing between compassion and order. That is a false choice imposed by the spirit of the age.

Truth and love belong together:

“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15, ESV).

Secure borders, lawful immigration, and human dignity are not competing values. Order makes generosity sustainable. Law creates the conditions for real mercy.

The Church’s Role: Presence, Not Posturing

Scripture’s primary answer to global suffering has never been border collapse. It has been sacrificial mission:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, ESV).

Christians historically have gone outward. We went to people in need of salvation, but also hope and healing.

Outsourcing compassion to the state while remaining silent locally is not faithfulness. It is abdication.

How Christians Should Engage Right Now

This moment does not require shouting, but it does require courage.

Scripture describes true wisdom this way:

“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason” (James 3:17, ESV).

Christians must stop retreating into the pew and start engaging their neighbors—calmly, rationally, and confidently. Not with slogans. Not with rage. A real presence undergirded by grace and unapologetic about truth.

The fog will not clear if Christians refuse to speak.

Crown + Current Next Steps

Here are some ways you can start making a difference today.

THINK: Recover a biblical understanding of love aimed at true, long-term good—not emotional appeasement.

ACT: Engage locally. Serve real people. Support lawful policies that preserve order and dignity.

GIVE: Fund missions, relief efforts, and legal pathways that actually help without collapsing systems.

SPEAK: Enter the fray. Refuse guilt-based arguments. Explain calmly. Do not apologize for clarity.

Emotionalism is not the hallmark of Christianity. Letting your feelings run you and pitching fits and tantrums does not solve problems. Jesus was full of grace and truth. We need to be kind and compassionate, yes, but not check our brains at the door.