Christian Empathy or Cruel Judgement

There are Christians who have been horribly abused. There are women who attempt suicide because of domestic violence and cruel domination or who need weeks of care in a psychiatric clinic.

There are boys and girls who flee their family home because of abuse. Then they are often just as badly abused on the street, or sometimes worse.

I once spoke to a young man who was begging on the street in winter. I asked him where he sleeps. He said he sometimes spends the night with some client.

Many Christians try to help these people, but without God's love and wisdom our attempts are often in vain.

Tormented women are often told by pastors or counsellors that they must simply forgive. Of course we must forgive. Jesus taught that, but just forgive? Simply?

Does that mean she must stay with the husband who rapes and brutally beats her?

Jesus often spoke of forgiveness, but also of justice, compassion and practical help.
Harshly controlling women are often told to stay with their cruel tormentors because of wedding vows, even if the violence is against her small children!

For some abused women, Bible-based religion is like a torture chamber. They do not experience the love of God, but the Spanish Inquisition.

There are women who find prostitution more bearable than the captivity and slavery of a brutal marriage.

Some Christians refer to the strong teaching of Jesus against divorce. Jesus was addressing the brutal oppression of women, because rabbis allowed men to divorce their wives for any reason or no reason.

Jesus also said that the law of God should not be implemented to destroy people.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mk 2:27 NIV

We could also say: Marriage was made for the good of man (and woman)  and not man (and woman) for marriage.

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Mk 2:25–26 NIV

The priest in the Old Testament defied God's law concerning holy bread, so he could help extremely hungry people, and Jesus judged the priest's actions as righteous.

Some Christians are harshly judgemental, as the pharisees were in the Bible, but there are also many Christians who are wonderfully compassionate, as Jesus was in the Gospels.

I know Christian women who visit brothels who share the love of God with genuine kindness. Teen Challenge is an international ministry that restores drug addicts with Christian love.

Many Christians provide practical help to homeless people who are often struggling to survive on the streets due to abuse or mental illness. I thank God for this help. I am personally acquainted with Christian women who used to be homeless.

I am convinced that our attitude towards broken marriages, runaway children, drug abuse and prostitution should not be one of moral condemnation, but of empathy and compassion.