Hey there, something came to my attention recently, while looking through different forums, and it's troubling me. This feels very heavy to me, subject-wise, but it also feels important.
I've come across two instances where a Christian was involved in discourse with a non-Christian; and one issue during the course of the conversation was the non-Christian's capacity to love, feel empathy, sympathy, emotion in general. There was clear indication in the context of both conversations that the Christian viewed the non-Christian as somehow less capable or inferior or less complete in their capacity to feel emotion. I don't mean to be throwing out a term that might be provocative, but this view that non-Christians are somehow diminished in their capacity for basic human emotions made me very upset because it looked like de-humanization.
Maybe I'm overreacting, or drawing erroneous conclusions, can anybody tell me? Is anyone familiar with this perspective, and maybe have an idea about it's origin from Biblical passages? I'm finding this a bit scary to contemplate.
I've come across two instances where a Christian was involved in discourse with a non-Christian; and one issue during the course of the conversation was the non-Christian's capacity to love, feel empathy, sympathy, emotion in general. There was clear indication in the context of both conversations that the Christian viewed the non-Christian as somehow less capable or inferior or less complete in their capacity to feel emotion. I don't mean to be throwing out a term that might be provocative, but this view that non-Christians are somehow diminished in their capacity for basic human emotions made me very upset because it looked like de-humanization.
Maybe I'm overreacting, or drawing erroneous conclusions, can anybody tell me? Is anyone familiar with this perspective, and maybe have an idea about it's origin from Biblical passages? I'm finding this a bit scary to contemplate.