Brave Souls: Experiencing the Audacious Power of Empathy

I am a deeply empathetic person by nature, but not everyone is.
Bauman says one of the key elements our culture is lacking today is empathy. Too often we assume we know exactly how other people are thinking and feeling and we don't listen to what they actually are saying.

Bauman writes, “We are subtly—and sometimes not so subtly—ignoring each other's perspectives, circumstances, and needs. Instead of seeking to understand, we quietly pronounce judgment, stoking a simmering anger. Or we smile civilly, nodding our head, feeding the isolation among us. What are we missing? Maybe we're missing each other. The world has settled for competition instead of compassion, civility instead of love, transaction instead of community.”

I wish all those folks at TGC would read her book, but I doubt they would be open to what she is saying here. (They keep putting out bad theology about empathy being a sin, which it most certainly is not.)