Davey Henreckson has a great post on why Christians should avoid pity:
The liberal must “save” the poor from poverty. The conservative must keep the poor from indolence. Both pity the poor as something less desirable. Neither attempts to challenge the basic idea that the poor are ultimately disprivileged.
[...] True Christian charity, therefore, is something more than our common definition of pity. White guilt is pity. Condescension is pity. Even inaction might be pity, for some conservatives. And what pity obscures is the paradoxical realization that the poor are, by certain biblical definition, worthy of higher honor. They own something we do not. And the means by which we might participate in that honor with them is charity.
I would have used the word “disenfranchised” instead of “disprivileged”, but ultimately, Henreckson is arguing that empathy — specific Christian empathy — should replace pity. I agree.
