{"id":2649398,"date":"2026-08-25T15:08:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpastor-the-sin-of-empathy-plagues-lindsay-clancys-fangirls\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T16:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:33:25","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpastor-the-sin-of-empathy-plagues-lindsay-clancys-fangirls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpastor-the-sin-of-empathy-plagues-lindsay-clancys-fangirls\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor: The &#8216;Sin Of Empathy&#8217; Plagues Lindsay Clancy&#8217;s Fangirls"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpastor-the-sin-of-empathy-plagues-lindsay-clancys-fangirls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2649398&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three young children. Despite her actions,she has garnered a supportive &#8220;fan club&#8221; and supporters who believe she is a victim suffering from postpartum psychosis. Hundreds rallied in her support, emphasizing her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/naomi-osaka-representing-japan-knocked-from-olympics-in-stunning-upset\/\" title=\"Naomi Osaka, Representing Japan, Knocked From Olympics In Stunning Upset\u00a0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/months-after-closing-beaches-newsom-smugly-suggests-people-hit-the-sand-for-their-mental-health\/\" title=\"Months After Closing Beaches, Newsom Smugly Suggests People Hit the Sand for Their Mental Health\">mental health<\/a> struggles<\/a> and framing her as overburdened and in need of help, with fundraising efforts raising over a million dollars for her parents. critics, however, point out that this misplaced empathy and emotional allegiance overlook the victims-the children-and foster a troubling cult of personality around Clancy. Expert commentary highlights how empathy, when disconnected from truth and justice, can lead to dangerous rationalizations of evil acts, a phenomenon termed &#8220;devouring empathy.&#8221; The article also explores how political and social tribalism, especially among certain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-waives-ethics-rules-for-former-lobbyists\/\" title=\"Biden Administration Waives Ethics Rules For Former Lobbyists\">left-leaning groups<\/a>, may fuel this distorted compassion, ultimately threatening societal standards of justice and moral clarity. As the trial concludes, legal arguments focus on whether Clancy&#8217;s mental health at the time negates liability, with warnings about the dangers of allowing claimed mental illness to justify heinous acts without accountability.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Massachusetts woman who used exercise bands to strangle the life out of her three young children has a fan club of sorts. <\/p>\n<p>Thousands of Lindsay Clancy supporters believe the 36-year-old killer is herself a victim. <\/p>\n<p>Hundreds turned out for a rally Thursday at Plymouth Superior Courthouse \u2014 most of them women and many in pink shirts \u2014 carrying signs with fangirl slogans such as \u201cBelieve,\u201d \u201cShe Needed Help\u201d and \u201cPeace For Lindsay,\u201d the Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/courthousenews.com\/women-in-pink-rally-in-support-of-lindsay-clancy-who-is-on-trial-for-killing-3-children\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>They have leaned into claims that the \u201coverburdened\u201d mother was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she committed the heinous crimes. She also slit her wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-story window in a suicide attempt that left her paralyzed from the waist down, according to court documents. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 [Clancy] not receiving the help she needed while going through PPP just reflects how hard it is as a woman to receive proper healthcare. her having suicidal thoughts wasn\u2019t enough to get the help she needed. she KNEW she was in a crazy state of mind but got no support whatsoever,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/AskWomenOver30\/comments\/1vpysmp\/how_do_you_feel_about_the_lindsay_clancy_case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote <\/a>a commenter on Reddit earlier this month as Clancy\u2019s trial became the talk of the nation. <\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Meanwhile, a Wisconsin \u201cinfluencer\u201d has set up a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-for-lindsay-clancys-parents?cp_src=d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> GoFundMe account <\/a>for Mike and Paula Musgrove, Clancy\u2019s parents, who, according to the page\u2019s creator, \u201chave spent years traveling back and forth, staying in hotels, attending court proceedings and ultimately relocating from Connecticut to Massachusetts so they could remain close to Lindsay.\u201d The page includes an illustration of Clancy (apparently) in a wheelchair, her head buried in her hands, elbows resting on her knees. She is encircled by a host of women holding hands. <\/p>\n<p>The account had raised $1,045,000 as of late Monday evening. <\/p>\n<p>What can explain this cult of personality that in some very disturbing quarters has turned a twisted mother who systematically slaughtered her children into some kind of hero \u2014 or at least a symbol of a deranged feminist movement? Untethered empathy. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how <a href=\"https:\/\/nsa.edu\/contributors\/joe-rigney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Joe Rigney,<\/a> pastor and fellow of theology at Moscow, Idaho-based New Saint Andrews College, describes it. Rigney is also the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sin-Empathy-Compassion-Its-Counterfeits\/dp\/B0DV3L5KR3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Leadership and The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits<\/em> <\/a><em>\u2014 A Christian Guide to Discernment, Emotional Manipulation, Boundaries and False Compassion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s when our compassion and our care for those who are hurting overrides consideration of what\u2019s true, what\u2019s good, what\u2019s right and instead, with our emotions and our passions in the driver\u2019s seat, steer us off the cliff,\u201d Rigney told me Monday on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/426-the-vicki-mckenna-show-27246267\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Vicki McKenna Show<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Fixated on Her\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Closing arguments are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/crime\/lindsay-clancy-trial-rebuttal-witnesses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slated to begin <\/a>this week in the emotionally charged murder trial. Prosecutors say Clancy premeditatedly murdered her children \u2014 Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months \u2014 at their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in December 2023. Clancy\u2019s defense team argues that she committed the acts of filicide while in the throes of postpartum psychosis \u2014 a rare mental health crisis that causes a woman to lose touch with reality following childbirth. <\/p>\n<p>She faces a mandatory life sentence. She will be spared her children\u2019s fate, at least for now. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty. Her only hope is to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. If she is, Clancy will be committed to a state psychiatric facility where she will undergo routine mental health reviews. <\/p>\n<p>The judge in the case this week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/crime-courts\/live-blog\/lindsay-clancy-trial-rcna594029\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denied a motion <\/a>for a mistrial brought by the defense. <\/p>\n<p>While her fan club paints Clancy as a victim, they void the names of the little ones she murdered. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t see any of them standing out there with a button with the three children\u2019s faces on them. When you listen to interviews with all of the women who are standing out, they almost never mention the three child victims,\u201d Bethany Mandel, a conservative columnist and mother of six, said in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/lindsay-clancy-three-child-victims-forgotten-amid-crowds-support-mother-six\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview <\/a>with Fox News Digital. <\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>That\u2019s what is most striking to Rigney. He sees the \u201chighly emotional allegiance\u201d to Clancy as a kind of \u201ctribal identity,\u201d \u201cbirthed out of empathy for, in this case, the one who murdered her children rather than for her children\u201d themselves.<\/p>\n<p>As he writes in his book, empathy is a very good and natural human emotion that can turn dangerous when disconnected from reality. Sharing compassion for people, walking a mile in their shoes so to speak, is central to Christianity. But when empathy turns into excusing evil acts, it becomes evil. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this is a perfect illustration of that phenomenon, as many women, it seems, feel intense empathy for Lindsay Clancy.\u00a0 As she sits in her wheelchair and on trial, they essentially end up kind of projecting themselves into her situation, I think in many cases, imagining what they would feel if they had done something horrific. And therefore their compassion wells up because all of their empathy is fixated on her,\u201d Rigney said. <\/p>\n<p>He calls it a kind of empathetic myopia, a tunnel vision, to the point where the feelers forget the actual victims of a heinous crime. <\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Devouring Empathy\u2019 <\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s a politics, too, wrapped up in this intense empathy. If <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@ajay.rathore_49409\/empathy-tribalism-f6afa2c717e2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">empathy fuels tribalism<\/a> (and it does), the tribe surrounding Clancy has a leftist bent seething over feminist catch phrases like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bodyslammer\/posts\/the-lindsay-clancy-case-has-shown-us-that-toxic-femininity-is-a-bigger-problem-t\/27853958264230680\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201ctoxic masculinity\u201d.<\/a> As Olivia Murray <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanthinker.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/the-lindsey-clancy-trial-reveals-how-truly-disturbed-american-leftist-females-have-become\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">opined<\/a> this week in American Thinker, the Clancy trial \u201creveals how truly disturbed\u201d American leftist women have become. <\/p>\n<p>Rigney says the rallying around Clancy is the natural outcrop of an \u201cOlympics of victimhood,\u201d a never-ending contest to crown the greatest victim in society. Sinful empathy also is the child of a perverse death culture that dismisses the unborn as a \u201cclump of cells.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rigney likes to say, the problem with the Middle East is that there is too much empathy. The players in the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >war-torn region feel endless compassion<\/a> for their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/in-group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cin-group,\u201d<\/a> so much so that they can justify and rationalize great cruelty to others, the pastor said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think what you\u2019re seeing [in the Clancy case] is a certain kind of female tribal identity,\u201d he said, adding that the tribe has lost touch with what is \u201ctrue and good\u201d under the weight of a \u201cdevouring empathy.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>As the Clancy trial moves to a verdict, Rigney said the law, what is required of justice, cannot be denied. If it is, society will move into a more dangerous place. If the claimed postpartum psychosis becomes a justification, \u201cthen the incentive structure you\u2019re setting up is very, very dark and very, very ugly.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll a woman has to do is claimthat  \u2018I was out of my mind,\u2019 and the greatest evils can be rationalized and justified in the name of compassion.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><em>Joe Rigney is our guest on the latest episode of The Federalist Radio Hour. <\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supporters rally for Lindsay Clancy, claiming she&#8217;s a victim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2649399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-08-25T135609.214.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[8262,5250,9484],"class_list":["post-2649398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-empathy","tag-faith","tag-morality"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-08-25T135609.214.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2649398"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649447,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649398\/revisions\/2649447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2649399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2649398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2649398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2649398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}