Compare + contrast:
pic.twitter.com/vWXoIHd1Uy
— George Zornick (@gzornick) December 2, 2015
Posted on 05/25/2022 9:10:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
News is still coming in, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott says at least 14 children and a teacher were killed by a mass shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. This comes on the heels of the Buffalo, New York mass shooting by a white supremacist that claimed ten lives.
There is little left to say when it comes to mass shootings in America. Politicians, pundits and pastors have scarcely finished trotting out their last round of condolences and talking points then they have to return to their respective pulpits, expected to have fresh insights.
It’s difficult because, increasingly, our collective grief is not just for the victims, but for our country at large. Why? Why are so many people being shot in the United States of America? Can it be stopped? What can anyone do in the face of such senseless, reckless violence?
Perhaps it’s because of this that people turn to the phrase “thoughts and prayers.” Whatever else gunmen are able to do, they cannot take away our ability to think and pray. It’s comforting for us to be able to offer some little piece of ourselves. Whether or not it’s actually comforting for those immediately affected by the shootings is a question only they can answer.
But in the light of the most recent shooting (as of this writing, anyway), a growing wave of frustration regarding “thoughts and prayers” reached a new fever pitch, so much so that Emma Green at The Atlantic coined a new term: “prayer shaming.”
“GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS” The New York Post declared this morning, evidently confident in some anonymous source close to the Almighty. A widely circulated batch of tweets from Think Progress contributing editor Igor Volsky compared and contrasted politicians’ tweets about “thoughts and prayers” to the donations they received from the National Rifle Association. #ThoughtsAndPrayers started trending on Twitter, with most of the contributions being some variation on the following:
Perhaps The Nation editor George Zornick captured the mood best with this picture:
Compare + contrast:
pic.twitter.com/vWXoIHd1Uy— George Zornick (@gzornick) December 2, 2015
It’s an interesting contrast, no doubt, and Zornick says a lot by saying very little. In this worldview, there are two options: pray or act. Some people are content to sit around, heads bowed and hands folded, all but inviting another mass killing tomorrow. Others understand that the time for prayer has ended and now is the time to act. That’s a very stark binary.
It’s easy for Christians to take such sentiments personally.
Many of them seem intended to be taken so. But Christians should also be able to understand where this apparent frustration is coming from. Mass shootings continue to happen in America. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. leads the world in mass shootings by a supremely depressing margin (65 percent higher per capita than the Philippines, our closest competitor, as of 2015.)
In the face of all that, the repeated refrain for thoughts and prayers seems empty. We’ve been thinking and praying since Columbine, and the problem seems worse now than it did when we started.
So the question then, is this: Is it prayer that is ineffectual, or the pray-ers?
For its part, the writers of the Bible are convinced that “The earnest prayer of the righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:16). Notice James’ qualifications here. Though this verse is often pared down to a slogan as simple as “prayer works!”, James is making a nuanced point. When the prayer is earnest and the pray-er is righteous, you can expect big things.
So what does that mean for us? We, who don’t always feel very righteous? And for the prayers we offer on Twitter, where so little is actually earnest?
For that, we turn to Jesus, who paints a vivid picture in Matthew 6.
“‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
Are people like former President Barack Obama, Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Jeb Bush and all the rest that have offered prayers thinking that “they will be heard because of their many words”? Do they shut the door and pray in secret along with their rhetoric? Let’s hope so. It’s impossible to know. All we can do is look to our own motives.
“I used to believe that prayer changes things. But now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.” Mother Teresa said that, and history has no record of anyone ever telling Mother Teresa they were sick and tired of her prayers.
Perhaps that’s because Mother Teresa understood the words of Jesus and James—that prayer is not a substitute for action, or even preparation for action. It’s something much more fluid and powerful. It is the holding of ourselves and others nearer to God, that the shalom of God might be made manifest in our lives. It’s not passive. On the contrary, God is in the business of creation, and those who love Him are joining Him every day in the work of redeeming all things. It’s a very active thing.
Perhaps it’s best to say that prayer and action are at their best when they are in harmony, and if we are serious when we say “our prayers are with you,” then our prayers must be in intimate relationship with redemptive work. Comfort for the afflicted. Justice for the innocent. Change for the future.
So maybe the question isn’t “do thoughts and prayers do any good?” but “What kind of good do we intend to do with our thoughts and prayers?” Because whatever value there might be in telling God how sorry we are about our broken world, there can be little doubt that there’s more value in asking Him to give His people a desire to heal it.
Editor’s note: A version of this piece first ran in 2015.
No. Agressively enforce the laws on the books.
No
And we are just kidding ourselves if we think something is going to get done. WE are all complicit in this. WE who elect representatives beholden to the Gun Lobby and the NRA. WE who do nothing to hold our “leaders” to account. Columbine was 30+ years ago. A CAREER in Congress. What have they done? Nothing...
Until we march in the streets like people did for black lives matter - until we protest in such large numbers that the Mall is full of people from Lincoln to the Capitol why should they do anything? It will simply fade away again as it always does.
Call your Senators. Call your Congressman. Tell them to walk onto the floor with a common sense bill that amends the 2nd amendment. I’ve never seen a single representative do that. Not one. Because they know that’ll be the day their career is over. They are guilty. We are guilty. The media are guilty. It goes round and round.
What is the solution?
I beg to differ. Repentance is needed on our part. God will not violate our free will.
Anyone who doesn’t appreciate the “thoughts and prayer” sentiments should immediately pack up and go to North Korea or China where they would find more people to their liking. Especially North Korea.
"Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword." Rev 6
Not when they have been reduced to the level of a knee-jerk cliché by the politicians of both parties.
Remember the dead prayers for the living.
Because the demon driven feel inspired when liberals are in office maybe.
The Devil uses every tragedy to try and undermine The Lord’s people.
So, of the 40,000 or so gun laws currently on the books, none of them are “common sense”?
Guns aren’t the problem angry violent kids with free u fettered access to gun Free zones where other innocent kids are def3nseless agaisn them is the problem.
If I wanted to go thru the NY Post, I bet I could find an article of someone who escaped with their life in some situation calling it a miracle or some miracle healing...but that was LAST week...We are all ungrateful.
https://nypost.com/2022/05/20/pilot-kenneth-allen-has-miracle-recovery-after-passing-out-forcing-passenger-to-land/
Took me two minutes
To keep things like this from happening you need somebody to be the bad guy. Like sheepdogs. They keep the wolf at bay. Rudy did it in NY.
Capital punishment. Draw the line at that?
I agree with your proposal. Unfortunately, courage is a very rare virtue these days.
[[Tell them to walk onto the floor with a common sense bill that amends the 2nd amendment.]]
And just for the record- what constitution violating amendments would you suggest? What further gun restricting laws would you propose? What specific gun laws woudl have stopped any of the mass shooters in your opinion?
There is nothing that prayer can't change. Well actually prayer itself changes nothing. But God can change anything. Scripture says something to the effect of "You ask and have not because you seek to spend it on your own lusts."
Nobody controls God. He is sovereign. Nobody can tell Him what to do. But God hears the prayers, and He acts according to His will. Sometimes he modifies his will in response to prayers.
sorry- just one more quick point- not only are there around 20,000 actual gun laws on the books (I see that i typed 40 before- that was a mistake- should have been 20,000), but there are an astonishing 300,000 statutes regulating guns on the books already-
“What Is the Total Number of State and Federal Laws? There are already more than 300 thousand statutes in the United States that are only devoted to the regulation of weapons.”
https://www.bartleylawoffice.com/interesting/how-many-gun-laws-are-in-the-us.html
We don’t need more “Common sense laws and statutes”- We have mountains of “common sense gun laws” that have been enacted already— What we We need is just some common sense- period- Gun free zones like schools is not common sense- Teachers should be armed- and schools should have several armed guards as well- as well as methods to prevent anyone who is armed who doesn’t belong there from getting in
Short of a total repeal of the 2nd amendment a complete ban and nationwide confiscation which is fantasy in the foreseeable future. Gun control isn’t going to accomplish much so the ‘DO SOMETHING’ people are just as useless they accuse the ‘thoughts and prayers’ crowd of being. Worse actually since the laws will only affect lawabiding people.
Indeed. Pontificating about the usefulness of “thoughts and prayers” is just an indicator of leftist dogma THAT DOESN’T BELIEVE IN ANY GOD AT ALL.
We should not force misfits to attend school after their 16 th birthday.
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