When a tragedy strikes, it seems natural for those affected to ask for people’s prayers and for those concerned to pray for the victims. This held true with the recent shootings in Colorado Springs and San Bernadino. But this time, multiple pundits and media figures mocked those who were praying. Prayer won’t solve the problem, went the theme, gun control will!
Lutheran journalist Mollie Hemingway has written a piece about this that you need to read all the way through. She cites the various commentators and publications that indulged in this “prayer shaming.” She then showed how they too are praying with unquestioning faith to their omnipotent deity–the federal government! She concludes with an excellent discussion of what Christian prayer is and why it is important. I’ll quote the first few paragraphs after the jump, but then click the link to read the whole thing.
From Mollie Hemingway, The Left Prays After San Bernardino Shooting, To Its God Of Government, The Federalist:
At least 14 people were killed and 17 others injured in San Bernardino, California, by Syed Farook and Tafsheen Malik, a couple who later died in a shootout with police. As with the tragic rampage in Colorado just a few days prior, there’s a frustrating lack of details. Many in the media at first focused, as they tend to do during mass shootings, on their anger with the National Rifle Association, a large gun rights and gun safety organization. Some focused on the fact that the shooting took place about a 25-minute walk from a Planned Parenthood facility. Really.
Progressive and liberal politicians called for gun control. And other politicians prayed for the victims and their families while waiting for more information.
That’s when things got super weird. For some reason, much of the media began mocking the efficacy of prayer.
[Keep reading. . .]
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