{"id":1451,"date":"2015-12-04T12:41:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T16:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/secularspectrum\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2015-12-04T12:41:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T16:41:24","slug":"why-prayer-shaming-is-a-red-herring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/secularspectrum\/2015\/12\/why-prayer-shaming-is-a-red-herring\/","title":{"rendered":"Why “Prayer Shaming” Is a Red Herring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"This<\/p>\n

The past 24 hours of the news cycle have been, if nothing else, an interesting exercise in\u00a0encountering the unexpected. I would have never believed that a major newspaper would publish a cover like this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

That is a bold headline, one that I never would have anticipated seeing (although I don\u2019t know the New York Daily News<\/em> well enough to know if this is typical of their style).<\/p>\n

That was surprising enough. Then outrage over \u201cprayer shaming\u201d happened.<\/p>\n

My Patheos colleagues Andrew Seidel<\/a>,<\/strong> Deanna Boudov<\/a><\/strong>, and Matthew Facciani<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0have already dealt well with the subject, but I want to take a look at\u00a0one\u00a0particular piece castigating this \u201cshaming\u201d and step back for a second and reflect on how absurd it is that we\u2019re even having this discussion.<\/p>\n

What We\u2019ve Lost Is\u00a0the Plot<\/h2>\n

The piece that interested me the most out of this whole mess was a Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0entitled \u201cWhat we lose when we prayer shame politicians after a mass shooting\u201d written by Russell Moore<\/strong> of the Southern Baptist Convention. Moore sometimes surprises me, and he almost always intrigues me even when he toes the party line. He doesn\u2019t quite do that here \u2013 or perhaps it\u2019s more that the line here is a bit blurry \u2013 but his response is somewhat predictable.<\/p>\n

In the first paragraph, Moore says something that I find incredibly remarkable about the NY Daily News<\/em> cover headline:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hard-pressed to think of a more cynical and exploitative headline at a time of national mourning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAt a time of national mourning.\u201d When are we not in \u201ca time of national mourning\u201d? Indeed, that seems to be the point: The reason that all of this has culminated as it has is because\u00a0people are fed up of the same thing happening and nothing being done about it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t even think that Moore gets the broad sentiment of\u00a0this backlash against mere prayer as the answer.\u00a0In essence, he claims that these denunciations of prayer when action should be taken is basically just a way of expressing a sentiment about gun control, and\u00a0that\u2019s at best only partially right. Most of those speaking out do favor some gun control measure \u2013\u00a0because that would be doing\u00a0something<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not one of those people who think that prayer \u201cdoes nothing\u201d \u2014 or rather, I think it does do<\/em> something, depending on your definition. Does it solve problems? Absolutely not. Does it make some people feel better? Does it, as Moore suggests, signal solidarity with the grieving? I\u2019m sure that for some people, it does. To elevate these aspects of prayer, however, is to again miss the point: What we don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0need right now is mere solidarity, solitary platitudes that make the speaker feel better while accomplishing nothing substantive.<\/p>\n

Before I get to my real gripe with Moore\u2019s piece and with essentially all of the \u201cprayer shaming\u201d pieces, one final galling thing from Moore:<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, the \u201cDon\u2019t Just Pray There, Do Something\u201d meme will actually keep things from happening. After all, some of our biggest obstacles to policy solutions of any kind is an ideologically fractured populace where virtually every issue is a test of political purity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hardly even know what to say to this.\u00a0I\u2019m not sure that it\u2019s substantively different from\u00a0the standard refrain of \u201cStop politicizing tragedies,\u201d but it goes even further: It attempts to blame people who are standing up and saying, \u201cTo hell with this, enough is enough,\u201d<\/b>\u00a0for the\u00a0polarization that makes compromise difficult in places like Congress.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear, Dr. Moore: This is not about ideological purity. This is about holding our leaders accountable.\u00a0That doesn\u2019t make speaking out a \u201cnew secularized form of praying.\u201d The leaders we are addressing are real and they hold real power. They\u00a0can<\/em> act here. Without making their voices heard on Capitol Hill \u2013 and yes, even Twitter can reach there \u2013 no one will be able to force Congress to\u00a0even begin to have the conversation, let alone to see it through to real policy change. They will do what they\u2019ve done every single other time this has happened: They\u2019ll change the subject to mental illness or radicalized Islam or whatever excuse they can find for the latest tragedy\u00a0du jour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Speaking of changing the subject\u2026<\/p>\n

Stop Making Every Issue About You and Your Faith<\/h2>\n

Remember what I just said a few seconds ago about how\u00a0when we try to address a serious issue, someone always changes the subject? Yeah, that happened here.<\/p>\n

Consider what Moore says early on in his op-ed:<\/p>\n

On the one hand, I tried to give the benefit of the doubt to the prayer cynics. After all, politicians posting to pray is hardly the same thing as prayer meetings.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been exasperated by the way politicians have used prayer, too. Some campaign \u201cbenedictions\u201d are basically campaign commercials containing everything but \u201cI\u2019m John Smith, and I approved this message\u201d at the end.<\/p>\n

But those of us who watched others mock politicians who called for prayer also felt as though prayer was an unnecessary target along the way.<\/strong> For most people who are religious, prayer is more than just another way of saying \u201cMessage: I care.\u201d (emphasis mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you see that? Moore\u00a0appears to\u00a0agree<\/em>\u00a0with the general point: The \u201cprayers\u201d of people like Paul Ryan and\u00a0Ted Cruz \u2014 you know, the ones who made the cover of the\u00a0NY Daily Times<\/em>? \u2014 are more or less ways of\u00a0displaying\u00a0their piety (or, as some commentators have\u00a0accused the \u201cprayer shamers\u201d of doing, virtue signalling<\/b>).<\/p>\n

But then the focus shifts: \u201cWhat about prayer<\/em>? Prayer is this thing we love; how can you just bash it as ineffectual like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

They made this issue not about policy, not about our politicians, not about\u00a0the pull of special interests, but\u00a0about them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Centering\u00a0themselves\u00a0is more satisfying. No need to talk about the hard issues when you can instead talk about your hard feelings.<\/p>\n

You know why prayer is such a ripe target in this climate? Because like our public policies around issues like guns, prayer is\u00a0the quintessence of saying something that makes you feel good but ultimately has no real impact. When it comes to gun violence, too many of our politicians are saying, \u201cLet\u2019s just pray and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying things like \u201cPrayer doesn\u2019t work\u201d and \u201cGod isn\u2019t fixing this\u201d does one thing in particular: It clearly and unequivocally declares that\u00a0we want action that doesn\u2019t rely on wishful thinking and lofty platitudes in lieu\u00a0of actual evidence.<\/p>\n

So what do you say, religious conservatives? Are you willing to let this issue not be about you for once? Can you relinquish this issue and recognize that, even if prayer serves a real and useful function for you, it isn\u2019t a\u00a0replacement for real, evidence-based\u00a0problem solving at our highest levels of governance?<\/p>\n

Because if not, I\u2019m not sure that we have a prayer after all.<\/p>\n

Image Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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