Revisiting "Thoughts and Prayers": A Christian's Perspective on Officials responsibility to Gun Reform

Huffington Post

This post was originally published on November 6th, 2017. 

And it upsets me that it is still relevant and still valid especially given the unnecessary violence that happened yesterday. On Valentine's Day, 2018, a teenage former student walks into his old high school, pulls the fire alarm, and proceeds to murder, at this time, 17 people in a town proclaimed as Florida's safest town. 

To me, this is a blatant act of terrorism, but because the boy is white, it will be deemed as a mental health issue (which, indeed it could be but terrorism is also a mental health issue) and a bevy of elected officials will share their thoughts and prayers to the families of the lost while lining their pockets with funds from the Gun Lobby.

This must stop. At this point, the US has experienced 18 school shootings, and it is only February. 

Here is my perspective as a Christian and a Citizen on Thoughts and Prayers and why these both must lead to tangible action. It breaks my heart that this mess is still relevant.

Thanks for reading. 

Another heartbreaking mass shooting, another blanket outpouring from government officials of "thoughts and prayers."

Let me just say that I am not attacking the phrase. Thoughts and prayers should be offered. Thinking of someone who is going through something painful is a good starting place.

Prayers are powerful. I have watched my own life be transformed through the power of prayer. I have watched God answer my own prayers daily. James 1:5 ESV says "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."As people of faith, we should be so engrossed in prayer, that our daily lives and actions are melded and molded and shaped by God.

So, no, I am not targeting the saying.

What I am targeting are those who toss this saying around weakly following tragic events as if it is an answer when it has become more like a bandaid on a bullet wound.

It has become lazy, callous, and ineffective reaction.

When a pastor watches as his own church is assaulted by some man unload clip after clip into the bodies of people who just came to worship, including the pastor's own 14 year old daughter in the 307th mass murder of 2017, hearing from my elected officials about their "thoughts and prayers" with NO action in remedying the situation is beyond infuriating.

Or as this Twitter user says, pretty hollow:

thoughts and prayers for people who were mowed down in a church sounds especially hollow.

— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) November 5, 2017

Or worse:

A few hours ago, more than 20 people were murdered by another mass shooter, in a church. And we can't even pretend this will change anything

— roxane gay (@rgay) November 5, 2017

At this point, "thoughts and prayers" just means "shut up and take it" 

— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) November 5, 2017

The majority of these gun owners, the NRA, and the political officials who defend them often claim to be Christian. (The irony is these same people who defend their rights to own weapons that would only ever be appropriate for some battlefield are the same people who weaponize women's choices under the banner of pro-life, but that is another issue for another post.)

So, since these groups keep sending out their thoughts and prayers, hiding behind Christian rhetoric, here's what our faith actually professes:

1 John 3:18 ESV says "...let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." Meaning, you cannot just say something, but you must meet your words with some sort of action. James 1:22 ESV takes it further, saying "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." because James 4:17 ESV says "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." Meaning we as believers should not fool ourselves thinking only our words are good enough. We know the right thing to do, not just the right thing to say. And by ignoring the right thing to do, for what ever reason, THAT is sin.

Jesus himself says in Matthew 7:20 ESV "Thus you will recognize them by their fruits." Meaning that Christians will be recognized by what they produce. Saying you are a Christian and doing nothing to back it up is like saying you are car and siting in a garage.

What these officials who stand by as hundreds of people are slaughtered annually when they have the power, influence, platform and duty to do something, Paul has harsher words for in his letter to Titus 1:16 ESV saying "They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."

Christianity is a faith of action. Jesus says in Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." We are to be peace makers, not peace keepers. We are to into places where there is no peace and create peace there, not maintain the status quo for the sake of a party or lobby.

Authentic thoughts and sincere prayers, while they are a great start and are kind, thoughtful, and yes, very powerful, are only a starting place. Every time someone offers "thoughts and prayers" as a blanket response to the terrors faced by survivors of these horrifying, terroristic events without some intention to back thoughts and prayers with some type of action, it is a completely empty reaction devoid of any real human heart. It has become equivalent to not responding at all.

It is time those thoughts and prayers actually led us to some action.