The "thoughts & prayers" gimmick

Those who always oppose doing anything about our uniquely-American gun violence have their talking points. “It’s too early,” they say, “to be talking about guns. What we should be doing now is sending our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.

I hesitate to bring God’s name up when many Americans are debating the causes of inordinate violence in our country and whether lawmakers can play a role in curtailing it. But, God has assured us of God’s presence and comfort when we suffer. America is suffering once again and God is present in the bloody aftermath. But, where? In our “thoughts and prayers”?

I don’t think any of us would want God’s job these days. The toughest task God has is sorting through the prayers. Many of us are experiencing what the Apostle Paul described. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

The prayers God likely finds more than a little flummoxing are those Congressmen who inevitably locate a camera they can stand in front of and send their “thoughts and prayers.”

What does it mean, God must be wondering, to have people elected to do something send “thoughts and Prayers” instead of acting? Many of us are wondering the same. We didn’t elect Senators and Representatives to send “thoughts and prayers” and to engage in meaningless platitudes when they ought to be doing their jobs.

They use that “thoughts and prayers” gimmick at only select times.

It isn’t like they send “thoughts and prayers” to people they plan to harm by “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act. No “thoughts and prayers” go out to those who suffer under budget cuts to food stamps, affordable housing, education, or healthcare.

The “thoughts and prayers” of politicians are curiously reserved for victims of gun violence because that’s all they are ever gonna get from Congress.

Yes, God hears our prayers. God also gave us responsibility to act and called on us to relieve the suffering of others. So, prayer is more than the words we say as we bow our heads before a meal or when we get down on our knees before getting into bed. There comes a time to get off our knees and do something.

John Wesley said, “Prayer is where the action is.” Jesus’s brother James wrote that faith not accompanied by action is dead. When elected officials offer prayers when they know in their heart they are busily plotting to do nothing to alleviate the suffering, they are taking the Lord’s name in vain.

I imagine God now busily weighing them all and knowing that there will eventually have to be a divine decision about whether to answer the prayers of the National Rifle Association or those prayers issued from people who are praying that Las Vegas will finally cause politicians to enact gun laws.

God will likely leave the choice to us. Why not, we have free will and in this country, we still have the vote. The problem is that we also have the National Rifle Association, whom politicians worship like the idols of Baal.

Mike Enzi and John Barrasso could not bring themselves to deny the prayers of the NRA even when the supplication of a majority of the voters was to prevent those on the terrorism “no-fly” list and mentally ill people to buy guns. Now they say they won’t even do the absolute minimum by voting to ban the bump stops that allowed the Las Vegas shooter to kill so many so quickly.

The prophet Isaiah saw this coming. He said, “You worship your idols with great passion. You sacrifice your children down in the valleys among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.”

But Wyoming’s representatives in Congress have decided between God and Mammon, between alleviating the suffering and ignoring it. I suppose that if all they have to offer are “thoughts and prayers,” it’s better than nothing but not by much.