We need thoughts and prayers that help to offer a new way of seeing-not based on fear, but based on possibility. Whatever the conclusion we come to, this reifies the current state of things. Others will see it through a lens of fear, believing this strips the “good people” from killing the “bad people” in the event of a mass shooting. Most will dismiss this as a strategy to take away oneʼs right to bear arms. Whether this is the solution or not misses the point. This is a time for witness and then pushing govʼt to legislate a preservatory act of justice. He writes:īefore ‘gunsʼ and the 17 dead (and more wounded) at Parkland get tossed into the ideology machine, let Christians/every church commit to rid ourselves of our guns (take our guns- even if itʼs only a certain kind – to the authorities and turn them over), and then letʼs commit to refuse to vote for any person running for office who refuses to limit guns via legislation. Related to this point, David Fitch on his Facebook page offers (what most might see as provocative and unrealistic) a way forward that requires a new way of seeing. We have taken a phrase that ought to be a catalyst for a new social imagination and have domesticated it to the sanctioning of the status quo. But we go about our day without truly considering that prayer is a means to a new way of seeing reality. Certainly, in the moment, we are moved to tears, anger and, despair. This has become the nature of things with thoughts and prayers. The textbook definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, and expecting different results. Thoughts and prayers are often the sanitized ways to ingrain us in insanityĪs Richard Foster has said, “To pray is to change.” To change our minds requires us to entertain the possibility that the way things have been done requires rethinking and reimagining. Here are three ways I think our thoughts and prayers have worked against us.Īs a pastor who spends many hours each week offering 'thoughts and prayers,' I canʼt help but see the triteness of this phrase in the face of ongoing massacres. Itʼs possible that our thoughts and prayers are filled with unimaginative thoughts and disembodied prayers. The problem with the thoughts and prayers we offer are manifold. As a culture, thoughts and prayers have become code for a sentimentalism that is sympathetic to tragedy, but apathetic to any kind of transformation. Others lead to a sentimentalized apathy.Īs a pastor who spends many hours each week offering thoughts and prayers, I canʼt help but see the triteness of this phrase in the face of ongoing massacres. As we are offering thoughts and prayers, itʼs important to note that all “thoughts and prayers” are not created equal. The Parkland massacre, once again, has brought us to our knees in anger and grief. Parkland and the Continued Problem with Thoughts and PrayersĪnother mass shooting. May Christ have mercy as we act on the transformation we seek. Thought you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims” (Isaiah 1:15, NLT). “When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. We realize, once more, that ‘thoughts and prayers’ have never been enough for our land. We grieve the innocent loss of life in our land. We lament the senseless violence in our land. We call out the cruel acts of oppression in our land. In the ten days since the Buffalo supermarket shooting, the first word of Rich’s title could have been changed to Uvalde, San Juan, Riverside, Houston, and Buffalo alone! Five communities devastated beyond imagination every other day. This reality alone horrifically illustrates the reason we are choosing to republish below Rich Villodas’ prescient and powerful article from 2018, “ Parkland and the Continued Problem with Thoughts and Prayers.” Miroslav Volf once remarked, “There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” While fact checking Volf’s quote, my Google search was filled with sober news articles and impassioned posts linking this quote to innumerable mass shootings in the United States from the past five years.
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