Saying #ThoughtsAndPrayersAreNotEnough is not critiquing prayer. It is critiquing lack of action. Which is not an anti-God thing. It is a God thing. At least according to the eleventh chapter of Isaiah:
So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.
Jesus himself had words for those who “pray on the corners of the streets that they may be seen” and then do nothing to solve the problems they’re praying about. He called them hypocrites.
Hijacking the call for action to end gun violence and misrepresenting it as an attack on people of faith is but another move out of the playbook of division and polarization that has gotten our country into the mess it’s in right now. And it’s time for that to stop — and we can stop it.
Do not let those who offer thoughts and prayers without action claim that they are now the victims because their faith is under assault. It categorically is not.
The critique is not their prayers. The critique is the same one we are making in our generation that the prophet Isaiah and the apostle James made in theirs: faith without works is dead.
So by all means pray without ceasing. And ... get to work.
Seek an end to gun violence, Reprove the NRA, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.
Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Thoughts, prayers and action, on the other hand ... now that can change the world. Together we can be the change we want to see. Let’s do this!