Your thoughts and prayers are useless.
It goes without saying that tragedies like the church shooting in Texas today are horrible acts of violence that should not be happening in our society. I hope that the surviving families get the help they need and are able to carry on and create a “new normal” for themselves after this senseless tragedy.
But something that is utterly worthless and is of no benefit and no consequence right now is offering your “thoughts and prayers” to them.
If victims of a mass shooting are actively praying, maybe it’s time to question the usefulness of prayer, and actually do something instead. pic.twitter.com/kjxOIDdqhX
— Dan Broadbent (@aSciEnthusiast) November 6, 2017
Mocking the “thoughts and prayers” mantra isn’t about atheism versus religion. It’s not minimizing the tragedy that occurred or making a joke at the expense of the victims. In fact, it’s honoring the victims and calling to how our government has failed to protect them. It’s about a call for change. A call to stop groups like the NRA from blocking the CDC’s efforts to do research on gun violence. It’s a call to not limit mental health options for people.
Reports out of Texas are devastating. The people of Sutherland Springs need our prayers right now.
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) November 5, 2017
They were praying at the time they were being shot, asshole. https://t.co/0aysIewb1f
— Dan Broadbent (@aSciEnthusiast) November 6, 2017
That isn’t helpful, Paul Ryan. They were the closest they believe they could have been to any god – they were literally praying inside “god’s house.” With your logic, their god either wanted the tragedy to happen, or didn’t care to prevent it from happening.
But this is about actual human lives that are being lost at an incredible rate. We are 309 days into 2017 and there have been 377 mass shootings in the US. Thinking hard and praying harder have both proven themselves to be useless. Nothing has changed and history has repeated itself.
Keeping all harmed in Sutherland Springs in our prayers and grateful for our brave first responders on the scene.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 5, 2017
They were inside a church, praying, at the time of the shooting. I’m not sure what more evidence you need to keep religion and your prayers out of this, Ted, and instead actually do something.
Legislators need to grow a spine, stand up to the NRA, and pass legislation that increases access to mental health services and allows the CDC to research and look at trends with gun violence so we can see what we can do from a legislative standpoint to minimize and eliminate mass shootings like these. A year and a half ago, the American Medical Association said that gun violence is a public health crisis. Yet despite having two of the top 10 deadliest mass shootings in the US happen within the past 5 weeks, legislators still have done nothing except offer their hollow ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Thinking and praying clearly have not been effective, so it’s time to try something different.
This is the exact time to be talking about this. There is no “too soon” here because it happens so often that it will perpetually be “too soon,” at least until you become a victim or personally affected by gun violence. Otherwise, try out this fun game, it will accomplish exactly the same thing as your own “thoughts and prayers.”
Leave it to The Onion to be on point yet again:
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens https://t.co/ZtrimxH2yD pic.twitter.com/L17GlAA9ym
— The Onion (@TheOnion) November 5, 2017