Prayer shaming

Rich Schapiro's article in the New York Daily News (whose front page shouted "God Isn't Fixing This!") points out that, while the Democratic presidential candidates are calling for stricter gun laws in response to recent mass shootings, Republican candidates, unable politically to do anything about gun violence, are offering prayers for the victims and their families. Democrats offer preventive solutions; Republicans offer the usual prayers, as they've done all along, do now, and presumably ever shall do, violence without end, amen, amen.

The Christian right, as usual, are claiming to be the victims here... of "prayer shaming." Yes, the religious are being picked on again.

This is another complicated issue for me as an atheist, because it's two issues all tangled up. Issue number one is that gun violence won't decrease until we summon the guts to do something about it. All the Republicans can do, since they don't favor doing anything that would go against Second Amendment absolutism, is to make loud noises to focus attention elsewhere.

The second issue involves the question of the efficacy of prayer, which I've touched on here before. The fact that prayer has absolutely no effect on the outcome of a given crisis is masked by such sayings as, "Thy will be done." "It's not part of God's plan." "Maybe my faith isn't strong enough." If a believer prays for something and doesn't get it, he has so many ways of letting God off the hook. If the believer gets what he wants, well, praise the Lord!

That's the reason, I suppose, for another old saying, "God helps those who help themselves." The gun problem won't be solved by anyone but us.