![]() ![]() ![]() 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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