Freeman's Rag
  • Home
  • Short Stories
  • Historical Ruminations
  • The Cranky Man Philosophizes
  • About

Is the NRA and the Right Killing Prayer?

5/26/2018

0 Comments

 
PictureReal Prayer in Selma
The end of prayer as an acceptable answer during crises may be ending because of the NRA and the right. They have pronounced after each mass shooting that the victims are in their prayers and thoughts. They also proclaim the only thing that can be done in the aftermath of mass shootings are prayers and thoughts. Discussions on how to bring the shootings to an end are premature and must happen in some future time. So prayers have become a cudgel to be used on people who want to see change.

Even worse prayers have become equal to doing nothing. We plan to do nothing or we plan not to change so we offer you prayers and thoughts. Two hundred plus shootings later since Sandy Hook to be offered prayers is almost to proclaim that I really do not care. People effected by the shootings are saying we do not want your prayers we want your actions. And there you have it prayer is no longer an activity but considered an inactive response. Prayer was once thought to be the enabler of action is now thought to be the avoidance of action. Prayer was once thought essential to do acts with depth of thought or now thought to be the avoidance of thinking about the problem. Prayer was once thought to be the leaving of your egos behind to allow God room to act within you is now the avoidance of Godly acts.

So the so called believers in prayer or killing prayer. Of course this is the way it always is the practitioners are the ones who think they own the practice. The right would be the first to tell liberals they do not believe and therefore their prayers are ineffectual. But because the right has locked themselves in prayer boxes their prayer has become an act only to make themselves feel better. It does not connect them to a higher power or to their deeper selves but instead works to make them feel justified in any selfish or bigoted action they partake.

Some on the right have proclaimed that taking prayer out of schools is the reason for the shootings. To them prayer is a demand of a God who is waiting for you not to offer your prayers to strike you down in the most horrendous way. Prayer to them is appeasement of God. And to make it even more striking is if God is not appeased he takes it out on the children who have no say in the matter. In other words god is a very bad shot when it comes to punishment. God misses striking the ones responsible and hits the one who are the most vulnerable.

Prayer use to be thought as a personal contact with God. But the indiscriminate hard ass described in the previous paragraph is not someone I would want to know. So you see prayers are being killed by the right. I always thought prayer to be useful to guide me in the ways of righteous actions. But now I can pray without worrying about what God may inspire me to do next. What a relief. I can tell the hungry I pray for them and not offer food. I can tell the prisoner I pray for them and do not have to visit them. I can tell the sick I pray for them and do not have to care for them. I can tell children in schools I pray for them and do not have to stop the bloodshed.
​
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    September 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Short Stories
  • Historical Ruminations
  • The Cranky Man Philosophizes
  • About