'Thoughts and prayers': For devout, what does it mean to pray after tragedy?
It鈥檚 a familiar performance in a long-running drama: Following a mass shooting, proponents and opponents of gun control take to the national stage, find their blocking on the scene, and recite the same impassioned lines of dialogue. But the circumstances of last week鈥檚 gun massacre in Sutherland Springs, Texas, flipped the usual script. When politicians doled out their automatic condolences of 鈥渢houghts and prayers,鈥� gun control advocates responded with rhetorical jiu-jitsu.
鈥淭he murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they鈥檇 still be alive,鈥� tweeted 鈥淪tar Trek鈥� actor Wil Wheaton, one of a number of Twittizens who used the cruel irony to mock Republican politicians. (He later apologized for offending 鈥減eople of faith.鈥�)
The recurring 鈥渢houghts and prayers鈥� meme stokes fiery exchanges in a political and cultural war where gun control and religion are frontline issues. But after the shooting in Texas, the debate is no longer just about whether politicians鈥� stock platitudes represent a sufficient response to gun violence. It鈥檚 an argument over the very efficacy of prayer itself. Is God a refuge and strength, an everpresent help in times of trouble, as a Psalmist once put it?
鈥淲e are fundamentally spiritual beings,鈥� says Richard Mouw, professor of faith and public life at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a part of our deep longings and hopes and fears that we do have a sense of the divine. In the moments of tragedy in our lives there鈥檚 an impulse, there鈥檚 an instinct to turn to however we understand the higher power.鈥�
But beyond the individual supplications of the religious, there鈥檚 little agreement over the proper role of prayer after a tragedy. Does prayer constitute taking meaningful, practical action? Or does invoking 鈥渢houghts and prayers鈥� merely offer the appearance of acting?
That clich茅, plucked from the inadequate lexicon of words to express grief, is a phrase employed by countless Republicans and Democrats over decades (including politicians from both parties last week). Its durability may stem from the fact that it nods to both secular and religious audiences and also fits neatly into a sound bite or a tweet. But it has to come to represent, for some, a parsimonious response that fails to convey a full reckoning of the tragic loss of life in each incident.
In 2015, President Barack Obama responded to the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., by declaring, 鈥淭houghts and prayers are not enough.鈥� Since then, the primarily Republican 鈥淭houghts and Prayers鈥� contingent have been satirized (and trolled) by an online videogame, an episode of the Netflix series 鈥淏oJack Horseman,鈥� a gospel choir on Samantha Bee鈥檚 TV show 鈥淔ull Frontal,鈥� and an online comic by Stephen Byrne in which two superheroes, Thought and Prayer, discover that their respective powers are ineffectual against a robber with a gun.
Different faith traditions 鈥� and different people within those traditions 鈥� encompass a broad array of ideas on what prayer does.
鈥淚s prayer enough to stop an individual from acquiring an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and gunning down 50 people at a concert?鈥� asks Rabbi Yael Ridberg of Congregation Dor Hadash, a Reconstructionist synagogue community in San Diego. 鈥淣o. But that鈥檚 only if you think the prayer is supposed to solve that problem.聽That is not going to solve that problem. Prayer is a reaction to, or a need after the fact.鈥�
For religious scholar Reza Aslan, the question isn鈥檛: 鈥淒oes prayer work?鈥� Or, 鈥淚s prayer enough?鈥� 鈥淧aul Ryan and most Republican politicians are saying, we will just hide behind the view that a majority of Americans have,聽which is a prayer is an effective tool and not do anything,鈥� says Mr. Aslan, author of a new book, 鈥淕od: A Human History.鈥澛犫�淚n a sense, we are inoculated from action, because most Americans do believe that prayer is a form of action.鈥�
'Please keep praying for a solution'
Deliberation over the proper balance isn鈥檛 exclusive to the gun-control debate. During the 1980s, Dr. Mouw recalls attending an anti-apartheid meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., in which a black South African church minister had been invited to speak.
鈥淲e talked about the [economic] divestments and church pressures and various things,鈥� says Mouw, author of 鈥淯ncommon Decency: 海角大神 Civility in an Uncivil World.鈥� 鈥淎t the end, she said, 鈥楧o all of these things but please keep聽praying for a solution to all of us in South Africa.鈥� A young African-American man stood up said, 鈥業鈥檓 getting sick of praying. I want to do something.鈥� At that point she said, in a very stern voice, 鈥楶rayer聽is聽doing something. You鈥檙e petitioning the highest ruler in the universe.鈥欌��
People pray in a variety of ways. For some, it鈥檚 a simple call from the heart. For others, it鈥檚 the recitation of a complex liturgy. Prayer can be for oneself or it can be an act of intercession. It can be an act of petition or an act of praise. It can be silent or spoken aloud. Though the practice of supplication has been declining in recent decades, it nonetheless remains deeply woven into Americans鈥� lives聽鈥撀燼nd thus their political outlooks.
鈥淚n our big 2014 religious landscape study, we found that 55 percent of all American adults said that they pray every day,鈥� says Greg Smith, Associate Director of Research at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Pew Research Center. 鈥淎nother one in five, 21 percent, say that they pray 鈥榦ccasionally,鈥� maybe on a weekly or monthly basis, but not every day. The remaining quarter or so of the public, 23 percent, say that they seldom or never pray.鈥�
Another trend? More Americans now say they鈥檙e spiritual but not religious. Many people now gather for daily contemplation in yoga studios, not just to perfect flexible poses, but to deal with stressful events.
鈥淲hat you meditate on聽can be breath, it can be counting, it could be a mantra, it can be connecting to your heart space and talking to God.聽It鈥檚 not only a Buddhist thing, prayer is absolutely meditation,鈥� says Emily Peterson, lead trainer for a mindfulness-based trauma recovery program called TIMBo (Trauma Informed Mind Body) in Brookline, Mass.聽Ms. Peterson offers one additional definition of her practice. 鈥淭he Dalai Lama, a while ago, was asked, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the most important meditation one can do?鈥� He said, 鈥楥ritical thinking, followed by action.鈥� 鈥澛�
'When you pray, move your feet'
Theologian and author Leonard Sweet believes that prayer is a vital first step toward dealing with gun violence. 鈥淚n a football game, your aim is to score a touchdown. But before you can score a touchdown, you huddle. But the game is not a huddle.鈥�
Prayer is not an empty puff of air聽thrown up into the heavens, but something that takes flesh in some kind of materialization in real life, says Mr. Sweet, a professor at Drew Theological School at Drew University in Madison, N.J. 鈥淭here is a wonderful African proverb:聽鈥榃hen you pray, move your feet,鈥� 鈥� says Sweet, who posts sermons at PreachtheStory.com.聽鈥淚f it is serious prayer and聽systemic prayer, it should move your feet to deal with systemic issues that are bringing this on.鈥�
Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan have been accused of dragging their feet on this issue. But other conservatives push back at the accusation that Republicans are acting in, well, bad faith.
鈥淚 absolutely believe the biblical concept that 鈥榝aith without works is dead,鈥� 鈥� says David French, a senior writer for National Review. 鈥淏ut what they tend to mean when they say, 鈥榊ou should pray and take action,鈥� is that they mean you should pray and take the action聽I聽want you to take. If you actually look at these politicians that they get angry at, or these conservatives on Twitter that they get angry at, each one of us has advocated or proposed or engaged in dialogue about various things that could be done to try to stop mass killings, to try to ameliorate the problem.鈥� For example, he says, solutions could include stepping up enforcement of existing law 鈥� including increased prosecutions for those who lie on background check forms 鈥� and shoring up existing reporting processes so that names don鈥檛 fall through the cracks, as was the case in Sutherland Springs.
In the wake of the Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs shootings, Mr. French has been inspired by a verse in II Chronicles that stresses the importance of humbling oneself to listen for answers in how to deal with confounding acts of evil.
鈥淸海角大神s] use a word that is fraught with very deep meaning, and that is 鈥榬elationship,鈥� 鈥� says French. 鈥淭hey feel that they have a relationship with God. That feeling of relationship with God is directly connected to prayer. It鈥檚 a feeling of communing with God. There is deep comfort. There is deep peace.聽There is resolve. There is insight.鈥�
'Prayer, to me, gathers people together'
In Sutherland Springs, faith is at the forefront of a community聽that聽remains in a tight embrace since聽the Nov. 5 shooting that killed 26 churchgoers.聽At聽a prayer vigil last week, Pastor Stephen A. Curry, asked a candlelit throng, 鈥淲ho are we going to be tomorrow? We are going to be people who go and live our lives, not in fear, but with compassion for our neighbors. Who are we going to be tomorrow? We are going to be people who do not let things like chaos and destruction interrupt who we are, or change who we are called to be.鈥�
鈥淧rayer, to me, gathers people together,鈥� says Eileen Anderson, secretary of the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum. Before the shooting, Mrs. Anderson prayed daily for the world. Now, the Roman Catholic asks that world respond in kind.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 tell you how many calls I鈥檝e had saying, 鈥楨ileen are you OK?鈥� 鈥� she says, tearing up. 鈥淎nd I say, 鈥榊eah, we鈥檙e fine. It鈥檚 the people down the road here that need us, need our prayers.鈥� 鈥�
Staff writer Henry Gass contributed to this article from Sutherland Springs, Texas.
