Thoughts and Prayers
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock took to the U.S. Senate floor yesterday in response to the shooting at a suburban Atlanta hospital. Understandably emotional, the lawmaker, who is also a Christian pastor, said, “I pray for those who are affected by this tragedy, but I hasten to say thoughts and prayers are not enough.” He went on to make an impassioned plea for more gun control measures.
Hearing the words struck me, as they have before when uttered by other politicians: “thoughts and prayers are not enough.” Yesterday, however, they came from a man of souls. And today, the first Thursday in May, is the National Day of Prayer, designated by Congress.
Warnock went on to say, “In fact, it is a contradiction to say you are thinking and praying and then do nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith.”
While I am not a theologian, and admittedly not as close to yesterday’s tragedy as the senator, I have a different view on “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of evil.
As humans, we have an innate rejection of violence and wickedness. It’s a response mechanism that is part of our being. In today’s parlance, we’re wired that way. Humans are marvels of science, with intuitive sense not only for right and wrong, but also for empathy and solidarity with those who suffer injustice.
I’m reminded of the words of the Psalmist: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (139:14).
Humans are fearfully made not in the sense of fright, but awe, and favor. Humans have tremendous ability for right reasoning and love, but they do not immediately have the personal capacity to respond to tragedy. When mass violence occurs, humans on the scene respond instinctively toward the preservation of life. For those away, there remains a sense of crisis and confusion, but instincts are toward understanding and concern for the suffering: thoughts and prayers. I consider that response noble, not trivial.
What has become trivial in society, is the worth of human life. An ASP member in an email message to me insightly observed that this diminished notion of human worth has origin in legalized abortion. It’s true, and it has been assessed as a culture of death. If human life in its most innocent and indefensible stage can be killed at will, it follows that any human life is subject to another’s caprice.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” is the preceding verse to the Psalm quoted above. It’s a clear recognition of human dignity from it beginnings. Yet those who decry gun violence are often the same who advocate for abortion. That adds to the culture of death with a culture of contradiction.
Abortion is not my single focus, but it is the first step we must take as a culture to change how human life is viewed. Abortion sends a clear message: humans are disposable. If unborn children are disposable, so are orphans, students, workers, homeless, mentally ill, infirmed, inmates, elderly, and all others who struggle to survive on the periphery. All human life has dignity, and the ASP’s holistic approach has a real opportunity to change the conversation by rejecting the culture of contradiction and embracing human life at all ages and at all stages.
I will support Senator Warnock to this extent: James writes, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (2:17). By my standard, that requires we do all possible to curb violence — beginning with life in the womb.
This National Day of Prayer, and each time acts unbridled violence reaches my ears, my thoughts and prayers will turn again to searching for answers and actions outside my control but in my aspiration to bring new realization and protection to human life and its inalienable worth.