Hey, we need to do more than "pray"! Just "praying" doesn't do a damned thing towards solving society's problems-- we need action!

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COMMENTS:
*  There's nothing wrong with prayer--and nobody's shaming it--if it's accompanied by actions. But to say you're praying for the victims, and then continuing to do nothing, as the entire GOP has done so far? That's what's offensive. The prayers don't mean much if you're not willing to do a single thing to change what necessitates them.
*  It's also possible to do something even if you oppose gun control. You can work to improve gun culture, promote gun safety, avoid kneejerk reactions to all regulations just because you have reasonable objections to some regulations as being too onerous for not enough benefit. Regardless of what happens with gun control, we have a serious cultural issue with the glorification of violence and the deep alienation we have with our neighbors. Those play a role here too, and everybody can do something about those cultural traits, regardless of their views on sensitive political issues.
*  "this backlash toward prayer"  No. It is a backlash against doing nothing.
*  That's the way I read it, yes. It's not that praying is the problem; it's that offering nothing but prayers is the problem.
*  The author is missing the point of the protests. We are sick of politicians who offer prayers after every shooting, but block every effort to improve background checks or take any constructive actions. Prayers are fine, just very ineffective.
*  I don't think the objection is to thinking or praying, just that offering those two things (thoughts and prayers) seem to be the ONLY prescriptions that the GOP is willing to do. I'm not sure it's an attack on language so much as pointing out their thoughts and prayers do absolutely nothing to stop gun violence.
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Prayer Shaming After a Mass Shooting in San Bernardino
Following the murder of at least 14 people in California, the reaction against calls for prayer has been sharp.
By Emma Breen, December 2, 2015

Directly after a mass shooting, in the minutes or hours or days between the first trickle of news and when police find a suspect or make arrests, it is very difficult to know what to do. Some people demand political action, like greater gun control; others call for prayer. In the aftermath of a violent shooting spree in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, in which at least 14 victims are reported to have died, people with those differing reactions quickly turned against one another.

For example: Here’s the Washington editor at the liberal publication The Nation, George Zornick, on reactions from the 2016 presidential candidates:

George Zornick @gzornick
Compare + contrast:
1:14 PM - 2 Dec 2015

There’s a clear claim being made here, and one with an edge: Democrats care about doing something and taking action while Republicans waste time offering meaningless prayers. These two reactions, policy-making and praying, are portrayed as mutually exclusive, coming from totally contrasting worldviews. Elsewhere on Twitter, full-on prayer shaming set in: Anger about the shooting was turned not toward the perpetrator or perpetrators, whose identities are still unknown, but at those who offered their prayers.

igorvolsky ✔ @igorvolsky
Think and pray about passing sensible gun reforms, Dr. Paul  https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/672176019122458624 …
2:13 PM - 2 Dec 2015

Zack Ford ✔ @ZackFord
Try this:
Stop thinking.
Stop praying.
Look up Einstein's definition of "insanity."
Start acting on gun violence prevention measures.
1:41 PM - 2 Dec 2015

This is not the first time this idea—that prayer is not enough—has come up in the Twittersphere, or in politics. “As I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” said President Obama following the October shootings at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. He was not denigrating prayer—in the same speech, he went on to ask God for strength and courage for the victims.

But not all have been equally nuanced. After Wednesday’s shootings, The Huffington Post quickly rounded up a list of tweets from politicians offering their prayers. “In short, basically anyone with a Twitter account shared thoughts and prayers in the immediate aftermath of the latest shooting,” the reporters wrote. “Which is kind of them to do, of course, but probably not enough to stop the next one.”

This cynicism offers a view into just how much religion and politics have changed in the United States. Prayer and political action have a deeply entwined history in America. From civil rights to women’s suffrage, nearly every social-justice movement has had strong supporters from religious communities—U.S. history is littered with images like the one of pastors and rabbis marching on Selma, side by side with political activists.

But now, even in the absence of information about the shooter's identity and motivations, people have jumped to conclusions like this, from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy:

Chris Murphy ✔ @ChrisMurphyCT
Your "thoughts" should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your "prayers" should be for forgiveness if you do nothing - again.
2:12 PM - 2 Dec 2015

There are many assumptions packed into these attacks on prayer: that all religious people, and specifically Christians, are gun supporters, and vice versa. That people who care about gun control can’t be religious, and if they are, they should keep quiet in the aftermath of yet another heart-wrenching act of violence. At one time in American history, liberals and conservatives shared a language of God, but that’s clearly no longer the case; any invocation of faith is taken as implicit advocacy of right-wing political beliefs.

The most powerful evidence against this backlash toward prayer comes not from the Twitterverse, but from San Bernardino. “Pray for us,” a woman texted her father from inside the Inland Regional Center, while she and her colleagues hid from the gunfire. Outside the building, evacuated workers bowed their heads and held hands. They prayed.
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