Is God Fed Up With Our Prayers?

by Jim Harnish

Advocating Justice

May 26, 2022

3:32 PM

Backpack kids

Children and their backpacks enter a school. (Photo courtesy of Jim Harnish)

Here We Are Again!

Our daughter dropped off our grandson for his last day in elementary school yesterday morning. And then she cried.

She said, “I can’t stop thinking of the parents who won’t get to do that in Texas. This is not ok. It’s time for change.”

Another week.

Another mass shooting.

Another community facing incomprehensible pain as they bury their school children and teachers. (At the same time, the NRA will hyping the same old, weary arguments a few hundred miles away.)

Another President leading the nation in mourning and decrying the deadly uniqueness of our national addiction to guns and violence. (Has this become the definition of “American exceptionalism”?)

Another round of pontificating politicians offering plastic piety about “thoughts and prayers” with no intention of the thinking and praying making any real difference in the way we live and the way our children keep dying.

It’s not OK! It’s time for change!

Is God Fed Up With Our Prayers?

I turned again to Isaiah 58. It’s not easy reading!

God mocks people who seek God as if they were “a nation that acted righteously.” God accuses them of saying they want to be close to God, but “you do whatever you want…oppress all your workers… quarrel and brawl…hit each other violently.” In classic Hebrew style, God sounds like a Yiddish grandmother saying, “Oy vey! You call this a fast? Enough with the thoughts and prayers, already!” (58:5)

God blows off their phony piety and their smarmy self-righteousness by calling them to direct actions that demonstrate their faithfulness to God’s way of doing things.

Isn’t this the fast I choose:

releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,

setting free the mistreated,

and breaking every yoke?

Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry

and bringing the homeless poor into your house,

covering the naked when you see them,

and not hiding from your own family?

With God’s command comes God’s promise:

Then your light will break out like the dawn,

and you will be healed quickly...

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.”

If you remove the yoke from among you,

the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;

if you open your heart to the hungry,

and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted,

your light will shine in the darkness,

and your gloom will be like the noon...

You will be called Mender of Broken Walls,

Restorer of Livable Streets.

You can hear the same thing in Amos 5:21-24. I’m sure that God has shared our tears, felt our pain, and heard our prayers after each of the over 202 mass shootings in this nation so far this year. Every one breaks the heart of God.

But I can’t help but think that God is fed up with all of our “moments of silence,” our half-staffed flags, and our empty rhetoric about mental illness and school safety. God is sick and tired of politicians who campaign as evangelical Christians, but have sold their souls to the gun lobby. I hear God shouting that it’s time for righteous anger and redemptive action.

And there is plenty that we could do!

We could reduce the incessant flood of violence that passes for entertainment in movies, on TV and video games. Why not fast from all this stuff?
We could work to rebuild trust in healthy relationships, strong families, public instutions, and visionary faith communities.
We could increase funding for our public schools (instead of diverting it to private ones) to support teachers who are called to teach our children, not to die for them.
We could reject the narrow political ideology that has been crafted around a deadly distortion of the Second Amendment. (Whatever happened to “a well regulated Militia”?)
We could stop the unregulated sale of weapons at “gun shows.” (In Florida it’s as easy to buy a weapon as it is to buy a car.)
We could decide that no one really needs to own the weapons of war which have been the gun of choice for the mass shootings. (The Texas shooter purchased two on his 18th birthday before he was old enough to buy alcohol.)
We could institute the nation-wide background checks which 90% of our citizens support.
We could “fast” from voting for politicians who receive funding from the NRA and who will not support reasonable gun safety laws. (Have you called or emailed your representatives today?)
We could increase support for social service agencies in our communities.

Perhaps then — if and when we actually do something — our “light will shine in the darkness, and [our] gloom will be like the noon.” Perhaps then we can “rebuild…the foundations of generations past.” Perhaps then — and only then — we will deserve to be called “Mender of Broken Walls, Restorer of Livable Streets.”

Even if God isn’t fed up with our “thoughts and prayers,” I know that I am!

May God’s peace comfort the afflicted and may God’s Spirit afflict the comfortable. And may we, in God’s name, find the courage to change!

The Rev. Jim Harnish is a retired clergy member of the Florida Annual Conference. This post is republished with permission from his blog. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please contact the author via his blog site.

Comments (3)

Comment Feed

Spiritual Rot

It’s hard to believe it in 2022, but until the 1968 Gun Control Act, young boys such as myself could order firearms from the Sears catalog. Handguns, large caliber rifles, and shotguns. No restrictions at all based on age in many states. No background checks! No so-called “red-flag” laws. Nothing! If you wanted a firearm, you could easily and legally obtain one.
The problem with this legislation (and all subsequent laws designed to erode the Second Amendment), is that they have all failed. By anyone’s estimation, we aren’t any safer from gun violence in 2022 than we were before the Gun Control Act. It is significantly more difficult to purchase a gun now than it has ever been, yet we continue to see horrific gun violence play out on the cable news shows.
So, I have a very penetrating question to ask America, and that is, “Why now? Why, after all the restrictions we’ve seen legislated to end gun violence in our country, is the problem getting worse instead of better?” According to what I see and what they say, it is an epidemic. We are far worse off than we were in 1968.
I ask that question because unlike the hysterical politicians and the talking heads on the left-wing news shows, I really do want a solution. In my humble opinion, anyone who actually hates the new violent normal in America is going to honestly evaluate the evidence and propose solutions that actually address the problem. If we are going to fix it, we don’t need clichés and campaign slogans. We need to know why. Why now? Once we figure that out, we can move on to the what-we-can-do-about-it phase. But not until we actually know what’s wrong.
Unfortunately, clichés and slogans are all we’re getting at this point. More gun laws! Invest in mental health! Make schools safer! Ban the gun lobby!
As good as some of this stuff plays on the news, none of it really answers my question: Why now? After over 250 years of America’s “infatuation” with firearms, why was 2020 the most violent year on record with over 43,000 gun-related deaths? There are more restrictions on gun purchases, there’s more access to mental health treatment, and many schools have full-time armed officers on campus, yet more people are dying in firearm-related incidents.
Why now?
Mo Brooks, a candidate for the open senate seat in Alabama, recently took it on the chin from his opponent in the Republican primary run-off election when he blamed the increase in senseless mass killings on the breakdown in family. He argued that it’s just harder for a single parent to raise up kids to possess a moral compass. Brooks’ point was that parenting is a two-person job. And, according to his argument, without a moral compass, it’s impossible for kids to navigate a life that’s complex and confusing.
While I think Brooks makes a good point, he’s still only focused on one of the symptoms of the real problem. Single parenthood and gun violence are alike in this way. They aren’t the issue — the answer is our spiritual rot!

Jeff more than 3 years ago

School Shooting

I recently had to turn off a network television news station when the three morning hosts pontificated about the latest school shooting being evidence that this is the result of taking God out of schools. What nonsense! If we follow the logic of the gun lobby, that more guns is the answer, we should not only be arming our teachers, but our children too. I cannot help but think that churches that advocate support for the NRA are ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ when it comes to the message of Christ. Jesus is more readily seen holding children on his knee than holding a gun in his hand. Praying for those beautiful slain children and their families and also for our nation as we continue to kick the issue of gun regulation down the road, offering thoughts and prayers instead of meaningful legislation.

Grandma Jack more than 3 years ago

Jesus is the answer

You are right that taking prayer out of the school is not the answer - it is part of the answer. We have more gun laws that we have ever had yet more violence. The spiritual rot, the erosion of Christian values, in our families and in our culture are the problem. We need men in the home who will guide the family in Christianity. Study after study shows that children both male and female need a father and mother in a biblical marriage in the home. And those parents must be active. Traditional roles in the home are needed to prevent such tragedy. And, with traditional parenting roles from active parents grounded in a church community will prevent many maladjustments in chicldren (homosexuality and transgenderism). What has changed since 1950? Families, churches, and families not grounded in the church. Jesus is the answer.

Jeff more than 3 years ago