The Patriot Post® · The 'Shame' of Prayer

Too often during recent years, our normal routine has been disturbed by news reports of mass shootings. Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, Tucson, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Chattanooga, Colorado Springs: each of these murderous assaults shocked the public and grabbed headlines for days afterward.

Adding insult to injury, leftists quickly politicized these murderers, exploiting the dead to advocate more stringent gun control laws. Most of us, though, took a moment after each incident to think about and pray for the innocent victims and their families — whether victims died at the hands of deranged killers or Islamofascist jihadis. We could all grieve just a little bit, while realizing that only the grace of God kept these tragedies from visiting our own little corner of the world.

Wednesday’s rampage in San Bernardino was different. Obviously, the media focused on the assailants, whose identities weren’t learned until hours later. Since then, we’ve discovered that the husband-and-wife team that perpetrated the killings had thousands of rounds of ammunition and more than a dozen pipe bombs. Simply put: This wasn’t “workplace violence,” it was planned jihad, possibly using a work dispute as the catalyst.

Perhaps more disturbing, though, is the growing tendency of the Left to blame the inanimate object for the carnage — to focus not on mental illness or jihadism, but rather on guns. Frustrated not only by the fact that the murderers were Islamic — thus undermining the whole narrative recently re-created by the Colorado Springs killer — but also that people intent on mayhem simply ignore the very laws we’ve enacted to stop them, liberals lashed out at those who they thought were really to blame: Christians.

Once the news reports of a mass shooting broke, a number of Republican leaders expressed their thoughts and prayers for the victims. To some on the Left, it was the last straw. Take this tweet for example:

“Your ‘thoughts’ should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing — again.”

This wasn’t just an obscure Twitter troll or a faceless progressive. The tweet came from Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, whose communications director later explained that the senator was referring to politicians who failed to advocate for more gun control. Writer Emma Green surmised, “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.”

The people of Connecticut should recall Sen. Murphy’s ham-handed insult the next time he’s on the ballot.

The New York Daily News was even more blunt, screaming in a front-page headline, “God Isn’t Fixing This.” The new term for the Left’s tactic is “prayer shaming.”

It doesn’t take a huge leap to consider all the facts in the San Bernardino case and label it an act of Islamic terrorism. Those on the Right look at those facts and call for national security enhancements, such as a halt in accepting the Trojan horse of Syrian refugees. Meanwhile, to conservatives, thoughts and prayers for the friends and families of the victims are appropriate.

But on the Left, the fault lies in the fact that the attackers were able to acquire their weapons and ammunition at all. They surmise that the couple, who obviously planned some sort of an attack given the tactics and equipment used, would have been prevented from committing this slaughter if only gun sales were banned. (A background check would have turned up nothing, as even Obama spokesman Josh Earnest admitted. And California already has some of the strictest gun laws this side of France, which experienced an even worse attack last month by jihadis with automatic rifles.)

The Left’s game is easy to figure out. They had a field day in the immediate aftermath of the attack when the assailant was described as white, and they couldn’t hide their glee when they mistakenly believed there might be a Planned Parenthood connection. White, Christian and conservative: all those fit the profile of the Left’s favorite phantom domestic terrorist, except yet again it wasn’t so. Once the narrative was destroyed, they expressed their frustration with tweets and headlines such as those detailed above.

One has to ponder, though, what has made those on the Left so rabid that now even expressing thoughts and prayers for the victims and families affected by San Bernardino, Paris, et al., is believed to be worse than doing nothing at all? (Despite what the Left may want you to believe, praying for someone causes them no harm.)

It’s argued that we can’t legislate morality, but by the same token we also have to realize we can’t legislate away evil, either. For the San Bernardino terrorists, their guns were a handy choice for carnage but not their only option — with their dozen pipe bombs placed strategically, the death toll could have rivaled that of Paris.

For those of us who still believe in our Creator, it’s our calling to continue to pray. Whether it’s for healing to the injured victims, comfort for their families, or even asking for wisdom for those who consider praying as worse than doing nothing doesn’t matter. Many of us — more than you might be led to think — believe God is indeed able to fix it. So don’t be shamed into silence.