The big winners in the Thoughts and Prayers kerfulfual

Is, as always, the secularists and atheists and non-believers of the modern godless world. There is nothing better for them than to continually hear religious believers, including their leaders, affirm just how marginal and limited in effectiveness religious faith, practice and belief in God really is. After all, when the Minnesota mayor belted out that the children killed were in the middle of praying, he did nothing but say 'see how utterly useless prayer can be!' That those believers joining the 'sucks to your loser prayers' movement did nothing but circle the wagons around his speech shows how colossal the World now is versus the whimpering, emaciated Church.

Now the whole 'sucks to your loser thoughts and prayers' line of attack came some years ago from gun control activists who were openly non-religious. I remember this addressed on different Catholic sites. At that time, there was obvious sympathy for the gun control activists making the charge. But caution was advised with a gentle rebuke, reminding them (and us) that prayers are never to be seen as contingent upon worldly solutions or activism. They shouldn't be seen as standing against such things as working to find a solution, as some either/or proposition. Likewise, at no point should we make judgments about the sincerity of those invoking prayers, since prayer is so much more than just asking God to solve our problems. But mostly we want to be careful not to affirm the secular idea that God and all the religious stuff is worth nothing more than killing an hour on a Sunday morning versus looking for real solutions in the real world.

Well that's dead. Now there are plenty of Christians saying just what those non-believer said, only more. Taking the leap that nothing but the left's gun control advocacy can save us, and anyone who disagrees can be judged accordingly, it's Christians as much as anyone saying prayers and God are beneficial only within the context of proper political advocacy.

Which wouldn't be the first time someone charged forth and said my way or you aren't properly following God. The irony, like so much we've seen in the last couple decades, is that it was the political and religious left that put the kibosh on such thinking. After all, in WWII for instance, saying we will just pray for peace but not actually resist the Nazis would not have been seen as valid by a substantial number of people. Yet look at all the horrible things we did to beat the Nazis. Hence those left leaning Christians I encountered warning the religious right about making one's religious life, devotion or sincerity contingent upon any worldly or secular matter, especially politics.

Continued below.