Dept. of That's Good Readin'

[kaffy_r]

Prayer Shaming, My Aunt Fanny!

Within the first 2 seconds after I saw the front page that the New York Daily News* planned to publish after the San Bernardino shootings, I also saw messages from people wailing that this was "prayer shaming." (Full disclosure, I was seeing all of this in what passes for real time on Twitter.) 

The responses came so fast and were so alike that they raised a red flag in my head, and I was pretty sure that there were large numbers of people grabbing onto "prayer shaming" in an effort to blow smoke and obscure the real problem after yet another mass shooting - too many fucking guns and not enough intelligent gun control.** 

Now, with thanks to supergee , I've been able to read Charles Pierce's measured response to the "prayer shaming" concept and the people who use it; if you wish, you can, too. 

* Which is a rag, but it seems to have the right idea occasionally.
**By intelligent, I mean, no, not people coming to take your guns or your liberty. I mean, simply, what the words say; just a bit of control, if you please, Mr. LaPierre.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this!! That rag made my heart happy. Yeah. Time to stop whining and pleading and praying. Put down the lobbyist-NRA-corporate bankbook and pick up the bill that tightens gunlaws.

Seems the further these crazy Tea Partiers march to the tune of their own personal ISIS (twisted Chrisitanity-twisted Islam), the worse this county gets. It is frigging chaos - and these assholes are the damned drummer-boy.

But this also brings me happiness - check it out!!

*HUGS*

[kaffy_r]

Oh, thank you for that link - I read it, and can only say, bless the woman!!

There was also word today that a long-time NRA member, possibly a life-time member, who is a state legislator in one of the western states, tendered his resignation from the NRA in a letter to LaPierre. I'll try to find the link to that for you to smile about to thank you for this one.

*hugs you*

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Indeed!!

Ohhh...that is AWESOME news!! Just the news alone made me smile! Thank you for that...linkage would be terrific, but the news itself is stellar and uplifting!

*SQUISHES*

[luckweaver.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure what's happening in the US with "prayer-shaming" but if it's anything like the Scottish Independence lobbyists trying to make the UK bombing Syria into something about them, then I'll join you in being disgusted.

[kaffy_r]

I don't know a lot about that particular issue (it sounds truly unpleasant), but this was basically an effort to draw attention away from the issue - guns kill people, and the U.S. makes it shamefully easy to get guns, and politicians won't change that horrendous situation because they're afraid of the non-thinking gun fans (there really are intelligent gun owners out there, they're just not being heard) - by complaining that gun control backers hated prayer, and (obviously) Christians, thereby turning a gun control debate into religious oppression claims.

[clocketpatch]

Gun laws in the US make my head and my heart hurt.

[kaffy_r]

I think that's the best way I could think of to describe the laws and cultural tendencies down here. And those laws and cultural tendencies end up creating dead men, women, and children, which causes more heartache.

[namarie24.livejournal.com]

Sigh, YES. As I read in my study Bible footnotes this very morning, there's a time for prayer and a time for action, when the action is very clear. And it is. Really, blindingly clear.

And that excellent article you linked to could have mentioned so many other passages/sections of the Bible, such as almost the entire book of James. For example:

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. (2:14-17 NLT)

[kaffy_r]

It took me a while to respond to folks, but I wanted to tell you that I think that many people of faith, and in particular, the Christian faith*, believe as you do.

The problem is that your voices and your careful consideration of the issue, are being drowned out by much louder voices professing to be the only ones worthy of representing an entire faith. I know that Christians are having internal debates and discussions about issues such as gun control - unfortunately, the general population isn't aware of those discussions (and I blame my profession for not getting the word out), and isn't aware that there are many, many Christians who aren't represented by those grabbing the microphones most often.

*I also believe that members of other faiths are going through the same intellectual and spiritual convulsions, but much of the religious discussion in North America is focused on Christianity.