Thoughts and prayers.
The appeal appears after every mass shots like a litany – and the counter reaction is just as inevitable.
As if the battles of children in relation to screams and smashed glass glass were not sufficient for grief, the American opinion makers were again crushed to the Catholic School in Minneapolis in a debate about the role of prayer after a mass shooting.
Those who support some legal restrictions on weapons often say that republican politicians who appeal to prayer try to distract their own inactivity such as things such as red flag laws or stricter background checks on weapon purchases.
“Not only do they say that they are currently thoughts and prayers. These children have literally prayed,” said Jacob Frey, Mayor of Minneapolis, after the shootout, in which an attacker killed two proclamation students and wounded 18 other people who took part in the fair.
Critics, especially on the right, blame the democratic mayor.
“It is shocking for me that so many politicians of the left wings attack the idea of ​​prayer in response to a tragedy,” “Republican Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, published on X.
The debate is not just about the power of prayer. In the United States – both with a enormous religious population and the most mass shootings in the world – it is also a polarized debate about weapon control.
In other words, the episode triggered rhetorical skirmishes along two of the largest dividing lines in the cultural and political wars of America: God and weapons. (This does not even count the testing of the motifs and the gender identity of the shooter, which died after the attack by suicide.)
Prayers good, but not enough ‘
In his Jewish faith, which talks about the repair of the world, Frey guided the principle of “Tikkun Olam” in his Jewish faith.
“The meaning there is, prayers are good, but they are not enough,” said Frey about CNN. “It is only sufficient if you can connect an action to the work. And in this case we know what the solutions are. They were the same solutions five years ago three years ago, five years ago.”
He said if Vance would support laws to contain weapons: “Maybe we don’t really have an argument.”
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was murdered at the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, answered Vances Post on X.
“I am not a politician of the left wing. I am the father of Jaime who was murdered when Parkland was shooting,” published Guttenberg on X.
This was a long -term debate. After a mass shooting of California from 2015, the New York Daily News had a headline “God does not fix this”, surrounded by tweets by republican politicians who worship prayers in prayers. The newspaper said that “cowards that could really end weapon toxins continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes”.
Similar feelings followed the latest shootings in Minneapolis. “Prays America but does not act. The weapon betting kills us,” published Rev. Jacqui Lewis from the Middle Collegiate Church in New York on X.
The Republicans, on the other hand, have framed mass violence in relation to a psychological health crisis or in cases such as the attack of proclamation against religious groups, while they are constitutional right to “keep and bear weapons”.
The debate after the attack of the Minneapolis became quick and mighty.
The current and former spokesman for the White House also entered the mix.
Jen Psaki, the spokesman for former President Joe Biden, said on X: “Prayer is not damn enough. … prayer does not bring these children back.”
Karoline Leavitt, spokesman for President Donald Trump, replied in a press conference: “In a time of mourning like this, as beautiful little children killed in a church, it is absolutely disrespectful to mock the power of prayer in this country, and it is not disrespectful for the millions of Americans of faith.”
Persuade
John Fea, a historian of American politics and religion, said that politicians have long demanded prayers in crises such as the American Revolution and the Civil War. Most religious traditions would say that “at least prayers are appropriate in such a situation,” he said.
But both sides talk about the next steps.
Anyone who wants stricter weapons laws “sees the idea of ​​thoughts and prayers who achieve nothing,” said Fea, a scholarship holder in the Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
And to be sure: “A significant number of those who offer thoughts and prayers at these moments, also refuse to control arms,” ​​he noted.
It is not the case that you do not want an action, but “raise questions about spiritual problems in the cultural or psychological health problems that have to be addressed,” said Fea. “Anything but weapons legislation.”
The two enormous parties have very different religious constituencies, which reflects how they talk about prayer. Republicans have drawn mighty support from conservative whites and Latin American evangelicals and other white Christians. Democrats have a more diverse coalition of racial and religious groups and secular voters of minorities.
Catholics about the gap
Pope Leo XIV concentrated in his answer to the spiritual and sent “Corporate condolences and the certainty of spiritual proximity to everyone who is affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families who are now mourning the loss of a child.”
While the first American Pope did not enter weapon control this week, he seemed to do this when he was a less well -known bishop Robert Prevost in 2017. After a mass shooting in Las Vegas, a Twitter account in Prevost’s name retired the post of a senator in which his colleagues had no longer approved weapons controls.
Catholic bishops reflect the gap.
“While we join our prayers with others who heal those who were injured in body and mind and are accepted into the sky, we also have to scream for measures to prevent another tragedy,” said Chicago Cardinal Bladder Cupich.
In an explanation, he called for “common sense” guidelines to limit the availability of weapons, and complained that such ideas were “largely rejected in the name of a freedom that cannot be found in our constitution”. He also called for the restoration of the financing cuts for mental health.
Bishop Robert Barron described in a digital interview from FOX News, which he newly controlled on his Facebook page with 3 million followers, in a digital interview by Mayor Frey. Barron is Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, but has a broader range with his word on Fire Ministry.
“Friends, prayer does not magically protect us from suffering,” added Barron in his post. “At its core, prayer raises the spirit and heart to God, which is absolutely appropriate in times of deep pain.”
Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda, whose herd belong to the preaching, emphasized both prayer and acting.
“We need an end to gun violence,” he said.
“Our community is rightly outraged by such terrible acts of violence that are committed to the vulnerable and innocent people,” he said. “They are far too everyday. While we have to commit to prevent the repetition of such tragedies, we also have to remember that we have a god of peace and love, and that it is his love that we need the most when we strive to start those who hurt so deeply.”
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