Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

I think of the phrase "thoughts and prayers" as a specific and deeply hypocritical political get-out-of-jail-free card. It's a rhetorical deflection.

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Headline reads: "Overnight gun violence kills 3, wounds 17 in Chicago."

Congresswoman tweets: "We send thoughts and prayers to the victims, but now is not the time to talk about gun control."

 

That said, I can see where the thread title - "thoughts and prayers" - having now taken on the leaden thud of popcult irony and political accusation, is genuinely awkward here for some folks.

 

Doesn't bother me in the least. Let's be real ... having to overlook/ignore a message board thread ain't exactly the stuff of martyrdom.

 

has entered the chat

 

The use of "Thoughts and Prayers" in the thread title was simply a headline hook. Enjoy your day.

 

From the opinion piece I linked to earlier:

The writer is a pastor, by the way.

 

One of the things I like about this thread is that there is a lot of "thought" to the posts, rather than knee-jerk "Religion is Good/Religion is Stupid" posts.

 

The only thing I'd point out, and I'll provide a disclaimer that I don't know Christianity, is that religiously significant action doesn't have to be interpersonal. Religion means that one's relationship with God is a significant one, and acting in accordance with God's expressed or implicit will as we each understand it is no less active than actions to another person. This is related to Write Thinking's point about how the way one views the value of prayer is understandably tied to their religious viewpoint generally.
As a bit of an aside, I think (I've debated this with others who disagree) that the reason interpersonal duties (sometimes) trump divine duties is because those interpersonal duties are themselves mandated by God.

 

Christianity in action is basically Marxism. The problem is, Marxism does away with the Cross, the blood and the hoodoo. So Christian institutions abhor Marxism. You want Christianity in action? Look at the social democracies in Scandinavia. The societies are the most content, but the church has minimal social impact.

 

Christianity is fundamentally incompatible with Capitalism.

Hence many of the tensions old and new in our America.

 

This is why the entire concept of the "prosperity gospel" so popular in the pulpit of megachurches gives me hives.

 

The question I'm addressing is why people don't like the "thoughts and prayers," social media posts phenomena. That's all well and good, but it doesn't relate to why people broadcast their intrapersonal sympathies.