I’m a Religious Leader, and I Know We Need More Than Thoughts and Prayers

Three years ago this month, 17 students and educators were killed and 17 more wounded on Valentines Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland — one of the deadliest school shootings in history. A year before that, 60 people were killed and more than 470 wounded at a concert in Las Vegas — the deadliest mass shooting ever. A year after Parkland, 32 people were killed and 40 more were wounded in one weekend in tragic mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso. This tragic list of gun violence in America goes on and on, encompassing not only mass shootings but the gun suicides, incidents of domestic gun violence, city gun violence, and unintentional gun violence that account for far fewer headlines but far more deaths than the mass shootings described above. 

But there’s one common thread between all of these types of shootings: in their aftermath, NRA-allied elected officials offer “thoughts and prayers” to the dead and the survivors, while at the same time blocking any legislative action that could have prevented the shootings in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a Christian activist, so I believe in the power of prayer, but we need more than thoughts and prayers when it comes to stopping gun violence. One of the best ways we can honor the lives lost is by taking action to end gun violence.  Thoughts and prayers heal hearts, but elected officials change laws — and we need both to save lives. 

This is perfectly exemplified by President Trump and Senator McConnell’s response to the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings. Both of them offered thoughts and prayers, then even went so far as to express interest in passing the first significant gun safety law in 25 years. But then NRA President Wayne LaPierre stopped by the White House, and reportedly ordered Trump to “stop the games” on gun safety. After that, Trump and McConnell caved — and several life-saving gun safety bills wound up dying on Senator McConnell’s desk while more than 100 Americans died from gun violence and hundreds more were wounded every single day. 

That’s not good enough. When it comes to our elected officials, thoughts and prayers must be paired with meaningful action. To me, that begins with passing legislation to require background checks on all gun sales, which President Biden called for earlier this month. But it can’t stop there: saving lives will require that we rewrite America’s gun safety laws to make sure that the future of gun violence in America looks nothing like the past.  

Some people might worry that I’m dismissing the power of prayer by saying that I want more than “thoughts and prayers,” but that’s not true. I just know that there are times when we are waiting on God to act, and God is actually waiting on us. My faith has always taught me that God has no other hands but ours, and as scripture puts it, “Faith without works is dead.” If we ask God to move a mountain, God often gives us a shovel. And when we throw our hands up at God and say, “Why don’t you do something,” if we listen closely, we may hear God whisper back to us, “I did do something. I made you.” 

But that doesn’t take anything away from the power of prayer. You know what my community and I do every time we come together after a shooting to counsel survivors and their families, or hold funerals, or try to repair shattered lives and broken communities? We pray — both for the survivors, and for better gun laws. 

God can answer the first prayer, but it’s on elected officials to answer the second — and it’s past time they got started.