Voices of Faith: Prayer without action is meaningless in wake of Texas school mass shooting

It’s Wednesday morning, May 25, 2022. The death toll keeps rising, and the headlines now read “At least 14… 18… 19… dead.”

I remember thinking as I cried in the airport on Tuesday as I read some empty Tweet, “Don’t you dare breathe a prayer for this gut wrenching tragedy when you politick for unfettered gun access.”

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Prayer. Prayers. Thoughts and prayers.

When Jesus called people who pray in public hypocrites, he was intentional in using the word hypocrite, which in the Greek meant stage actor — someone playing a part; someone wanting the world to see them as someone other than who they really are. And politicians continuing to Tweet “thoughts and prayers” while our babies are dying because of willful inaction to ensure campaign coffers stay full is certainly the sort of public prayer to which Jesus was referring.

As a pastor, who has a committed spiritual practice to actually pray when I say that I am praying for someone or say that they are in my prayers, I have to ask:

ARE they praying? And if they actually are praying, what in God’s name are they praying for?

Prayer without action is meaningless.

Prayer to make a show of how much you care without action is a sin. Period.

How dare they use the sacred act of prayer to put on a mantle of caring when the gut-wrenching grief of families and communities continues day in and day out.

How dare they use the sacred act of prayer to claim blamelessness when I have to sit and cry with my 16 year old son as he asks, “Why does this keep happening?”

How dare they use the sacred act of prayer for cover for their unwillingness to do anything at all to end the literal carnage.

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How dare they use the sacred act of prayer as a sound byte while our grief compounds; while we traumatize our kids with ALICE drills; while we expect our babies to be heroes instead of playing on the monkey bars; while parents who have no idea that they just had their very last moment with their child kiss their kids good-bye or God forbid — fuss at them before they walk into a school building never to walk out, again; while teachers rehearse every way they can think of to shield all the kids in their care.

How dare they use the sacred act of prayer to silence any opposition when every church I can think of now has locked doors, panic buttons and safety plans.

How dare they claim to be praying to God in the name of Jesus who throughout his entire itinerant ministry demanded action that showed the deepest care for our communities and each other over performative religious adherence.

Prayer is sacred and powerful. But prayer isn’t wishful thinking put to words. Prayer isn’t a space to dump all of the stuff we refuse to personally keep care of on this earth - including each other. Prayer is a commitment to be a part of bringing about “on earth as it is in heaven.” Prayer requires much more than empty words and entreaties. Prayer requires us to live up to our end of God’s sacred covenant to all of us. Prayer requires that we be the hands and feet of the Body of Christ not just the mouth. Prayer demands we strip away our pride, our ego, our will to control, our will to win, our will to be superior. Prayer isn’t a way to pass the buck to God when we know damn well what to do. Prayer is a way to seek strength and fortitude and the gift of the fire of the Holy Spirit to do what’s right especially when it won’t gain us any friends or favor.

So unless that prayer is going to take away the way my heart stopped this morning as I dropped my fourth grader off at school because I wasn’t sure I remembered to say, “Love you 3000,” they can keep it.

I’ll take their action instead.

Pastor Ginger Bakos is the associate pastor of youth & family life at The Bath Church, United Church of Christ, in Bath, Ohio. She is also a local community organizer and activist that believes that God’s call to justice is one we are meant to make our own.  She lives in Kent with her two smart and amazing boys, one jerk of a cat, one sweetheart of a cat and a much loved dog.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Voices of Faith: Prayer without action is meaningless