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I'm a Christian, and here's the thing that particularly frustrates and annoys me when Bible-thumping, Rapture-weirdo politicians constantly reference prayer as the go-to when a mass shooting happens.
Regardless of what you believe prayer does or does not do, it is, at its genuine root, a form of meditation. You are reflecting on that particular thing. You are choosing to focus on that one thing for a few moments.
So, when a politician tells us they're praying over mass shootings, they're telling us they're reflecting on them. They're holding them in serious consideration. They're thinking through gun violence.
You can't genuinely talk to God about a subject without thinking about that subject.
For example, Ted Cruz has been in the Senate for going on ten years. Ten very long years of offering "thoughts and prayers" for victims of mass shootings and their families. He's literally telling us he's been privately thinking about this subject for ten years.
Ted Cruz has supposedly been thinking about mass shootings for ten years in the Senate, and yet, he has provided no answers to this horrific and ongoing crisis beyond vaguely offering more "thoughts and prayers".
Check out the tweet at the top that he put out just a few hours after a mass shooter brutally murdered 20 first graders and six of their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT.
That was almost ten years ago. That was literally thousands of mass shootings ago. Countless “thoughts and prayers” tweets, press releases, and quotes since then.
Do you know what Ted Cruz did after Sandy Hook? He was one of three GOP senators to filibuster bills that would have implemented reasonable and meaningful gun reform after that horrific day.
If Ted Cruz has been thinking for ten years in the Senate and has come up with nothing credible or meaningful in response to this epidemic of carnage, is he really bad at thinking or is he really praying at all?
Either he's lazy at thinking, or he's lying about praying.
Which is it?
Personally, I don’t think he’s lazy at thinking. His cognitive abilities are adequate.
I truly believe that Ted Cruz just doesn’t pray, at least about mass shootings. Like so many of his performative, conservative colleagues, Cruz clearly doesn’t really care about horrific gun violence.
He doesn’t.
I think that’s fairly obvious because if he did care, if Ted Cruz wanted to work in good faith to reduce the frequency of mass shootings, he would have come up with something out of all that prayer—all that thinking—that takes a meaningful step toward compromise and healing.
Ted Cruz is lying when he says he prays about this. He’s not talking to God.
And that’s a damn shame because I think God has a lot to say to him about this.
Hi, I’m Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte’s Web Thoughts, my Substack. It’s completely free to access and read, but if you feel so moved to support my writing, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $210.
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