Prayer Has Become a Political Cop Out for Evangelical Christians
When humanity is crying for help, should we fold our hands or extend them?
It was 2008, and I was in college, doing what college kids do: drinking overpriced lattes and broadening my horizons. Much to the dismay of my Southern family, those horizons broadened politically.
It was seven years after 9/11, and I had war-weary heart. Several loved ones enlisted in the War on Terror, never to return. The economy was in shambles. The housing market crashed. Student loans were soaring, but the job market wasn’t. Then came the presidential election.
I read up on the politics of a young, Black senator and had a chance to meet him in person. Hope and change were on the menu, and I decided to join the campaign. At one point, I was interviewed on MTV for protesting local voter suppression. But when that interview aired, holy crap…the amount of messages I received, Family, friends, and long-lost relatives, all calling to express “concern” that I was a full-blown Prodigal.
Good little Christian girls are supposed to be sweet and agreeable. Good little Christian girls don’t become political activists.
I was advised that when it came to politics, it was best to be quietly involved. That I should step away from the microphone. “Let go and let God" deal with things.
My gay friends didn’t need marital rights; what they needed was prayer!
Women didn’t need access to free birth control; what they needed was prayer!
Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe in the power of prayer. I’d love nothing more than to trade those canvassing hours for some quiet time with the Lord. I’d prefer to hold my tongue on matters of injustice, and avoid confrontation entirely.
I’d prefer to practice “thoughts and prayers” politics. Prayer by itself is easy.
The problem is, easy and right are rarely the same thing.
Christians cannot simply pray, dust off our hands, and think we’ve fulfilled our duty. Not while our government is failing the marginalized, the poor, the sick, and the needy. All eyes are upon those who claim God’s ministry. How do we act in His name? When we know humanity is crying for help, should we fold our hands our extend them?
For too long, the church has sat on its butt, flicking prayers at the suffering like coins into a wishing pool.
“I’ll pray for you, LGBTQIA community.” *plunk*
“I’ll pray for you, women.” *plunk*
“I’ll pray for you, poverty-stricken families.” *plunk*
“I’ll pray for you Sandy Hook, Orlando, Buffalo, Parkland, Nashville…” the list is too long to recall, anymore.
Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers, for eternity.
Nothing changes if nothing changes. And right now, nothing is changing.
The truth is, prayer was NEVER enough…and it was never intended to be.
Let’s hear what Jesus Himself had to say in Luke 18: 1-5.
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
First of all, can we talk about what a badass this widow was? With no asetts, no rights, and no husband to provide, she was thrown at the mercy of society. But she did not wait for justice to arrive, and she did not rely upon prayer. That widow became a bee in a judge’s bonnet, and demanded her voice be heard.
With this parable, Jesus was teaching his disciples the mathematics of miracle making:
Thoughts + Prayers = Continued Suffering
Actions + Prayers = Results
It breaks my heart to say this, Christians…but prayer has become a political cop-out. A “holy” excuse for the church’s inactions, and sometimes, our own complicity. We hide beneath prayer like some God-given blanket, while ignoring our responsibilities. It’s time to wake up from this spiritual laziness and get back to the holy, necessary work of making miracles happen.
Yes, we should pray for refugees. But we should also care enough to let them in. Yes, we should pray for the poor. But we should also give them our bread.
Yes, we should pray for a solution to gun violence, but we must fight for meaningful legislation.
By all means, Christians should pray. We should pray our freaking hearts out.
But, then we must take the necessary step of giving those prayers some legs.
Fight for justice with the persistence of a widow whose life depends on the outcome. Prayer, alone, shows a lack of conviction.
Faith without works is dead.
EXCELLENT READ! Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Mary Katherine. I found you because a friend shared this post on IG. I'm older than you, but I suspect we grew up similarly. I attended one of the early churches/schools in the Moral Majority. I practice a very different Christianity than what I was taught. I expect you can relate.
Yes, faith without works is dead. But for so many Christians on the far-right, "thoughts and prayers" means something more insidious. I'll give a couple of examples before I elaborate.
My husband is agnostic. Every time my parents talk to him, they say, "We're praying for you." They aren't praying for his safety, health, prosperity or happiness. They're praying for him to accept Jesus. They then vote for 45 twice, say unspeakable things about marginalized communities, and cannot understand why my husband wants nothing to do with their Jesus. I want nothing to do with that Jesus, either.
I have a chronic illness that's caused me to lose partial vision. When my parents tell me they're praying for me, they are praying for me to "get my heart right with God" because "your illness is God's judgment for falling away from the Lord." They aren't praying for a miracle. They don't care if I'm healed. They vote for me to lose my health insurance and blithely say if that happens, "We'll just have to pray."
Far-right Christians, in many cases, offer prayers as judgments. They don't help because they believe people deserve to suffer for their sin. Every time a politician says "thoughts and prayers" or "we need more prayer," I hear "if you'd just reject sin and accept Jesus, he could make these things better. But you keep rejecting him. So suffer while I pray and do nothing to help."
It has been a long, long time since many Christians have meditated on the red words in their Bibles. I am appalled and incensed at how far-right Christians portray Jesus, because you're right. He would ease suffering. He would shelter the homeless. He would feed the hungry. He would heal wherever he could. He never met someone and said, "I'm praying for you," only to show them his back.
Solidarity, my dear. I wish I could sit down with you for a long talk.