Praying and Doing: A Response to the Mass Shootings in El Paso and Dayton

I did not preach a special sermon last Sunday morning in light of the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, though I did mention the tragedies prior to the sermon.  I urged my congregants to be in prayer for those affected by the shooting and to pray for those in leadership who would respond to the shooting.

I am left wondering should I have said more.  Perhaps not only should I have asked my congregation to pray I should have also asked them to do something.

Over thirty years ago, prior to my entering the ministry, I heard a sermon that had a huge impact on my life.  The sermon was preached by the Reverend Ted Bass at the former Lynmore United Methodist Church in Macon.  In that sermon he wondered aloud if at times Christians weren’t guilty of using prayer as a “cop out.”  He proposed that often times Christians were guilty of saying “lets pray about it” when the better response might be “let’s do something about it.”

Those words came to mind again as I reflected on the recent tragedies.  In the wake of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings my friend and colleague, the Reverend Dalton Rushing, said to his congregation last Sunday, “Prayer is always good. But if our good intentions stop at, ‘Amen,’ I suspect we may not have been so well-intentioned after all.”

Writing in the Washington Post also in the aftermath of the shootings E. J. Dionne declares, “Invoking God and calling for prayer should never seem obscene. But it is always obscene to use the Almighty to escape our own responsibility.”

Both of these pastors and the newspaper columnist are telling us is that while prayer is foundational act for all Christians we, as followers of Jesus Christ, have a responsibility to take action as well as pray.  There is a time when Jesus calls us to do more than pray.

There is phrase that is often bandied about in our spiritual conversation that says “Let Go and Let God.”  To be perfectly honest I’ve never liked that phrase because in that phrase I see a veiled attempt at forgetting our own personal responsibility.  We are never called by God to sit down and watch him do all the work.

The truth is that praying should never be a substitute for doing.  If we are honest there our situations in life in which we do not know what to do.  It is on those situations that we are called to pray to God for wisdom and ask for guidance in directing our actions.

I find myself praying for wisdom an awful lot.  There are countless times that I need God’s direction for what I need to do and yes at times not do.

So it is that we return to the Walmart in El Paso and the night life district in Dayton.  What can we do?  Obviously, we can do nothing about what happened.    It is done.  The bell cannot be un-rung.  Yet, we can ask ourselves the question of “why” in order that it might not happen again.

There are many factors that go into why one would engage in the act of a mass shooting.  The overheated rhetoric of our current civil discourse is one factor to be sure.  The dysfunction that is found in many of our homes could certainly play a roll.  The abuse and misuse of social media no doubt plays a factor.  We cannot ignore the fact that there are questions that need to be asked about the role of guns in our culture.

All of these factors are important.  At the same time we must acknowledge that many of these factors are amoral.  Conversations, homes, social media and yes, even guns have no morality in and of themselves.  It is the people that frame the conversations, those who inhabit our homes, the ones who use social media and the users of guns that make them moral or immoral.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t have conversations about those things.   It is time that we demand civility from our leaders and in our public discourse.  We can disagree without hatred. We can debate without vitriol.  We as a people must accept nothing less.  (As an aside, the church needs to model this in our discussions of the issues we face.)

We need, as Christians, to promote healthy family life.  It is not enough for the church to deliver pious platitudes about family life.  Rather, the church must seek out ways to minister to families within each family’s context.

Social media is a wonderful tool.  Over the years it has allowed me to reconnect with people from my past and to extend my circle of friends.  At the same time, it is also allowed for the spread of hateful speech and allowed repulsive views to have a public following.  A good start for each of us would be to monitor our own social media behavior and ask ourselves if it is uplifting or detrimental to those it touches.

Guns are another matter entirely.  I personally don’t own a gun.  I’ve always said that the day my generation of little Southern boys were sent to hunting and shooting school I must have had the flu.  Guns have never really interested me.  That said, I understand that gun ownership is protected by our constitution, just like my right to express myself in this blog is protected by the constitution and my right to be a Methodist is protected by the constitution.  When we begin nibbling at any of those rights we should all get nervous.  

However, there must be room for some honest discussion about who can own a gun, the type of guns that are  sold and how a gun is purchased in order to make our streets safer, our schools safer and our public spaces safer.  It seems that logic and common sense can overcome the extreme positions of both ends of the spectrum when this issue is raised. I will be honest.  I don’t have an answer to this question; however, we can demand this conversation of our leaders.

In the end we must confront the fact that these mass shootings are matters of the soul.  One’s soul has to be ensconced in utter darkness to massacre folks shopping at Walmart or enjoying a Saturday night in Ohio.  Yes, racism reared its ugly head last weekend.  We also know that the overwhelming witness of the Gospel is the universal love of all persons.

The problem that led to the events of last weekend is as old as the Garden of Eden.  The solution to that problem is as old as the Cross.  We can we do? We can be genuine in our witness for Christ.  I’m not talking about standing on a street corner with a bullhorn imploring people to “Get Right with God.”  Actually that would be fairly easy compared  to real genuine faith sharing.

Genuine faith sharing means showing compassion for those in need, loving our neighbors as ourselves.  Genuine faith sharing means caring enough to invite someone to join us in worship.  Genuine faith sharing means making ourselves available to others. 

I believe that folks are drawn to what is genuine.  I have never seen a pretend racist.  I have never seen a pretend hate monger.  Christians too must be genuine. If we are genuine in sharing our faith then we have the potential to change our world.

Yes now is the time to pray.  However, it is also the time to do.  In Luke 10 we read that a man came to Jesus and asked him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus asked the man what the law said and the man replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.”

After hearing the man’s answer Jesus told the man that he indeed given him the right answer.  Jesus then said to him, “Do this.” The man then asked Jesus to expand his thoughts on loving one’s neighbor and Jesus told a story that is familiar to all of us.  After hearing the story Jesus and the man had an exchange with Jesus saying to the man, “Go and do.”

While a heaping helping of prayers is important in these critical moments, a heaping helping of doing is no less a part of our response as Christians.