Many of my friends are posting comments like, “No more prayers” on social media in response to the most recent mass shooting in America. I understand their point, but I think it is misguided, and I chose the title of this blog post to illustrate this.

One person, whom I’ll refer to as a Radical Humanist attacked me on Twitter when I posted “Make straight the way of the Lord, in San Bernardino, in Colorado Springs, In all those places of darkness where God's lLove seems so far away”

I choose my words carefully. As an Episcopalian, I seek to coexist with people from all belief structures. I seek to find common ground and ways we can work together. Unfortunately, there are radicals in every belief structure that fight against coexistence. Some simply pick fights online, others pick up physical weapons. I’m glad that the radical humanist that attacked me chose to do so only with words, and I challenged him to show me where the compassion is in his words. He could not.

My tweet harkened to the season of Advent, which we Episcopalians are currently observing. It is a time of waiting and watching for the coming of the Kingdom of God, of waiting and watching for Christmas. It is a time of recognizing the darkness that is in the world.

To me, this does not mean not doing anything. In a sermon I preached in the summer of 2013, I said

Yet, another issue with prayer is that too often it is viewed as an excuse for doing nothing. Too often, we feel, when we've prayed about something important, that it's all we can or need to do.

Yet I don't believe that is at all what God has in mind for us. Prayer is linked with mission, with going out to proclaim the Gospel. One of the things I've learned from much time working with various well run volunteer and non-profit organizations, is that when a person says, “I think we should....” and goes on to talk about one task or another, the wise leader responds, “Thank you for the great idea. Does this mean that you are willing to head up a group to make this happen?” Suggesting is volunteering. Prayer should be too.

It is an old problem, either/or thinking. It is possible to do two things, like pray, and act on the prayer. I believe this is generally what God calls us to. I went into this in a comment I posted on Facebook:

I think it is a dangerous path to take saying "No More Prayers" or "God' Isn't Fixing This". It sets up a narrative for the gun culture about Godless liberals taking away their guns. It reflects either/or thinking which contributes to so many of our problems and blocks progress in many cases. Instead, Senator Murphy's approach has a nuance that is much more effective. It is a both/and approach. If you're going to pray, back up your prayers with action.

Saying No More Prayers is very much like saying No More Facebook. We all know the problems with Slacktivism, but telling people not to use Facebook until the issue of gun violence in America is fixed just doesn't seem wise.

My two cents, as a candidate who has gone door to door talking with voters about gun violence, and still posts messages of praying for victims.

Instead, we need to promote the narrative that ending gun violence is the Christian thing to do, as well as the humanist thing, and the Jewish thing, and the Muslim thing, and the thing of all religions. We need to stand with Bishops Against Gun Violence to http://www.claimitgc.org/> Claim Common Ground Against Gun Violence. We need to be part of Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence. We need to participate in The 2015 National Gun Violence Sabbath Weekend is December 10-14

We need to change the narrative about gun control and gun culture to one of proclaiming God’s love by working to stop gun violence.