This Week in God (Maddow Blog)

[AlbertCat]

First up from the God Machine this week is a reaction from a leading Republican lawmaker to the “thoughts and prayers are not enough” argument in response to mass shootings.

President Obama has been a leading proponent of the idea that well wishes in the response to gun violence are welcome, but are ultimately inadequate. After one mass shooting last fall, the president argued, “[T]houghts and prayers are not enough…. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America, next week or a couple of months from now.”

Two months later, after even deadlier mass shooting, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) took the sentiment a little further. “Your ‘thoughts’ should be about steps to take to stop this carnage,” the senator said. “Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing – again.”

This week, Congress’ leading Republican offered his response to the argument. The New York Daily News reported:

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday blasted critics who say prayer isn’t an adequate response to mass shootings and defended his rifle-loving party’s do-nothing approach to gun violence.

“The attitude in some quarters these days is, ‘Don’t just pray; do something about it,”’ Ryan said at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. “The thing is, when you are praying, you are doing something about it. You are revealing the presence of God.”


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the rest
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-2616?cid=sm_fb_maddow