Thoughts and prayers... (1 Viewer)

[SystemShock]

So the discussion over at the mother board around the Nashville shooting has turned (yet again) into a discussion about religion and almost-politics (as much as one can keep politics out of a school shooting), with some people taking offense at a video posted on that thread mocking "thoughts and prayers", the usual sentiment from those who don't want to do anything about the problem, whether they themselves can enact laws or just vote for the people who can but don't.

As I stated there, the phrase "thoughts and prayers" is offensive to me. It only serves as comfort for the people who give the "thoughts and prayers", not the people who just had their 6 year old die in a panic in a hail of bullets on a midday inside their classroom; "thoughts and prayers" doesn't begin to comfort the people who just saw their child die horribly, it doesn't begin to account for a live cut so short and taking away everything that child would ever have or be.

"Thoughts and prayers" also serves as a cope out... "I don't have to do anything, let some other entity do something about it, not me; but I am comforted in that I passed the buck, I did a good thing"... ironically, this entity, the Christian god, is the god who loves us all so much, who created everything, who can do everything, yet allows the tragedy to happen.

But some expressed mocking "thoughts and prayers" is offensive to Christians; apparently faith, or believing in something unseen or that you have not even evidence of, is not to be mocked, it is to be respected.

Flat-Earthers have more evidence of the Earth being flat than anyone has of any metaphysical entity, and we mock flat-Earthers all the time. Why should it be different for the Christian myth? Or any such myth, really? Christians mock Hindus because Hindus believe cows are sacred, have no issue with drawing cartoons of Mohammed no matter the subject... so why should Christianity not be mocked?

And even more offensive than "thoughts and prayers", "God has a plan for you". Really? God's plan was that my child die in a hail of bullets in their classroom? Or that I develop cancer? Or that I lose my house and become homeless? Some plan... with love like that, who needs hate.

 

[bird]

Welp, the school shooting issue is not going away anytime soon. Weapons are available like Pez. Freedom is only defined as “I want, you can’t make me” which is the philosophy of a spoiled 4 year old.

As for prayers?

Never mind.

 

[bird]

Your statement is your opinion, nothing more. There’s nothing in it, other than despair.

Here a prayer I’ve said for you.


Oh, my beautiful Immaculate Mother Mary, Queen of sorrows, I beg of You, by the inexpressible agony You endured at the foot of the cross, to offer to the Eternal Father, in my stead, the Holy Face of Your Divine Son, my Jesus, covered with Blood, Wounds and other indignities heaped upon Him during His Sacred Passion, and beg of Him to grant the virtue of hope to System Shock.



Amen

We are taught how to pray. It is called The Lord’s Prayer which you know.

The Roman Church and, imo, the Orthodox Church created a cult around Mary.

 

[Huntn]

Some people say "hopes and prayers," after a mass shooting, and some people complain about the phrase "hopes and prayers," after a mass shooting. Neither accomplishes much as far as preventing more deaths in our public schools.

The one solution that should have no political opposition is hardening the schools. By that I don't mean having a cop standing around or sitting at a desk on their phone.

I happen to be a teacher at a Junior High, and we have an SRO on duty for about half of the school day, and at the next door school the other half. They regularly sit at a desk in front of a floor to ceiling window with three glass doors. That's about forty feet of glass open to the outside. They sit at the desk with their back to that. A shooter like the Nashville looney could take out the officer and gain access by simply shooting through that glass.

Send less equipment to Ukraine, and more to school districts and the police who protect them. Have one less Choir teacher, and one more armed guard. Forego the new plastic furniture, and install bulletproof doors in classrooms. Recruit parent volunteers to patrol the outside and inside of the school with radios to contact the officers and guards.

Any one of those accomplishes far more than either saying "thoughts and prayers" or expressing offense at the phrase "thoughts and prayers."

Is your Avatar sincere or slapstick? The answer might help me better judge your posts.