Recently we shared a commentary from the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview regarding keeping a Christian perspective in the aftermath of a shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood. Today we want to share another commentary of theirs–this time regarding the “prayer shaming” we have seen in the wake of the San Bernardino attack.
John Stonestreet writes of the new, anti-prayer approach to life’s problems,
The epitome of ‘prayer shaming’ was the front page of the New York Daily News on Thursday, which read ‘God Isn’t Fixing This,’ and called talk of prayer ‘meaningless platitudes.’ As Rod Dreher rightly commented, these kind of statements ‘reveal a total lack of understanding of what religious people believe, and why.’ . . . .
In this worldview, the world and all its complexities can be reduced to mathematical models, and controlled by our best ideas and efforts, and the problems can be, if not eliminated, at least ameliorated.
But it’s a worldview that consistently fails.
Of course its worth noting that during the San Bernardino attack itself, victims texted loved ones at home, asking for prayer and some reported praying with each other as the shooting unfolded. If the victims of the attack are asking for prayer, then prayer seems like an entirely appropriate response.
You can read Stonestreet’s entire commentary here, or listen to it below.
[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2015/120715_BP.mp3|titles=Prayer Shaming and San Bernardino]
