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Religion and prayer after San Bernardino

From almost the moment the news broke Wednesday about the shooting in San Bernardino, this tragedy became a debate about religion.
[additional-authors]
December 7, 2015

From almost the moment the news broke Wednesday about the shooting in San Bernardino, this tragedy became a debate about religion. As politicians took to Twitter to offer their “thoughts and prayers” for the victims, many responded that thoughts and prayers in the face of such a familiar horror were simply not enough. This sparked a debate about whether Liberals were “prayer-shaming” those who find comfort, meaning and hope in religion. Senator Ted Cruz responded to the tragedy by doubling down on his promise to safeguard our “God-given right” to protect ourselves, our families and our homes. And then we learned the shooters were Muslim.

Now we have moved on to a debate about how to make meaning of the religion of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, two Muslims who had never before shown a predilection for violent extremism. Some, like Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., have betrayed their Islamophobia, saying that we need more citizens with concealed weapons to “defeat Muslims.” Others have discussed what this shooting might tell us about the spread of ISIS, the radicalization of some Muslims, and the need to keep guns away from would-be terrorists. 

There is an important debate to be had about the role of religion in this shooting and in our response, but we can’t let that distract us. The real debate is about guns and our nation’s unwillingness to address the mass violence that is all too common and predictable in our communities.

This is a problem that knows no religion, though all people of faith are its victims. It is neither a Muslim problem nor a Christian problem, nor a Jewish one. This is a plague that is wholly and uniquely American. The perpetrators of the tragedies in San Bernardino, Savannah, Colorado Springs, Roseburg and Charleston (to list only a few of the countless names on the map of national disgrace) share just one thing in common. Not race, faith, zip code, party affiliation, mental health, age, wealth, educational opportunity, employment, or knowledge of the Constitution. They are united only in their access to firearms. 

Religious extremism is a serious problem, we should strive to counter it with compassion, education and understanding, but we will never abolish it. Hatred, racism and bigotry are forces we must fight with every fiber of our beings – but they will always be with us. We cannot choose to get rid of the beliefs that feed violence, but we can choose to stop giving that hatred the tools for mass destruction.

I am a person of faith who finds strength, comfort and knowledge in prayer. I choose to pray for an end to this cycle of senseless violence and I hope others will join me. But one thing I know for sure is that ‘thoughts and prayers’ by themselves will not get us there. Praying after the fact for something preventable is an affront to God and humanity. Prayer without action is just noise.

Prayer works only if it softens the hardened heart and opens it to the message of healing and justice that flows through sacred words. Prayer works only if it leads to contrition and repentance. Prayer works only if it is not an excuse for self-justification.

Our right to protect ourselves and our families may be God-given, but man alone is responsible for guns. Man alone has the power to change the laws and culture that have allowed so many to perish in the name of gun rights. No God that I pray to values our right to bear arms over our right to live safely and without fear. The only thing more shameful than allowing this violence to continue is invoking God in its justification and offering prayer as its only solution.

It was just a few months ago – remember Yom Kippur, the holiest day on our calendar? — that I was among people of all ages committed to spending the entire day in thoughts and prayers. But before we uttered a single word, we were admonished by the words of the earliest rabbis who cautioned about this business of symbolic piety. Two millennia ago, generations before the invention of guns, they taught: a person who says, “I will sin and then repent, I will sin and then repent has no power to repent.”

Repentance is an option that is no longer available. We’ve gone as far as prayer and good will will take us. People of all political persuasions, every faith community, every philosophy about hunting and self-defense and domestic security and sports must put any thoughts and prayers ahead of these tragedies instead of after them. And then it will take our action to save innocent lives.

Religion is neither the cause of this violence nor its solution. The problem is guns, and the answer is not thoughts and prayers from anyone.

Rabbi Jack Moline is the executive director of Interfaith Alliance, an organization committed to religious freedom for all. Before that he served as a congregational rabbi in Alexandria, VA for nearly thirty years.

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