The Right Prayers for Gun Victims

Pious Paul Ryan claims to believe that prayer does work, and that it’s a proper response to gun massacres. Based on the evidence, though, the Big Guy is either deaf in one ear, or else we’re just not saying the right prayers. So what is the proper way to phrase prayers so the words won’t, like all those before them, fail to end the slaughter?

Last Friday at the Washington Cathedral Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner quoted a Yom Kippur prayer and offered this lament:

In our torment, we cry out and ask our nation and especially, our lawmakers: Who shall be bold and who shall hide? Who will say yes to common sense gun safety laws and no to weapons of war?

Who will say yes to background checks and no to easily available silencers? Who will protect our children and who will cower before the NRA? Who will help our nation heal and who will deepen our wounds?

Here’s one the Mennonites offered in Times Square on Good Friday, 2013:

Today, we pray for wisdom for the politicians and activists advocating for stricter gun regulations.

Here’s one written by the Rt. Rev. Stephen T. Lane, Episcopal bishop of Maine, in 2016:

God of Righteousness, you have given our leaders, the members of Congress, the judges of our courts and members of our legislatures, power and responsibility to protect us and to uphold our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For all who bear such responsibility, for all who struggle to discern what is right in the face of powerful political forces, Loving God, make us instruments of your peace.

As I say, it’s almost like He’s deaf in one ear.