On receiving the devastating news about the latest mass shooting in Florida, President Trump, in full presidential mode, rose to the occasion with a tweet, offering his thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families:
"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting."
The word gun was glaringly absent.
In response to mass shootings other politicians, primarily Republican, typically echo prayer offerings and also fail to mention guns or the issue of gun control. When queried, they insist that gun tragedies are not the time to discuss gun control. Their lack of action on this issue at other times tells us that for them it's never the right time.
What these sycophants of the NRA fail to note is that their prayers are not working.
As their prayers escalate to deafening decibels, gun violence in America also rises.
Since twenty children between ages six and seven and six adults were killed in the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School there have been at least 200 additional shootings in schools with more than 400 shot and 138 of them killed.
After years of prayers, the greatest loss of lives from gun violence occurred on October 1, 2017, at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. Fifty-nine concertgoers were killed and hundreds wounded by a lone shooter with assault weapons.
And now, following seventeen gunshot incidents in schools in just the first six weeks of 2018, the latest shooting claimed the staggering loss of 14 high school students and three adults at the Marjory Stoneman DouglasHigh School in Broward County, Florida, who were ambushed by a killer with an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon.
Politicians: Don't you get it? Whomever you are praying to is not answering your prayers.
Or perhaps they are, but the money you get from the NRA, which fuels your worship of guns, prevents you from hearing their answer--and even trumps concern for the safety of your own children and grandchildren.
For Christians, surely Jesus has heard your prayers. Isn't that what you believe?
In not responding to your implicit plea that He take care of the problem, Jesus may be sending a strong message that you refuse to hear:
"I've given you the power of choice. You can choose to get rid of the God-damned guns."
(Article changed on February 20, 2018 at 19:30)
