Prayers are as useless as retweets and shares

This cycle seems to never end.

A mass shooting occurs in the United States. It trends on Facebook and Twitter. Thoughts and prayers are sent. Memes are created to push whichever agenda you so choose. Nothing else happens. Another mass shooting occurs.

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Saturday night was unfortunately no different.

Sunday morning, as we all woke up to the horrific news of a gunman opening fire in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, many took to social media to send their condolences.

But let’s rewind a bit to see who exactly are these people that are sending out these messages.

On November 6, 2015, three Republican presidential candidates in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee attended an event dubbed the National Religious Liberties Conference where a Colorado pastor named Kevin Swanson referenced the Bible as a means for “homosexuals” to be executed.

“Yes, Leviticus 20:13 calls for the death penalty for homosexuals,” Swanson said. “Yes, Romans chapter 1 verse 32 the Apostle Paul does say that homosexuals are worthy of death. His words not mine! And I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! And I am not ashamed of the truth of the word of God. And I am willing to go to jail for standing on the truth of the word of God.”

Cruz kept quiet for a month until finally his campaign finally admitted it was a “mistake” to have attended the event. Meanwhile, Huckabee claimed ignorance, telling a reporter he didn’t “have any knowledge” that the pastor backs the death penalty for homosexuality. You can correct me if I’m wrong but I haven’t read or seen anything from the Jindal campaign distancing itself from Swanson.

Fast forward to this past weekend and you can see these same politicians giving out their condolences to the 49 who were slain at the gay club.

Ted Cruz on Twitter wrote “Today, all of American stands in solidarity with the people of Orlando.”

In a longer post on Facebook, he wrote “Our hearts go out to those killed and wounded last night. Our prayers are with their families, and with all their grieving loved ones.”

Mike Huckabee tweeted out “Please join Janet and me in praying for the victims of the Orlando attack and their families.”

Bobby Jindal wrote, also on Twitter, “Horrified and saddened by the deadly terrorist attack in Orlando. Supriya and I are praying for those affected by this terrible tragedy.”

There are many other hypocrites out there but these three politicians were the ones who attended a rally calling for the death of homosexuals. These three were the ones who shared a stage with a man who claimed the November 2015 Paris attacks were God sending a message. The same man who rallied against Disney’s Frozen, a children’s film, because it was “produced by an organization that is probably one of the most pro-homosexual organizations in the country.”

And prayers and condolences are what you’re giving them Cruz, Huckabee and Jindal?

The easiest thing for me to do is point the fingers on the right-side of the aisle and pointing out how their fear-mongering leads to hate and in some cases like Saturday night, death.

But that wouldn’t be fair. It’s time to point at the left as well. Because tweeting out condolences doesn’t help this stop. Admittedly, writing these columns every so often doesn’t necessarily do anything other than hopefully awareness. But if that’s the only thing I do then I’ve done nothing to stop the cycle.

I saw a post out on Twitter from Holly Anderson, the director of politics and news at MTV that made a lot of sense.

She wrote, “just a reminder that if your activism today, this week, this lifetime, starts and ends with your hashtag, you’ve done nothing.”

Look up ways you can help. MTV.com has an article up with ways to help our brothers and sisters out in Florida. Donate blood. Donate plasma. Donate money to help the victims’ families.

But more importantly, don’t just pray. Because prayer will not bring those 49 slain victims back from the dead. Nor will prayer stop a speeding bullet from penetrating another victim’s chest in the future.

I may not be the world’s best Christian but I was born into faith and brought up as a Catholic. I collect ashes during Ash Wednesday, fast during Lent, pray before meals and you may even catch me sneaking in a sign of the cross before games. But I also know that prayer isn’t enough.

We can’t pray the bad to go away. We need to collectively do it ourselves instead of depending on God to fix our mistakes.