Paid To Pray

[57Brave]

The level of arrogance and patronizing condescension shown by weapons defenders is appalling.
Somehow or other when people invoke the notion of prayer -- they seem to get a free pass.


............

" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...dffa0?c6zs38fr

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has accepted more than $1.3 million from gun rights groups -- a sum the Sunlight Foundation notes is "far more than any other member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation." Johnson holds an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association for opposing gun control measures, including a proposed ban on ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets.

Johnson on Wednesday sent "thoughts and prayers" to California.

[57Brave]

Guys. No one is seriously saying don’t pray. Pray all you want! But if that is your only response to yet another mass shooting, in an America in which there is more than one mass shooting per day, then you deserve to be criticized and mocked. If praying is a substitute for doing and you are a politician whose job is to do things to make this country better, we have a problem.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015...haming-a-thing

[sturg33]

Guys. No one is seriously saying don’t pray. Pray all you want! But if that is your only response to yet another mass shooting, in an America in which there is more than one mass shooting per day, then you deserve to be criticized and mocked. If praying is a substitute for doing and you are a politician whose job is to do things to make this country better, we have a problem.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015...haming-a-thing

You're kind of being told not to pray when you immediately get publicly shamed when yous imply say "prayers to the families" (although I don't know why everyone feels the need to socialize their sympathy...)

You keep saying you dont support banning guns... I think that is all that could have stopped something like this. Like I said, they guy who bought the guns had 0 criminal record.

[57Brave]

I don't support banning guns. I do support heavily regulating the manufacturing of weapons. And further regulating their retail availability. Making them scarce at the source and the ones that do make circulation more expensive to obtain

[57Brave]

You're kind of being told not to pray when you immediately get publicly shamed when yous imply say "prayers to the families" (although I don't know why everyone feels the need to socialize their sympathy...)

You keep saying you dont support banning guns... I think that is all that could have stopped something like this. Like I said, they guy who bought the guns had 0 criminal record.

People can pray all they want. But using prayer as a substitute or cynically using it as a get out of jail free card is about as low as it gets. Sure, pray all you like

[sturg33]

People can pray all they want. But using prayer as a substitute or cynically using it as a get out of jail free card is about as low as it gets. Sure, pray all you like

I better not pray or else I'll have a major magazine try to humiliate me

[57Brave]

I once frequented a place where this piece hung on the wall

" What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[a] works, and I will show you my faith by my[b] works."

..................

So yeah feel free to pray all you like -- but at some point you (royal you ) gotta put your money where your mouth is
or like the saying goes, "dead"

[striker42]

I find it repulsive when politicians insincerely trot out prayer as a way of pandering to religious people. Prayer is not a political tool.

Sometimes, prayer is all you can do. However, when you've been given power to make a difference, at some point maybe you need to realize you're the answer to your own prayer.

That being said, I wish people would quit politicizing mass shootings to support their own political agenda and start actually discussing things that will make a difference while simultaneously preserving our freedom.

[goldfly]

when you've been given power to make a difference, at some point maybe you need to realize you're the answer to your own prayer.

[gilesfan]

I find it repulsive when politicians insincerely trot out prayer as a way of pandering to religious people. Prayer is not a political tool.

Sometimes, prayer is all you can do. However, when you've been given power to make a difference, at some point maybe you need to realize you're the answer to your own prayer.

That being said, I wish people would quit politicizing mass shootings to support their own political agenda and start actually discussing things that will make a difference while simultaneously preserving our freedom.

No one has come up with a sensible solution to this.

[57Brave]

I wish people would quit politicizing mass shootings to support their own political agenda .

I hear this every time there is a mass shooting and wonder,

What does this mean ?

[striker42]

I hear this every time there is a mass shooting and wonder,

What does this mean ?

For me, this means latching onto a tragedy like this to push a something you wanted to get accomplished all along.

Democrats use it to push gun control issues whether or not the program's they're pushing will help or not.

Republicans push concealed carry as a preventive with the same disregard for the effectiveness of it.

Instead of adapting the problem to your preconceived solution, the solution needs to fit the problem. Look for the failure points in the system and what can be done to fix them.

[57Brave]

When people have a political agenda and want to cause panic.

The 355 number includes gang shootings (which no one cares about) and domestic issues.

Do you think large groups of people woke up one morning and said to themselves,"I think we need to strengthen weapon regulations" ?? This " political agenda " did not erupt in a vacuum.

I will remember your point on gang shootings the next time black on black or inner city gangs are brought up.

How arrogant and degrading. As if we don't value those lives as well. That number 4 is reasonable method of measuring mass shootings to my mind. Remember, the problem is mass shootings.
Shootings

[gilesfan]

Do you think large groups of people woke up one morning and said to themselves,"I think we need to strengthen weapon regulations" ?? This " political agenda " did not erupt in a vacuum.

I will remember your point on gang shootings the next time black on black or inner city gangs are brought up.

How arrogant and degrading. As if we don't value those lives as well. That number 4 is reasonable method of measuring mass shootings to my mind. Remember, the problem is mass shootings.
Shootings

The number 4 is not reasonable when someone shooting a BB gun at a group is listed as a "mass shooting."

Look at the map and see the concentration of "mass shootings" in Chicago.... "4 people shot at, no one injured." When don't people spout off about that number in those instances? Why is it only when it's a workplace/school shooting?

[Krgrecw]

Our president still ignores the race that elects him and our problem of violence (illegal weapons, most committed by convicted felons), out of wedlock pregnancies, jobs, education, drugs, etc. The Hispanics even surpassed us in better in life quality in all qualities and most of them are illegal.

<drops mic>

It's not only the president that ignores the black problem with violence it's all liberals. Hillary won't touch it, the media ignores it and all the liberals in here don't care about it. The only time 57 every brings up gun control is when a white person or Muslim In this case goes on a shooting spree.


9 yr old black kid was executed by a gang in Chicago a few weeks back, not one peep about that.

[goldfly]

It's not only the president that ignores the black problem with violence it's all liberals. Hillary won't touch it, the media ignores it and all the liberals in here don't care about it. The only time 57 every brings up gun control is when a white person or Muslim In this case goes on a shooting spree.


9 yr old black kid was executed by a gang in Chicago a few weeks back, not one peep about that.

where is your thread or comments about it (other than right here)? i thought all lives matter?


i thought we had the thread about it but it might have been somewhere else i had it cause i said "the biggest problem is that the dad wasn't working with the cops and that is one of the problems that makes the issue worse"

but i tried to search for it so, i guess it was somewhere else

[57Brave]

The above two posts have nothing to do with the weapons industry paying elected officials to pray rather than legislate.

[sturg33]

So nothing on the data that shows gun violence is vastly lower, 57?

[acesfull86]

So nothing on the data that shows gun violence is vastly lower, 57?

If 2015 has reached the level of epidemic, I don't know what we should call 1995

[50PoundHead]

For all the apparent turmoil in the world, things are generally getting better. I posted this before, but here is a video of a speech Steven Pinker gave at the 2015 Nobel Peace Conference of which my Alma Mater (tiny Augsburg College) is one of the co-sponsors. I don't know who or what to blame, but the histrionics going on in our cultural conversation really belie the basic trend taking place around the globe.