I have been trying to recall how many articles I have written in response to mass shootings; how many times I’ve talked about them in sermons and how many candles have been lit.

One would be too many.  And there have been far more than that.

And each time we not only grieve but we hope.  We hope that this will be the time when our leaders will enact change.  Maybe this tragedy is large enough that it cannot pass without tangible action.  It is sad that our hope comes from such a place, but it does.

So will this time inspire the change we hope for?  It is hard to say.  Local, state, and federal leaders are again calling for prayers.  They say that they, themselves, are praying.  

But, you know what?  I’m at a place where I don’t want their prayers.  Those of us who are the church universal, we can take care of the praying.  That’s our wheelhouse.  Their wheelhouse is ending this pandemic of gun violence.  At least it should be.  That’s their job and they need to do it.  Now.  

Prayer shouldn’t be used as a way for them to say that they have addressed the issue.  We’ll carry prayer for them.  They can check praying off their list because we’ve got that.

Those leaders who are people of faith should not be asking why God isn’t solving this problem because God has placed them in the best possible place to legislate those solutions on God’s behalf.  That is how they should be activating their faith.    

When we are hurting, the best way forward is to channel that hurt into something meaningful.  The same is true for anger and outrage.  As awful as this moment is, we should not let it pass or allow ourselves to catch our breath or wait and see how we feel later.  The pain of the moment is exactly the time to realize what needs to be done to end our society’s addiction to guns.  

At home in our wheelhouse, that is what we should all be praying for; even as we pressure our leaders to wake up to their own wheelhouse and do what is so obviously the right and faithful thing.

See you in church,

–Rev. Dominic