Thoughts and Prayers No Longer Cut It

Last updated on: January 20, 2023 at 10:49 am by Julie Nichols

Thoughts and Prayers No Longer Cut It 2023-01-20T10:49:29-06:00 Julie Nichols

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Since the day Trump mocked the disabled reporter, my life hasn’t been the same. Christians criticize other Christians for deconstructing their faith. When in reality, it is spontaneous. As a disability practitioner, watching Trump mock a disabled man and then watching Christians defend this action changed my life forever. This is when I knew for certain that there was something terribly wrong with white Religious Right/Catholic Right although I had my former suspicions. This is when my journey began out of uber-conservative religious circles to urban Catholicism.

I define the Religious Right/Catholic Right as not all religious conservatives but a specific percentage of them who have been bedfellows with the Republican party for 50 years, defended Trump unconditionally, have a disdain for the civil rights of others not like themselves, speak words with little to no actions, lie to and abuse others consistently inside and outside the Church, and tried to “end abortion” at ALL costs, even at the cost of endangering many other marginalized lives. A good example is the former Father Frank Pavone, now Mr. Frank Pavone. Ending abortion should not mean wreaking the witness of the Church via Trumpism, destroying our democracy, and demonizing anyone who is unlike most Americans and most Christians/Catholics in the country. The Religious Right/Catholic Right has proven over 50 years of power that they cannot abolish abortion without destroying and dehumanizing everyone else but their kind. I don’t know if the Religious Right/Catholic Right understands what their words and actions have done to other people. Let’s take a just a brief but not comprehensive look.

The Guttmacher Institute is one of the leading research institutes in the country. In this 2018 article, which is still relevant, it speaks of the toll and hardships the Religious Right/Catholic Right has done to public health and the Common Good related to healthcare. One of the key methods of their destruction is using “Religious Liberties” to withhold care from others, like life-saving gender -affirming care from transgender/gender dysphoric youth. This is only one example of many. https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2018/05/bad-faith-how-conservatives-are-weaponizing-religious-liberty-allow-institutions

According to this NPR article, a leading news publisher, the Religious Right/Catholic Right is losing credibility because their words do not match their actions. You don’t say?? https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2018/05/bad-faith-how-conservatives-are-weaponizing-religious-liberty-allow-institutions

According to Slate, another popular news publisher, the Original Sin of the Religious Right/Catholic Right over decades is racial segregation. Yes, they have intentionally segregated churches by racial divides through political power. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/the-truth-about-the-religious-right-now-celebrating-the-end-of-roe.html

The New York Times alleges that the Religious Right/Catholic Right is “Taking America down with them.” I couldn’t agree more. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/opinion/religious-right-america.html

In this article by CNN titled, “How thoughts and prayers went from common condolence to cynical meme,” this essentially summarizes the hypocrisy and cruelty of the Religious Right/Catholic Right. The Right to Bear Arms is more important than the lives of schoolchildren to them. I didn’t believe this truth until the Uvalde shooting where people I actually knew were more concerned about their guns being registered and accounted for than the lives lost at Robb Elementary School. The history of this gun callousness goes way back in the history of the Religious Right/Catholic Right over decades. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/20/us/thoughts-and-prayers-florida-school-shooting-trnd/index.html

This book, Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How it Distorts the Truth, is one of many books written about the lies the right-wing has told for decades to win elections at all costs by any means possible, even at the cost of lives, destroying families, and going backwards in civil rights for all non-minority Americans, not just themselves.

According to Scientific American, anti-science tactics have cost the American people. The anti-science positions against evolution, human-induced climate change, vaccines, and more are just some of the anti-science tactics performed to harm people and the planet. I will add the anti-science tactics towards LGBTQ+ people and their families. The refusal to recognize the LGBTQ+ spectrum as a true spectrum of psychology has endangered these peoples’ lives and the lives of their families. The arrogance of saying “the other 98% of the medical and scientific communities are wrong, and I am right” is beyond comprehension. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antiscience-beliefs-jeopardize-us-democracy/

MSNBC News also published an article about the dangerous ties between the Religious Right and the actions of January 6th. Sorry, but blaming this event on ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter will not cut it with most Americans. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/jan-6-hearings-trump-secular-white-christian-nationalism-rcna39157

The list of research-based articles, news-based articles, and books written about the bad behavior of the Religious Right/Catholic Right is endless. Many books and articles written by people of faith like myself call out their shenanigans. There is no possible way to blame research, news sources, and books for skewing the truth as they like to claim. The injustices are all around us in plain view. The research, news sources, and books only confirm actual events and truth. The Religious Right/Catholic Right needs to repent of all the above by first looking in the mirror.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 17, 2023

A Litmus Test--Was the Female Vote Coerced?

Next Post

January 25, 2023 Good Mental Health is Consistent with a Healthy Faith

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 July 2025 May 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz