13 June 2016

I Don't Need Your Prayers

Recently, there was a shooting in a gay club in Orlando. A homophobe decided that he'd pack up his guns and attack the LGBT community by killing 50 people. Awesome, isn't it?

But perhaps the more jaw-dropping thing I have seen regarding this issue is the reaction of people to it. All over Twitter, all over the Internet, people were saying that everyone should "pray for Orlando". Well guess what? God is dead. And I don't need your prayers. Prayers don't do anything. If you want to help, there are plenty of other means to do so than simply praying.

See, praying just benefits yourself. If you pray, then that schizophrenic conversation you just carried with an imaginary entity simply gives you the comfort and assurance that you have done what needs to be done. But seriously, you prayed just for your own personal emotional release. The victims still need help. So if you really want to help, do something else.

Do other tasks like donating blood, or legislating tougher gun control laws, or actively participating in efforts to eradicate homophobia. Do that instead of prayer. Prayers are meaningless.

I saw the reactions of Republican and other conservative politicians, who immediately acted to politicize this event. It was cognitively dissonant, when you see them expressing condolences and other words of emotional support, when at the same time, in other arenas, the LGBT community is the sector of society that these exact same conservatives are trying to eradicate. It is baffling to see these politicians wanting to reverse same-sex marriage, institute homophobic anti-transgender bathroom laws, and in general discriminate against the LGBT community, and at the same time express hollow words of condolences.

Great, isn't it?

So no, don't pray for Orlando. Don't express condolences when you're just a plain old hypocrite. If you really want to help, there are plenty of other venues for that aside from praying.


  1. I completely agree. I'd love to add as well that many believers from other faith (i.e. other than Muslims) have zero issue bashing the LGBT community the rest of the time, and that him being Muslim has nothing to do with the fact he was first and foremost a complete asshole with a major anger issue.

    Oh, and shall we say once again that guns and apparently easy access to weapons in the US are a major issue??

    1. Zhu,

      I am not sure I think that his being a Muslim didn't play a role here, but regardless of the motive, I find that the American weapon culture is indeed a major issue. If you have that easy access to guns, then it's easy for people who have issues (religious or otherwise) to have access to them and wreck havoc like this guy did.