By Joshua Gill
Gun control advocates slammed offers of thoughts and prayers on Twitter mere minutes after news broke of a Florida school shooting on Ash Wednesday.
Critics took to Twitter to bash those offering thoughts and prayers moments after news broke that a gunman attacked students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and shot at least 14 victims on Wednesday afternoon, the first day of Lent.
A student identified only as Aidan who was trapped within the school during the shooting and posted pictures from the inside of his classroom. The student requested that those on the outside send their love and prayers to the victims’ families, but gun control advocates had none of it.
Hello, Twitter. I am closing my DM’s but I appreciate everyone contacting me. I am still locked in the school, but remember I’m only a freshman. Please don’t just send your love to me, but pray for the victims’ families too. Love you all.
— Aidan Minoff (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018
Those who dared to offer thoughts and prayers for him and for those suffering loss on Wednesday met with a barrage of outrage from celebrities and other notable figures on social media. Some critics even accused those who offered thoughts and prayers of not only insulting those affected by school shootings, but also of being complicit in the shootings themselves.
Several critics specifically called out President Donald Trump and members of the GOP who offered words of comfort and prayers and accused them of doing nothing to help prevent school shootings since, in their view, gun control trumps divine aid. Many of them completely dismissed prayer as having no value on the first day of one of the holiest liturgical seasons in the Christian faith.
Yes, but we can all feel safer because Rubio's and Trump's thoughts and prayers are with the victims https://t.co/sAPcLPOBpa
— John Merrow (@John_Merrow) February 14, 2018
How are those WH “thoughts and prayers” working out? https://t.co/VXJI22AFpI
— Michael McKee (@mckonomy) February 14, 2018
Thoughts and prayers obviously ain’t doin’ shit to stop nothin’.
— J.D. Evermore (@jd_evermore) February 14, 2018
Has anyone built a way to count the instances of #thoughtsandprayers after a tragedy like this?
Rings so hollow.
— Christian H. Cooper (@ChristianCooper) February 14, 2018
I will take back everything bad I’ve ever said about Trump if he does something about the gun issue.
But hey thoughts and prayers seem to be crushing it soooo.
— Nathan Graham (@TheNathanGraham) February 14, 2018
Every time you send #thoughtsandprayers a child shoots another child in the face.
— mark hamilton (@MxHamx) February 14, 2018
Some critics also accused congressmen who offered thoughts and prayers of taking “blood money” from the NRA.
.@JimInhofe received $3,795 in expenditures from @NRA and continues to oppose any efforts to limit guns in America.
All he does is tweet his thoughts and prayers. https://t.co/QAQSeVwAIj
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 14, 2018
Whether the critics intended to do so or not, they bashed the request of one of the very victims confronted with the horror of the school shooting and insulted the faith of millions of Christians who today entered a season of contemplating Christ’s sacrifice, many of whom beseeched God to grant peace and healing to the survivors of the tragedy and the families of the victims.
My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018
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Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-32