Thoughts & Prayers, Thoughts & Prayers, Thoughts & Prayers, pretty much the only response of conservatives and too many christians in any crisis. Unsurprisingly, people at large have finally gotten fed up with Thoughts & Prayers, and aren’t at all shy anymore about telling the Thoughts & Prayers Parrots where to stick those thoughts and prayers. This has upset Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition something awful. He has a little petition:

…I’m writing you, along with thousands of other supporters of Faith & Freedom Coalition, to demand that Democrats stop using the lives of the 26 victims of Sutherland Springs to push a political agenda.

As Americans, we need to come together in a time of tragedy. We must focus on what unites us–not how we can score political points.

But instead, members of your party have gone on the record openly mocking Christians for offering their prayers, support, and guidance over the last few days. And worse, members of your party have exploited these victims to push radical gun laws that wouldn’t have prevented the attack in the first place. …

No one is using them as a political prop of any kind. What’s happening is anguished outrage over all those who stubbornly defend absurd and insane laws in this country, which is already drowning in guns, and refusing to acknowledge that change is desperately needed, to save lives. Of course, one of the major problems with christians is that you assholes always go on and on and on about how this life doesn’t count, it’s the one after you’re all dead and decayed.

If you all want to believe that, fine, but stop inflicting that view on everyone else. There are plenty of people who are most focused on this life, because we know it’s all we get, and time is short. It’s truly awful the way christians always find a way to disdain and disrespect life, in spite of all those Thoughts & Prayers. You support unfettered access to guns. You fight even the tiniest of regulations. You defend those men who routinely abuse their families. You protect those who sexually assault and rape. You defend the rights of rapists. You fight against women having the slightest amount of bodily autonomy. You protect those who abuse children. You support and encourage the death penalty. You support wars. Yeah, your morality just shines through all those Thoughts & Prayers.

You act as though Thoughts & Prayers are some sort of action; that they mean something. They don’t. They are just a way for you to hoist yourself into the spotlight, while actively refusing to do one thing which would make for a positive, and less blood-soaked change. Why should anyone give a damn about your parroting prayers? Are all your TweetPrayers so valuable?

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father in secret shall reward thee openly. – Matthew 6: 5-6.

I expect your little petition will be ignored; I certainly hope it will be. After all, if those Thoughts & Prayers were supposedly directed to your god, what difference does it make how others react to them? Oh, ye of little fuckin’ faith, so very frail.

You can see the whole thing here.