On last night’s Full Frontal, Samantha Bee spent a full segment condemning the hollow thoughts and prayers of politicians who have the ability to prevent gun violence… but choose to do nothing.
And then, just to hammer the point home, she invited the Harlem Gospel Choir to sing a beautiful song about how prayer alone isn’t enough.
You have to read the lyrics for this.
Oh Lord, we pray.
One day we’ll do more than pray.
What if we did something in addition to praying?
Like seriously, literally anything!
But mostly, God, I’m talking about legislating.
Oh, awesome Father, you’ve given us so much power.
You’ve given us the faith to make mountains cower.
But can faith pass a universal background check law?
Now that’s religious music I could get behind.
Bee says in the piece that none of this is criticism of religion. It’s criticism of the fact that “thoughts and prayers” are the only things politicians ever offer, and it’s amounted to nothing. They make the speakers feel better, but they do nothing to prevent the next mass shooting.
We know how to minimize future tragedies since other countries that regulate weapons don’t see the massacres that we do. But special interest groups have a lot riding on the idea that the best way to defeat guns is with even more guns. They’ll keep fighting back with misinformation unless rational people who understand the evidence get into office and aren’t swayed by groups like the NRA.