Flags were lowered across the country this week as tempers flared in the aftermath of a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, in which a self-identified transgender woman killed three children and three adults.
Among those killed in this heinous attack was the 9-year-old daughter of the school’s senior pastor, Chad Scruggs, who stated: “Through tears, we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus who will raise her to life once again.”
Instead of mourning the loss of innocent life as any rational person would, Whoopi Goldberg, the ringmaster of the ABC chat show “The View,” wasted no time in jumping on a bandwagon that actively sought to undermine the spiritual power of Christian prayer.
The day after the Monday attack, Goldberg was on set wearing a sweater with the words “Thoughts and Prayers” crossed out and the words “Policy and Change” in their place.
Whoopi Goldberg's sweatshirt on today's broadcast of The View. pic.twitter.com/7aTvQEseQS
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 28, 2023
The nihilistic message, a direct insult to tens of millions of Americans’ religious faith, embodies a growing movement in the United States that seeks to replace reliance on God with reliance on government.
According to secular statists like Goldberg, we no longer need an outlet to a higher power and His divine intervention. Instead, we require the secular intervention of a totalitarian government with the goal of eradicating constitutional rights declared by our Founding Fathers to have been established by that same higher power.
(Of course, the Constitution does not mention God, but the Declaration of Independence states unequivocally that humans are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” And the “Blessings of Liberty” mentioned in the Preamble to the Constitution had to come from somewhere.)
Despite her obvious allegiances, Goldberg is not the originator of the blasphemous slogan.
These same anti-prayer sentiments were circulating among liberals in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to the BBC at the time.
That same year, organizations such as the radically progressive People’s Action used the tragedy to push anti-gun rhetoric.
People’s Action specifically blamed Republicans for the Florida massacre, despite the fact that the attack was carried out by a mentally disturbed individual about whom the FBI had been warned prior to the massacre.
“With today’s news, this year’s death toll from school shootings now stands at 21,” People’s Action said on its fundraising website. Thoughts and prayers will not bring them back or prevent the next generation from dying.”
The statement was headlined: “We need policy and change. Not just thoughts and prayers.”
What is more disturbing is those who should be true leaders in Christian circles have used the Nashville tragedy to denigrate the power of prayer as well.
According to USA Today, Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black actually used his prayer at the body’s opening Tuesday in a way that almost sounds tailored to fit the progressive worldview.
“When babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers,” Black said.
There are numerous ways to express the idea that good intentions and expressions of faith are insufficient for good to triumph over evil — that human action is required. “Faith without works is dead,” says James 2:20.
However, as Black phrased it, “move beyond thoughts and prayers” comes across as cynically mocking, a line better suited to a late-night comedian (or daytime TV talk show host) than a man of the cloth — especially one so highly appointed to a position of Christian spiritual authority.
Goldberg did not start this disturbing trend, but she is recklessly spreading and perpetuating it.
As progressives like Goldberg undermine the concept of praying to the God Who gave His only Son to save you, I implore you to pray to that God with all your heart.
Only the blood of the Son can save you from what follows.