"Thoughts and prayers" is a phrase commonly used by politicians, public figures, and celebrities, particularly in the United States, as a
condolence after a deadly event such as a
natural disaster
A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...
or
mass shooting
A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...
.
The phrase "thoughts and prayers" is often criticized or used sarcastically by political activists, who say the phrase is a replacement for direct action such as
gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians.
Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...
or
counter-terrorism
Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...
legislation.
Usage history
The phrase ''thoughts and prayers'' is frequently used in the United States as an expression of condolences for victims of natural disasters (e.g.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
in 2005, the
2010 Canterbury earthquake 2011 Christchurch earthquake
A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time, local time (23:51 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region ...
, the
2017 Central Mexico earthquake
The 2017 Puebla earthquake, also known as 19S, struck at 13:14 Central Time Zone, CDT (18:14 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC) on 19 September 2017 with an estimated magnitude of 7.1 and strong shaking for about 20 seconds. Its epicenter wa ...
, and
Hurricane Maria in 2017
). In addition, "thoughts and prayers" are also offered to victims of numerous
mass shooting
A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...
s, including the
Columbine High School massacre
A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...
(1999), the
November 2015 Paris attacks, the
Orlando nightclub shooting, and the
2017 Las Vegas shooting.
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
used the phrase as U.S. president. In 2016, he used it following the
St. Joseph courthouse shooting, the
Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, and the shooting of Nykea Aldridge, cousin of professional basketball player
Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. ( or , born January 17, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player who is currently the co-owner of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association. He is also currently the host of the American a ...
. In 2017, he used it following the
Congressional baseball shooting in June and the
Southern California wildfires in December. In 2018, Trump used the phrase following the
2018 Marshall County High School shooting in January, the
Carcassonne and Trèbes attack in March, the
YouTube headquarters shooting in April, and the
''Capital Gazette'' shooting in June.
After the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...
in February 2018, ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'' noted that several
Republican politicians who had previously used the idiom (including Trump and senators
Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state. A member of the Republican Party (United States) , Rep ...
and
Pat Toomey) avoided using the specific phrase "thoughts and prayers" in response to the shooting.
Trump, for example, instead offered "prayers and condolences" via Twitter.
Scott Morrison
Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party and was ...
, the
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...
, offered his thoughts and prayers to the victims of the
2019 Australian bushfires in November 2019, for which Morrison was criticized and compared to American politicians who repeated similar phrases in lieu of gun ownership reforms.
Views
After a natural or human-caused disaster, people may be urged to "go beyond thoughts and prayers", by donating blood or sending aid or money to help the victims. After the Las Vegas shooting, authorities said that although thoughts and prayers are appreciated, the most effective way to help was to give blood. Academic studies have been performed on whether an act of token support leads to sustained contributions; the concept of
moral self-licensing, in which prior good deeds can empower individuals to subsequently behave badly, or conversely, whether prior immoral actions can lead to compensatory moral actions has also been cited as a factor in the use of "thoughts and prayers" in lieu of action.
Criticism
As "thoughts and prayers" became associated with post-tragedy condolences, many have criticized the phrase as a form of
slacktivism
Slacktivism (a blend word, blend of ''slacker'' and ''activism'') is the practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or Online petition, online petitions, characterized as involving very little effort or comm ...
.
Jonathan Foiles, writing in ''
Psychology Today
''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior.
The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...
'', compared the phrase to an infantile response and explained that Thoughts and prayers' is the linguistic equivalent of yelling for something to be different when you have the ability to effect that change yourself".
After the 2007
Virginia Tech shooting
The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree killer, spree shooting that occurred on Monday, April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Tech, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksbu ...
,
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'', called on politicians to "move beyond thoughts and prayers". In her post, vanden Heuvel referred to a press release by
Paul Helmke, then-president of the
Brady Campaign, who offered his thoughts and prayers but also stated "it is long overdue for us to take some common-sense actions to prevent tragedies like this from continuing to occur."
In October 2015, following the
Umpqua Community College shooting, US President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
said that "thoughts and prayers
onot capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted some place else in America next week or a couple months from now."
[ The ]White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
subsequently announced that Obama would continue to take more executive action on the subject of gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians.
Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...
.
On December 2, 2015, in the wake of the San Bernardino mass shooting, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted his frustration with the phrase "thoughts and prayers", a sentiment echoed by the December 3 cover of the ''New York Daily News'', which included tweets from senators and representatives the newspaper characterized as "meaningless platitudes".
After the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018, demands for "policy and change" were used as a pithy rejoinder to the typical "thoughts and prayers" offered by politicians. Student survivors of the shooting were joined by religious leaders in calling for concrete legislative actions.
By August 2019, as reported by the Gun Violence Archive, there were 251 mass shootings in the United States
Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of Gun violence in the United States, firearm related violence. Definitions vary, with no single, broadly accepted definition. One definition is an act of public firearm violence—exclud ...
only 216 days into the year. Robin Lloyd, managing director of the nonprofit Giffords, stated "The days when politicians can get away with offering thoughts and prayers are over. The public knows thoughts and prayers won't prevent the next tragedy." Lloyd called upon Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Addison Mitchell McConnell III (; born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, a seat he has held since 1985. McConnell is in his seventh Senate term and is the long ...
to take action on gun control legislation passed by the House but not heard in the Senate.
After the 2022 Buffalo shooting, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy
Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American politician, diplomat, and financier serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was elected governor i ...
called for stricter federal and state gun laws. He criticized gun control opponents and conspiracy theorists, saying "I think every single one of them knows where they can shove their 'thoughts and prayers.
Shortly after the 2023 Michigan State University shooting Michigan House of Representatives member Ranjeev Puri released a statement which included the phrase "Fuck your thoughts and prayers."
Religious criticism
Some critics of the phrase "thoughts and prayers" point to the Christian New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
to argue that action is needed in addition to expressions of faith. One verse cited to back up this argument is James 2:14–16: "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" Pope Francis
Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
stated that "prayer that doesn't lead to concrete action toward our brothers is a fruitless and incomplete prayer.... Prayer and action must always be profoundly united" in his Sunday Angelus message on July 21, 2013.
Defense
Laura Coward, a writer for ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
'', defended the use of the phrase "thoughts and prayers", acknowledging the inadequacy of not taking actions, but arguing that prayer "jolts us and disrupts us, removing us from our comfort zones .. ittakes us to uncomfortable places – spiritually, physically and emotionally – and asks us to do the hard work of accepting more than one perspective."
The criticism of the phrase "thoughts and prayers" has itself received criticism as insensitive to those who sincerely pray for victims. Katelyn Beaty argued that prayer "is perhaps the most powerful form of action you can engage in during a crisis", citing studies which showed that regular meditation and prayer improved focus and reduced anxiety, touting the potential beneficial effects for "better policy solutions than would an urgent, fretful, ill-considered response".
In 2019, following a weekend in which mass shootings occurred in El Paso
El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...
, Texas, and Dayton
Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
, Ohio, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee
Michael Dale Huckabee (, born August 24, 1955) is an American diplomat, political commentator, Baptist minister, and politician serving as the 29th United States Ambassador to Israel, United States ambassador to Israel since 2025. A member of ...
suggested that, of the continued occurrence of mass shootings, "the lack of thought and prayers is probably the single biggest factor in what is behind them".
In ''The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...
'', Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote that:
According to Mark Tapson of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the "value of thoughts and prayers is that they help victims and survivors get through an atrocity or tragedy by offering compassion, solace, and encouragement, and by invoking divine healing."
"Now is not the time"
Critics say the use of "thoughts and prayers" can be part of a political effort to avoid legislative action intended to reduce gun violence. For example, President Obama said in October 2015 that "to actively do nothing is a oliticaldecision as well."
Such efforts can include the use of "now is not the time" and similar phrases to dismiss calls for reforms as inappropriate attempts to politicize a tragedy. Such efforts can also include suggestions for alternatives to gun-control laws such as mental health reform or increased efforts to prevent terrorism.
Gun politics in the United States
Advocacy for gun control legislation in response to gun violence in the United States has been criticized repeatedly by the use of the phrase "now is not the time", offered as a defense against what could potentially be hastily drafted laws. David Weigel
David Weigel (born September 26, 1981) is an American journalist and columnist at the news website Semafor (website), ''Semafor''. Weigel previously covered politics for ''The Washington Post,'' ''Slate (magazine), Slate,'' and ''Bloomberg Poli ...
pointed out that repeated calls to wait for an "appropriate time" to discuss gun control is the strategy used by the National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
(NRA) to avoid meaningful legislative action. The BBC called "the enthusiasm gap" the "single biggest obstacle to new gun-control laws" in the United States: "Pro-gun politicians offer their thoughts and prayers, observe moments of silence and order flags flown half-staff. Then, in the quiet, legislative efforts are deferred and ultimately derailed."
Following the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at Newtown Public Schools, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. The victims were 20 children bet ...
, several politicians used the phrase "thoughts and prayers" in place of taking immediate legislative action. President Obama called for "meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics", and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...
challenged him to go further: "the country needs bamato send a bill to Congress to fix this problem – and take immediate executive action. Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough. We have heard that rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the President and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response." The resulting proposed federal legislation to control guns, including universal background checks, failed to pass Congress; after the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey amendment failed on April 17, 2013, Obama called it "a pretty shameful day for Washington". However, President Obama has also used "thoughts and prayers" in response to gun violence, showing the ubiquity of the phrase in American politics.
Following the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016, astronomer and skeptic Phil Plait wrote that while it was "natural and very human" to "send their thoughts and express their grief... it's cynically hypocritical when politicians do it ", later noting it was "particularly galling" to see "all the NRA-funded lawmakers tweeting their 'thoughts and prayers. An accompanying ''Slate'' post provided a selected list of members of Congress who had tweeted "thoughts and prayers" along with the amount of campaign contributions they had received from gun rights groups, based on research provided by Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...
. NRA donations to politicians who expressed "thoughts and prayers" in lieu of meaningful gun control legislation were again publicized after the Las Vegas shootings in October 2017 and the Stoneman Douglas shooting in February 2018.
Gun control response in other countries
After the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, prominent international figures offered their thoughts and prayers, including Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...
, Pope Francis, and President of the Republic of China Tsai Ing-wen
Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...
. New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
legislators responded by passing a law banning the ownership of most semi-automatic weapons aside from pistols under limited circumstances. The response in New Zealand was singled out as a counterexample to "the same old tired script: one politician after another condemning the attack and offering thoughts and prayers to the victims and families. But something different happened. Instead of offering thoughts and prayers, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician and activist who was the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was ...
promised action". New Zealand had previously had less restrictions on gun ownership than many other Western countries. Social media posts were made mocking the effectiveness of "thoughts and prayers", comparing the rapid passage of gun control legislation in New Zealand with the repeated failure of United States gun control laws.
In many other Western countries, stricter gun control laws have been passed in response to gun violence. Besides New Zealand, new gun control laws were introduced in the United Kingdom (after the Hungerford massacre in 1987, and again after the Dunblane massacre in 1996), Australia (the National Firearms Agreement
The National Firearms Agreement (NFA), also sometimes called the National Agreement on Firearms, the National Firearms Agreement and Buyback Program, or the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms, is an agreement concerning gun control, firearm control ...
, following the Port Arthur massacre of April 1996), Germany (after shootings in Erfurt in 2002 and Winnenden in 2009), and Norway (a belated response to the 2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks, also called 22 July () or 22/7 in Norway, were two domestic terrorism, domestic terrorist attacks by far-right politics, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik against the politics of Norway, government, the civil ...
). The sustained grassroots campaign that resulted in a ban of all handguns in the UK following the Dunblane massacre of 1996 was contrasted with American inaction in 2018 by a Dunblane resident: "I wouldn't want thoughts and prayers, I would want policies and regulation and a grown-up discussion about changing the American gun culture."
Climate change
In the wake of the February 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...
sent his "thoughts and prayers" to those affected; a royal commission was set up to investigate the cause and response. The Climate Institute of Australia and the United Firefighters Union of Australia concluded that climate change had caused the extreme forest fire danger index leading up to Black Saturday and may have contributed to earlier bushfires dating back to 2001.
During the disastrous 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party and was ...
and other government officials extended their "thoughts and prayers" to the victims; the phrase was criticized for how it was used to deflect attention away from how climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and government policy may have affected the duration and intensity of the fire season.[ Also, PM Morrison was singled out for failing to provide support to fire victims.
David Littleproud, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, stated he did not "want to weaponise limate change policyin the middle of someone's misery", stating it was "not the time" to discuss the government's policy.] Deputy Premier of New South Wales John Barilaro called those who would link climate change to Australia's deadly 2019 bushfires a "bloody disgrace" for politicizing the tragedy.
In culture
Visual media
In his 2015 stand up special '' Thoughts and Prayers'', comedian Anthony Jeselnik skewers people who tweet out "thoughts and prayers" on the day of a tragedy, calling it a way for those people to garner attention in the face of a tragedy and saying that tweeting thoughts and prayers is so useless that it achieves "less than nothing".[
In 2016, a web-based video game, ''Thoughts and Prayers: The Game'', was published to argue that thoughts and prayers have had no effect on saving lives in the context of mass shootings.
The fifth episode of the fourth season of animated series '']BoJack Horseman
''BoJack Horseman'' is an American adult animation, adult animated tragicomedy television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. Set primarily in ...
'', titled " Thoughts and Prayers", presents a real-life shooting that delays the opening of a new movie featuring gun violence.
In the ''Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' episode " Boom" (2024), robot ambulances use the phrase while killing soldiers. The episode's writer Steven Moffat revealed that its incorporation was to critique its perceived futility, saying "I thought that if I can just get it in there like, "Exterminate," as what evil robots say, then maybe people will stop saying that idiotic phrase."
Ironic sympathy for the NRA
In early August 2018, after court documents were made public showing the National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
was having financial issues, satirical tweets were made offering thoughts and prayers for the NRA's troubles. Thoughts and prayers were again directed to the NRA in November 2018 after news broke that free coffee at the headquarters was being discontinued amid a sharp drop in revenue and again in December 2018 after suspected spy Maria Butina pleaded guilty to using her connections with the NRA as a way to infiltrate American conservative groups.
After the state of New York announced it would investigate the tax-exempt status of the NRA in April 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would remember the organization in his thoughts and prayers. In June 2019, after the NRA discontinued live programming that had been carried on NRATV, "thoughts and prayers" were sent via social media.
In August 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the NRA, seeking to dissolve it for illegal conduct. The NRA is registered in the state of New York as a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation, and the suit charges the NRA and four named defendants with failure to fulfill their fiduciary duty, resulting in a loss of $64 million in three years. The March for Our Lives organization responded by sarcastically offering 'thoughts and prayers' to the NRA via Twitter.
In music
A song entitled "Thoughts and Prayers" appears on the 2018 album ''My American Dream'' by singer-songwriter Will Hoge, who wrote it after the Sutherland Springs church shooting. Hoge told ''Rolling Stone'' writer Jonathan Bernstein "I know that phrase can be a kind and thoughtful way to express sympathy when there is no other way to help, but after these shootings, using that stock response from these cowards on Capitol Hill is incredibly insulting. They have all the opportunities in the world to make a difference, but they do nothing. Then to just send out a phrase like 'thoughts and prayers,' as if we don't all know that there is something they could do? It's shameful."
After the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida, Canadian-American musician grandson wrote and released the song "thoughts & prayers" on March 23, 2018, which also criticizes politicians who resist "any attempt at meaningful gun reform".
The heavy metal band Motionless in White released a song entitled "Thoughts & Prayers" on June 2, 2019, the first single from their album ''Disguise''. According to Chris "Motionless" Cerulli, "It's my commentary on the very evil ways that eligion isused".
The Raconteurs also released their album '' Help Us Stranger'' in June 2019; the closing track is entitled "Thoughts and Prayers". When asked about that song, Jack White
John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975) is an American musician who achieved international fame as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. As the White Stripes disbanded, he sought success with his solo career, subse ...
stated "That phrase has become meaningless. It's a thoughtless phrase. Basically an insult."
The punk group Good Riddance released an album entitled ''Thoughts and Prayers'' in August 2019. According to Russ Rankin, "I'm sick of hearing that hrase especially when there's a mass shooting in New Zealand and the nation takes steps to outlaw semi-automatic weapons in the same week. Meanwhile, here in America, we're dealing with hundreds and hundreds of mass shootings and not doing anything about it."
The Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers are an American rock music, rock band based in Athens, Georgia. Two of five current members (Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (American musician), Mike Cooley) are originally from The Shoals region of northern Alabama and met as ...
publicized their song "Thoughts and Prayers" from the studio album ''The Unraveling'' in January 2020, which contains the lyric "stick it up your ass with your useless thoughts and prayers". In his review of the album for ''Rolling Stone'', Jonathan Bernstein characterizes the song as taking aim at the phrase he called "phony right-wing piety".
Filter released "Thoughts and Prayers" ahead of their album ''Murica'' in June 2020. Vocalist Richard Patrick called for action in lieu of the phrase: Thoughts and Prayers' has become a meaningless catchphrase that gets thrown out every time something bad happens. Usually a mass murder etc. It's an empty gesture. It's time for more than thoughts and prayers."
See also
* List of attacks related to secondary schools
* List of mass shootings in the United States
* List of rampage killers (school massacres)
* Christianese
* Prayer healing and faith healing
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healin ...
—more general discussions on effectiveness or lack thereof
* Thought-terminating cliché
* 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
References
External links
*
*
{{School shootings in the United States
Articles containing video clips
Grief
Gun violence
Linguistic controversies
Political neologisms
Political terminology of the United States
Prayer
Thought