In October 2015, following the Umpqua Community College shooting, President Obama said that "thoughts and prayers not 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 subsequently announced that Obama would continue to take more executive action on the subject of gun control. Video of President Obama delivering a statement on a 2015 shooting and criticizing "thoughts and prayers" (1:22-1:58)
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." Īfter the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, called on politicians to "move beyond thoughts and prayers". Jonathan Foiles, writing in Psychology Today, 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". Criticism Īs "thoughts and prayers" became associated with post-tragedy condolences, many have criticized the phrase as a form of slacktivism. 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. After the Las Vegas shooting, authorities said that although thoughts and prayers are appreciated, the most effective way to help was to give blood. Views Īfter 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. Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia, 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.
Trump, for example, instead offered "prayers and condolences" via Twitter. įollowing the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018, Slate noted that several Republican politicians who had previously used the idiom (including Trump and senators Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey) avoided using the specific phrase "thoughts and prayers" in response to the shooting. 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.
In 2017 he used it following the Congressional baseball shooting in June and the Southern California wildfires in December.
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS DO SOMETHING PROFESSIONAL
Joseph courthouse shooting, the Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, and the shooting of Nykea Aldridge, cousin of professional basketball player Dwyane Wade. įormer American President Donald Trump has been known to use the phrase. In addition, "thoughts and prayers" are also offered to victims of numerous mass shootings, including the Columbine High School massacre (1999), the November 2015 Paris attacks, the Orlando nightclub shooting, and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2010 Canterbury earthquake 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the 2017 Central Mexico earthquake, and Hurricane Maria in 2017 ). The phrase thoughts and prayers is frequently used in the United States as an expression of condolences for victims of natural disasters (e.g. After the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting, Nancy Pelosi sends "thoughts and prayers" for Steve Scalise.
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