Please do pray after the San Bernardino shooting

Here's why you shouldn't buy into the backlash against "thoughts and prayers"

A SWAT team patrols patrols an area of San Bernardino.
(Image credit: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

We've definitely arrived at a strange cultural moment when the worst thing you can do after a tragedy is pray.

But that's what a significant segment of Twitter seemed to think in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting. Politicians offering thoughts and prayers in the wake of the tragedy were excoriated by Twitter progressives. But it wasn't just the internet mob. The tabloid the New York Daily News turned the meme into its cover, with the blunt headline: "God Isn't Fixing This." It quickly went viral.

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.