Christians Praying for Democracy began two years ago in late 2023 as a small group of friends who were concerned about the erosion of democratic norms in our nation. I began the group in order to support Christian friends[1] who, like myself, were increasingly isolated from their communities of faith in the wake of rising Christian Nationalism. To be fair, for many of us, Christian Nationalism was only the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back. For years, we had already found ourselves spiritually homeless as a result of institutional churches covering up sexual and other spiritual abuse. The groundwork for turning a blind eye to political wrongs had been laid for decades.
As we began to pray together, I found myself at a loss of exactly how to pray. My prayers felt ineffectual at first. But as I prayed, I became aware of actions that were before me, and with those actions, a choice: I could ignore the actions or I could act on them. Until I acted, I quite honestly had no peace. My sleep was poor. My waking hours felt stir crazy. But when I discerned what action I was to take and took it, my peace and joy returned.
Prayer must always be accompanied by full willingness to act.[2] Jesus, his disciples and the prophets all taught that effectual prayer requires action.[3] Sadly, in modern Christianity we have separated our prayers from our actions. Prayer becomes an easy way out. Prayer becomes a way to profess love and care without actually doing anything. Those outside the church are right to question the sincerity of such empty words:
Thoughts and prayers.
“Thoughts and prayers” has become an indictment. It has come to mean words without action, often offered in the political sphere as an empty answer to the many serious crises that our nation is facing: gun violence, political violence, government-sponsored violence, hunger, disasters, lack of heath care, to name a few.
Thoughts and prayers.
But prayer without action is not prayer at all. It is not prayer that the God of the Christian scriptures heeds. For those of us who truly seek to follow Christ, prayer can never be separated from action. We see it in Mathew 9:36-38 when Jesus looks out over the crowds and feels compassion because they are “distressed and downcast.” In response, He says to his disciples: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
What is the response to these prayers for “workers” for the harvest? In the very next verse it says that “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples” and “These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them…” The instructions are another topic, which I hope to discuss at another time, but the first thing we see here is that prayers are never meant to be in lieu of action, rather they are meant to spark action.
James, the brother of Jesus, and a leader among the Christians in Jerusalem, put it another way: Faith without works is dead, he said.
“What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” (James 2:14-17)
Prayer without accompanying action is dead.
The prophet Isaiah put it another way:
“Cry loudly, do not hold back;
Raise your voice like a trumpet,
And declare to My people their wrongdoing,
And to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways,
As a nation that has done righteousness
And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
They ask Me for just decisions,
They delight in the nearness of God.
‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
And oppress all your workers.” (Isaiah 58:1-3)
These few examples are not isolated. This idea is repeated again and again by the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and the writers of the New Testament. So, for those of us who would seek to follow Christ, prayer is only a beginning. It is what we do when the way seems to great for us, when the odds are stacked against us, when we feel the need for divine aid, when all strength seems gone, when despair fills our hearts or the hearts of our friends. But we don’t pray and lay down and wait. We pray and we act. If we pray for the hungry, we must feed them. If we pray for the oppressed, we must seek to set them free.
On the day Jesus began his ministry, he read from the prophet Isaiah that he was anointed to “proclaim release to the captives… and to set free those who are oppressed…” (Luke 4:18). Are we truly followers of Christ? Then we will do likewise.
Note: On February 18, Ash Wednesday, we will begin the third year of “40 Days of Prayer for Democracy.” It is a time to humble ourselves and pray, and for us each to seek to respond to our concerns for our neighbors, our nation, and our democracy. Your actions may be different than mine, and that’s okay. I am not your conscience, but as I speak clearly from my own conscience, I hope that yours too will be ignited to “go in the strength that you have.” With love, Margaret
[1] While we began this group to speak to the conscience of our fellow Christians, we welcome participation of those of other faiths and no faith. While this group tackles these issues from the perspective of the Christian faith, we recognize that matters of conscience and morality are available to all people equally.
[2] For a deeper understanding of this topic, I recommend The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a starting point.
[3] Certainly, there may be times when prayer is the only means available, for instance when a person is on their death bed, or seriously ill, or in prison. Yet even in many of these most extreme cases there will often be simple actions available to us. Are we sick? Go to the hospital. Are we in prison, comfort those near us.
Photo credit: Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
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