It's Okay to Pray for Paris

It's okay to pray for Paris. Really.

Yes, I know you've seen the shaming memes from the PC elites, from the well-meaning, from those in the camp of I-know-when-I-see-a-good-thing-and-can't-wait-to-tear-it-down. The posts go something like this: How dare you pray for Paris? If you haven't prayed for (insert your favorite tragedy here) then you must be a bad person who doesn't care. The posts don't come out and state their premise quite as harshly, but the veiled insinuations are still there.

Here is an example that I read on Facebook on a page that is usually reasonable and sane:

Sounds good, right? We should all care about everyone who is suffering, right? But the reasoning in this meme leaves a lot to be desired.

First, it assumes omniscient knowledge on the part of every breathing person on Facebook. Or maybe even the world. Western press gave a lot of coverage to the Paris terrorist attacks, because they happened in a Western country. Not the Middle East, which sadly has terror attacks on a continuing basis. The attacks, except for 9-11, are unprecedented and unexpected to the general populace. They were also made on a major U.S. ally, which according to some, is also our oldest and best ally. This is important to the U.S. on many, many levels. But there was little coverage given to the bombing in Baghdad, where 19 people died, and it happened the same day as the Paris attacks. (Interestingly, this meme ignores the suicide bombings in Beirut last Thursday in which over 40 people died. Does that make the writer a bad person?) It is hard to pray about something of which you have no knowledge.

Second, it assumes that if you didn't post about the attacks in the Middle East you are a racist. Never mind if you are actually a person of color, an immigrant from the Middle East, or any other minority. You are a racist because all of the people who died in the Paris attacks were white. Oh, wait, that's not really true, but it fits the writer's profiling. 

Third, should people really be telling other people how to feel, think, write, or pray? Doesn't it take a certain amount of hubris and self-righteousness to preach at others about their actions? Aren't we commanded to take the log out of our own eye before we try to remove the speck from our brother's or sister's?

Maybe, just maybe, instead of praying for the world to do what we think is right, we should take a hard look in the mirror, get down on our own knees, and pray over our own sins and shortcomings, rather than trying to shame others over theirs.