Dick's Sporting Goods: "Thoughts And Prayers Don't Work"

Yesterday Dick's Sporting Goods announced they will no longer sell assault rifles and will tighten rules on other gun sales.

Officially, they said,  “Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and their loved ones. But thoughts and prayers are not enough.”

However, an unscripted comment I personally heard on CBS radio yesterday morning had CEO Ed Stack saying, "Thoughts and prayers don't work," "We've got to do more"---a bit different than "thoughts and prayers are not enough."


Regardless of the semantics, prayer is more and more labeled as a ritual that some religious people practice, but in the real world, has no real effect.

Yesterday the sporting goods store put out their official statement.

They seem to think the sincere religious segment of the culture is irrelevant--most certainly not enough.

All biblical Christians are familiar with the teaching in the New Testament book of James---"faith without works is dead." And we generally practice that: Faith and Works.

While Dick's and other corporations are attempting to show leadership---and perhaps gain favor with the America they know and understand, there is another America that the corporate folks either don't know about, understand, or simply reject.

Target stuck their finger in the eye of conservatives and Christians, and paid the price in their revenue and stock prices. Other companies, including the NFL, have done the same with similar results.

ABC, I think, is about to get a wake-up call from Brent Bozell and his Media Research Council if they don't publicly apologize for mocking Vice President Mike Pence's personal faith in Jesus Christ on their "The View" program.

Barack Obama, from time to time, would mock and ridicule conservative Christianity---clinging to our Bibles and guns---and our beliefs regarding marriage, human sexuality, and the sanctity of life. Some feel he got away with it.

Hillary called for us to be re-educated, to forget our old religious codes and biases. She did not get away with it.

I'm not suggesting that Dicks should or should not sell guns of any kind---that's their business.

What I am saying is that this notion of public disregard for prayer is misguided and undermines our culture in ways seldom understood by those who diminish the importance of the power of prayer.

And it reflects the moral drift in our country that is moving farther and farther toward the secular progressive Left ideology as "normal."

In a speech to the pro-life Susan B. Anthony organization yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence noted that the Democrats and progressives are "moving farther and farther to the Left."

He's right. They are---on all moral fronts.

George Barna's American Culture & Faith Institute published a new national survey yesterday titled, "Americans Say We're On The Wrong Track."

He says, "It's no surprise that most adults believe the United States is not moving in the right direction" because since the 1980s, all surveys have found Americans feeling that way regardless of which political party was in power.

However, concern is heightened with 59% describing themselves as "angry" with the state of America today.

I encourage you to take a closer look at his survey which is linked above.

Here's an overview of the 4 categories Barna considered.

Below is a more in-depth look at who believes what.

Also note that "SAGE CONS" are "Spiritually Active Governance Engaged Conservative Christians" while "Born Again" refers to those Christians who claim to be"born again" but hold so-called progressive Left beliefs. Jimmy Carter is an example. Definitions of all the people groups are included in the complete survey linked above.

An interesting fact that caught my attention in this survey was the fact that "SAGE CONS" who were a critical block of voters in electing Donald Trump represent a majority that believes our nation is on the right track economically and politically, but only one third of this group believe we are on the right track morally.

My point-- We didn't vote for Trump because we believed he could fix things morally. We did so because we believed that he could fix the economy and he would keep his promises to us politically.

Both are happening.

The Heritage Foundation reported yesterday that "With unprecedented speed, the Trump administration has already implemented nearly two-thirds of the 334 [conservative] agenda items called for by the Heritage Foundation, a pace faster than former President Reagan" who also asked the Heritage Foundation to give him a conservative blueprint---as President Trump has done.

We SAGE CONS believed if he, as president, would remove the oppressive policies of Obama that undermined our religious freedom and religious expression, the Christian Church could lead in the spiritual restoration and renewal of our country.

Trump is doing his part.

I hope and, yes pray, we as the Christian Church in America will do our part.

And our part begins with this:

"If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" ( II Chronicles 7:14).

Prayer and action.

And having done so, I pray we will become the salt and light in the culture that it, by all accounts, so desperately needs.

Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.