If you are friends with any conservative Christians on social media platforms, you’ve undoubtedly seen calls for people to “PRAY FOR TEXAS” after this latest round of floods that washed away homes and left 120 people dead with another 170 more still missing. Mourners gather together to “honor the dead” and sing worship songs with hands raised, crediting the lost lives to an “Act of God.” Do any of these emotional vigils and calls to prayer feel familiar to anyone else?

They leave me with the same taste in my mouth as when Christians have candlelight vigils and post calls for prayer after each new mass shooting in some mall or church or school… After those same Christians have spent all their political capital getting people elected who work as hard as possible to fight against any gun regulations which might have prevented another tragedy. It’s a pattern to which we’ve become accustomed—Especially in red states: 1) Deny the data showing there is a growing problem, 2) Work to elect leaders with an open distain for anything that smacks of regulation or prevention, 3) Claim “There’s nothing we could have done” when tragedy strikes, 4) Offer up fervent “Thoughts & Prayers,” 5) Rinse & repeat. And nothing changes. It’s a handy little republican byproduct of a theology that believes God is in control of everything: If a tragedy happened, and God is in control, then God must have either wanted it to happen or at least allowed it to happen… Either way, it’s an act of God and we have no control, right? RIGHT???

(On a side note, the other way republicans exploit bad Christian theology/ignorance is this: Intentionally work to make government as inept, dysfunctional, untrustworthy, & corrupt as possible… So that when problems arise that require and are best-suited for government intervention, this same voting block is like, “YOU WANT ME TO VOTE FOR MORE INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION?!?” It’s a strategy that’s both cynical and diabolical, but it’s also grossly effective.)

Whether it’s disturbed teenagers with access to weapons of war repeatedly showing up at schools and opening fire, or the lost lives of dozens of young girls at a summer camp swept away by a another 1000-year-flood that seems to be coming every few years, the republican response is always the same: “There’s nothing we could have done.” But in 2016—after research showed the emergency alert systems along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas were woefully lacking—the Obama administration tried to give them federal funds to make it safer. The republican-led commission laughed about taking the $5.1 million dollars (to keep the money from going to liberal states), but decided not to use the money to update the warning system. They even make jokes/puns about how using the funding for a river alert was “dead in the water.” Please watch this video.

This isn’t the only way the republican response to school shootings is similar to the republican response to increased climate disasters. Just like the dishonest claims that the mass shootings are “false flag” operations conducted to swing public sentiment toward more gun control, there’s even conspiracies going around that “they” (the all-powerful THEY) are intentionally controlling the weather to produce these tragedies. After Hurricane Helene destroyed huge parts of North Carolina in October 2024, American embarrassment Marjorie Taylor Greene made several comments suggesting a link between the path of the storm and deliberate weather manipulation… And now this same elected idiot is making similar wild conspiracies about the Texas flooding. She even trying to introduce legislation. Just look at this utter lunatic:

That’s right, folks… The party who doesn’t believe in the data and science behind climate change is the same party that believes some powerful illuminati are able to control the weather… perhaps with Jewish Space Lasers. This is where we are in this country. And for me, the really depressing part is that there are enough people in Georgia who are either so easily deceived, so utterly ignorant, or so hopelessly evil that they keep voting for fools like Marjorie Taylor Greene. But one thing’s for sure: With morons like this in charge, it’s NO WONDER so many people think that “government is the problem.”

When disasters happen to people, the need for basic empathy and human decency is suddenly so clear to those affected by the disaster. But isn’t it strange that these same republican voters seem to be unable to muster any of that same empathy or basic human decency when they cheer on the opening of a concentration camp on American soil?

Isn’t it weird how—in the midst of something bad happening to YOU—it’s always so clear that we, as human beings, should be taking care of each other? But somehow, these same people are capable of laughing and mocking hispanic people being rounded up and put into concentration camps, and even buying “Alligator Alcatraz” merch?? When liberal California is burning with wildfires, the cause is a complex mix of God’s holy retribution and the inept Democratic leadership… But when disaster hits YOU, it’s suddenly time to read those verses about taking care of those in need.

This nation is so broken. So many people celebrate selfishness while demonizing decency, compassion, & empathy. America is infected by a disease of hatred, bigotry, & indifference… And the festering open wound that keeps us so sick is the continued moral & political failure of the christian church in this time. The christian church is the voting block that keeps the people in charge who are determined to do nothing to prevent preventable tragedies. People are stirred to prayer when they see videos of people swept up in a flash flood… But those same people CELEBRATE when they see families torn apart as people are swept up by ICE’s masked goons in “immigration raids.” And the pastors of those evangelical churches preach NOTHING about this inconsistency & hypocrisy on Sunday mornings. The Christian Church could stop America’s descent into fascism in ONE ELECTION. Instead, it cheers. It leads the way.

So if you’re a christian and you’re somehow still reading this, I have something to tell you: If seeing a natural disaster makes you feel stirred to action, and the action you choose is “thoughts & prayers” rather than working to elect competent, compassionate leaders who work to prevent that sort of thing from ever happening again, you have failed. You want to help flood victims? Stop voting for the party that acts like the science behind man-made climate change is some sort of conspiracy theory while they pull out of climate treaties designed to lessen our impact on the earth we all share & our children will inherit. You want to help flood victims?? Stop voting for the party that would rather fund tax breaks for billionaires than fund early warning systems that could have saved the lives of the girls at Camp Mystic. You want to help flood victims??? Stop voting for the party that cuts funding & staffing to FEMA and NOAA and every other administration designed to help people & make our lives better and safer… All so they can increase the deficit while making the rich richer at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. 

Seriously, though…Have these people ever even READ the Bible? You can read the words of Jesus to them, and they’d accuse you of “liberal indoctrination.” Keep your empty prayers. I’d prefer Christians stop praying and start voting for people and policy that aren’t opposite of Jesus in every conceivable way. You want to pray? Pray that your heart is changed. Pray that you start to care enough for the poor and vulnerable that you stop voting against their interests. Pray that feel the same compassion for the brown people swept up by ICE as you feel for the Texans swept up by a flood. You feeling stirred to pray? Pray that you care enough about your neighbor to stop voting republican.

Thank you again for reading! I understand that most of the christians who are in the cult of trump are too far gone to hear anything I’ve written here. But if you have friends of family who are not totally gone, I’d love for you to share this post with them. You can also share it on Facebook or on Bluesky. And if you value my writing or this post, you can BECOME A PATRON, leave a TIP ON PAYPAL, or buy me a sandwich by Venmoing me at chris-boeskool. Stay strong, stay connected, and don’t lose hope.