Faith without works leads to dead faith and dead children

Our faith comes alive only when it is backed up by works. I hope the politicians who offer their thoughts and prayers are similarly convinced.

We received an all too familiar breaking news report this week. In Winder, Georgia, a 14-year-old, armed with an AR-15, killed two students and two teachers, injuring at least nine others at Apalachee High School. My heart sank as I heard the news. Even though reports of school shootings have become familiar in our country—at a rate unlike that of any other—the pain continues to haunt. I understand that some among us need to feel numb to it, but the horror remains, no matter how we cope with it.

The politicians who sacrifice their souls for bags of gold, who don’t do anything about gun violence or gun control, can be counted on to offer their hollow words. They are like the clanging of a symbol; they are loveless, because their words are not backed up by action. Given that their discourse does little but line the pockets of lobbyists and gun manufacturers, it is more than useless; it’s actively evil. Those with empty faith, empty thoughts, and empty prayers not only have dead faith, their actions produce dead children. It is horrifying that people hide behind their prayerful closed eyes, while children are gunned down—and this time gunned down by another child. Their faith is dead, and it is killing much more than our churches. 

May the words of James, the brother of Christ, echo in legislative chambers everywhere, where the most vulnerable are sacrificed for material gain. May the words of James ring in their ears until they are deafened and moved to action. “What is the profit, my siblings, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Is faith able to save him? If a sibling is naked or lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘"Go in peace, be warm and sated,’ but you do not give them the body's necessities, what is the profit? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Your prayers, you corrupt politicians, are in fact profitless if they do not result in meaningful action and change that prevents these tragedies from happening. We want our faith to have life-giving consequences. 

Their faith is dead and so are four people in Jackson County, Georgia.

When James says that faith without works is dead—which happens to be contrary to the view of Martin Luther—he is not contradicting a gospel of Grace. He is simply confirming that if your faith is real, it will result in actions. The works alone don’t save us, but they are expressions of our belief in salvation. The actions that our faith produces give it life.

If James were speaking in the halls of Congress, he would rebuke at least half of them for favoring the gun lobby and gun manufacturers—favoring them in the face of dead children. 

Deeply disturbing fact: it is easier to buy a gun in the U.S. than it is to adopt a dog or to vote. Another one: gun deaths rose fifty percent between 2019 and 2021. Further, since 1968 more Americans have been killed by gun violence than every U.S. war combined. We know that regulations work; deaths due both to automobile accidents and to cigarette smoking have been drastically reduced as a result of government regulation. Nick Kristof has offered some additional common sense ideas about gun control. Let’s remember that the majority of Americans support stricter gun laws. They also agree that it is too easy to obtain a firearm.

The mandate is there. The American people want a change. Another way is possible. Thoughts and prayers are fine, but it’s high time for politicians, including a presidential candidate (one of whom, Donald Trump, suggests we arm teachers as a solution), to back up those prayers with action, and turn their faith alive, by keeping kids and many thousands of others alive, too.