Prayer Is Activism by EUGENE PARK for The Gospel Coalition
As our nation reels from George Floyd’s death, many in the church feel compelled to do something. Responses have run the gamut from listening, learning, and lamenting to posting black squares on Instagram, donating, marching, and more.
Yet in our rush to engage, many of us have neglected the most potent form of activism at our disposal: prayer to the sovereign God of the universe.
Campaigning to the Highest Authority
It has become standard social-media procedure after major tragedies to ridicule Christians for their supposedly impotent “thoughts and prayers.” And there is a painful truth to this rebuke, as some churches can be guilty of idleness in response to tragedy and injustice.
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We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Yet Christians, especially those who are “woke,” should never see prayer as the world does—as powerless good vibes and well-wishes that allow one to wipe their hands clean of responsibility.
Prayer is ultimately a form of activism and campaigning, just as protesting and marching may be. As we take to the streets, share a post on justice, or donate to a justice-seeking organization, we are petitioning authorities to recognize the gross injustice of racism and to enact change.
Prayer is no different in Scripture in times of injustice. Think of David, in anger and raw honesty, petitioning God for justice (Ps. 10:12–18). Think of Jeremiah as he laments and pleads for mercy (Jer. 14:19–22), or Daniel as he begs for God to “incline your ear and hear” and “open your eyes and see our desolations” (Dan. 9:18).
When we pray in times of injustice, we are protesting to the highest authority in the universe, the perfect arbiter of all justice. As human beings made in the image of the God of justice, prayer is our foundational path to justice. Blaise Pascal calls it “the dignity of causality” that in prayer God gives us a direct line to the King of kings.
