Do they work?
The largest prayer chain in the history of the universe is not going to bring back those sweet little children. It is not going to heal the bereaving survivors any sooner. There will be no sense of peace when the parents wake up on Christmas morning to a silent house.
Many people are heartsick over the shooting of those kindergarteners. They are not our kids, but we can imagine how we'd feel if we were their parents. And just knowing how delicately we hang on the balance between life and death... well, it's a scary thing. It can happen to any of us.
It's an odd thing. People don't like to feel helpless. They don't like to feel fear. So they pray. They pray to a loving God who had a purpose for those children--to make them angels in heaven, to teach the world a lesson, to remind people that he's the badass in charge of this whole piss-pot world.
If I were one of the parents who lost a child, I'd be like, "Hey God, WTF?"
I feel terrible about what happened. I feel scared and helpless too. But I don't pray. I don't believe in prayer, or hope, or fate.
Life is a crapshoot. Today those kids rolled snake eyes.