We have lost our ability to grieve. We see a national tragedy and our first reaction is to propose an agenda. We are all utilitarians: “How can this tragedy serve my cause?” We pragmatize pain and agony. The Hebrew Scriptures spoke of “when the time of mourning had ended…” In our case, the time of mourning never begins. Russell Moore is correct: “We become more concerned about protecting ourselves from one another’s political pronouncements than we do with mourning with those who mourn.” We have no developed liturgy of grief because we have no Psalmic sense. We politicize grief because politicizing things offer us a breath of fresh elitist air. We don’t grieve. We fight. We war. But when we fight and war without grieving we fight for a lost cause. Weep, then war. Pray, then prepare. Before culture war, we need culture piety.
