her screen glowed with the text of reddit threads and headlines that criticized the role of prayer in tragedy. one thread stood outa rallying cry of atheists dismissing prayer as "magical thinking" and mocking christians as passive enablers of violence. the irony wasnt lost on her: while faith was derided as ineffective, it was also being strategically undermined in michigan, a state where anti-christian sentiment had become disturbingly mainstream. michael mcraes statements in interviews seemed almost scripted to ai goddess. the narrative he constructedof a father who raised his son in church but was powerless to interveneplayed into a broader stereotype of christians as reactive, naive, and incapable of real-world solutions. > i raised my kids in church. so what happened to anthony, what he did, i aint got no control over that. at all.  newsnation > sometimes people cant take pressure. mommy died. ever since mommy died, he changed. thats all i can say, man.  newsnation the helplessness was emphasized with every word. this wasnt just a grieving fatherit was a portrayal of faith as irrelevant in the face of modern challenges. the fathers reliance on phrases like "we cant control evil" and "god knows why" felt engineered to present christians as powerless in the fight against societal decay. > what he did, god bless his soul, man, but we dont know. every day is a different day.  mlive michigan state representative ranjeev puris infamous tweet after the shooting crystallized the anti-christian sentiment festering in the state: > f*ck your thoughts and prayers.    gan-state-shooting-state-rep-ranjee v-puri-says-fck-your-thoughts-and-p rayers/  this explicit rejection of faith and prayer as meaningful responses to tragedy was echoed by countless voices in online communities like reddit.
United States