In the span of just over a month, we’ve seen two of the most deadly mass shootings in the U.S.

There are always religious “pundits” eager to explain why innocent people die in the wake of a tragedy, but some of those excuses look especially disgraceful today in the aftermath of a shooting inside a church.

In 2012, former GOP presidential candidatesaid that the shooting at Sandy Hook occurred in part because we have “systematically removed God from our schools.”

That wasn’t why the shooting occurred, but the people who died today were worshipping when the shots were fired. So much for Huckabee’s theory. No one took God out of that church.

You can’t blame this on gun control, either. Texas has some of the loosest laws in the country when it comes to owning and brandishing weapons in public. In other words, a “good guy” with a gun was unable to stop a “bad guy” with a gun.

Last month, after the Las Vegas shooting, one devout Mormon wrote on Facebook that the victims deserved it because they weren’t obeying the Sabbath.

That argument doesn’t work when the victims are people in the middle of weekly worship.

And, of course, all those politicians sending their thoughts and prayers are back out in full force. They have the ability to do something meaningful to curb gun violence… but only choose to send prayers. To people who were already praying.

Talk about a tone-deaf response to the situation.

These tragedies will continue unabated unless elected officials do something meaningful — that is, something besides prayer. But Republicans never will. They’re not swayed by the fact that other countries with stricter gun laws don’t have these problems and think we’re batshit crazy on this subject. The GOP will never risk alienating the NRA by doing something that would upset their base.

To be sure, the problem isn’t that well-meaning people are offering their thoughts and prayers. The problem is many of them have the ability to produce meaningful change — but won’t. Their “thoughts and prayers” are a substitute for taking action.

It’s all we’re going to get from them. Again.

Even more than that, they’re sending prayers to people who died while praying. They’re asking God to help people who were killed, they think, as part of God’s Divine Plan.

It seems utterly cruel to ask someone who let innocent victims die to help their families. Those saying the phrase surely mean well, but they haven’t thought this one through.

(Image via Shutterstock)