WARRIOR OF APATHY is an ink-on-paper drawing of a woman praying, a drawing inspired by being asked to pray for the families of the victims of mass shootings. Her tears and bound hands show her lifetime devotion to prayer, which she sees as her only power. Her power of prayer transcends human solutions to gun violence in America. Placing the “gun problem” in God’s hands becomes an apathetic ploy for politicians who are paid to keep the gun industry profitable.

This prayer culture is an extension of America’s gun culture. It is the counterweight for the gun industry’s disregard for human life. The gun industry works with preachers and politicians to dehumanize believers into mindless twits who see a world of evil and not a world where human solutions are possible. Their dehumanization of children is the most horrendous—it's not about a person with an AR-15 murdering children; it’s about freedom for the gun owner and his rights. It’s the person, not the guns, as though a gun that shoots multiple rounds a second is the same as a person using a hammer to kill—they’re just evil people, so the religious right preaches.

We are a country in which corporate greed and simplistic theologies are so interwoven a new Christianity has emerged, one of raw power and brutality. The theology of guns, guts, and God. It’s as though God made an AR-15 and brought it down to earth from heaven, making the gun industry holy and above reproach.