Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ SXSW 2019 by nrkbeta, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0/Original

I do not like commentating on tragedies like the terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which a mosque was attacked by lunatics wielding guns, killing dozens.

It’s a well-documented fact that the first 24 hours are always going to be filled with incorrect news reports, speculation, and even some retractions. The urge to jump to conclusions outweighs our sense of responsibility when it comes to sharing information.

Of course, we’ll continue to cover the shooting as more information comes out.

Speculation can be dangerous. It can lead to misinformation. Or, worse, it could be insulting to whole groups of people if you are quick to rush to judgment. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is guilty of the latter. Her first reaction to the shooting? Attack people of faith.

At 1st I thought of saying, “Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.”

But I couldn’t say “imagine.”

Because of Charleston.
Pittsburgh.
Sutherland Springs.

What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?pic.twitter.com/2mSw0azDN8

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 15, 2019

This tweet is, like so many of Ocasio-Cortez’s statements, meant to sound insightful and powerful upon its initial read, but a closer look reveals it is simply as vapid as her thoughts on economics. Worse, it is an outright insult and completely ignorant of the importance of faith in the lives of millions of people around the world.

A church – a house of God – was attacked. It doesn’t matter the religion. People go into these buildings seeking peace, answers, or just a retreat from the world around them. Never once do they stop to think that their peace will be interrupted by psychopaths with guns. This type of emotional and spiritual violation is the moment when prayer is most needed.

The people whose mosque was attacked will pray that their community, their church family, can recover. The people who lost loved ones will pray for their souls, and pray that these killers will be brought to justice. The people who see this evil pervading our world will pray to whatever god they have that this evil stays away from them and their families, as well as pray for those hurt in this attack.

Prayer is an almost instinctive process to people of any religion who have faith. They think about those hurt, those who have lost loved ones, their own church and loved ones, and they pray for a god’s grace or blessing.

AOC may claim she was attacking white supremacists, those who share the alleged philosophy of these terrorists, but in attacking peoples’ desire to pray, she is attacking people of faith first and foremost. She is a horrifyingly bad person for doing this, but it won’t deter her.

There are people who have spent three years asking why evangelical Christians would ever support a known sinner like Donald Trump, a man who has bragged about committing adultery, who was caught on camera describing sexually assaulting women, and who has said and done some downright trashy things.

But never once has Donald Trump openly attacked people of faith. He has never told them their prayers are worthless. Ocasio-Cortez, the new face of the Democratic Party, has just done that. It’s not a hard choice for people who want to practice their faith in peace.

This woman is not some outlier. She is the face and the future of the Democratic Party, and she is trying her best to help Trump win the White House in 2020.