When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough - by Taylor S Schumann (Hardcover)

About the Book

Taylor Schumann survived a school shooting, yet she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible. Weaving her own incredible story into a larger conversation about gun violence in America, Taylor shares another painful truth: Christians have largely been silent on this issue. With compassion and honesty, she encourages readers to join her in taking action for a safer future.

Book Synopsis

Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist

ECPA Top Shelf Award Winner

Taylor Schumann never thought she'd be a victim of gun violence. But one spring day a man with a shotgun walked into her workplace and opened fire on her. While she survived, she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible.

In When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough, Taylor invites us to see what it means to be a survivor after the news vehicles drive away and the media moves on. Healing is slow and complicated. As she suffered through surgeries, grueling rehabilitation, and counseling to repair the physical injuries and emotional trauma, she came face to face with the deep and lasting impact of gun violence. As she began grappling with the realities, Taylor experienced another painful truth: Christians have largely been absent from this issue. Gun violence undercuts God's vision of abundant life and community--and the silence of the church rings loudly in the ears of survivors and families of victims.

Taylor weaves her own incredible story of survival and recovery into a larger conversation about gun violence in our country. With compassion and honesty, she encourages readers to reconsider their own engagement with the issue and to join her in envisioning a more hopeful, safer future for our nation. Move beyond thoughts and prayers and enter into grace-filled dialogue and action.

Review Quotes

"When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough is an urgent, thoughtful, and painful book. It hurts to see the realities of gun violence laid bare before us. And yet Schumann, by looking at both the personal and systemic impacts of gun violence, does what seems impossible. She models for us the prophetic work of allowing suffering and statistics to change our hearts and minds toward real action regarding gun violence in the United States. I wish this book wasn't so achingly necessary, but since it is, I will be encouraging everyone to read it. May our prayers for peace be turned into real laws that protect the most vulnerable among us."

--D. L. Mayfield, activist and author of The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power

"Compulsively readable, When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough presents a practical guide to changing our minds about guns. The view into the continued difficulty of Schumann's life as a gun violence survivor gives readers reasons and permission to reexamine our views on guns. She has laid out hopeful, doable action that can follow our collective knee-jerk instinct to give thoughts and prayers. As Schumann suggests, prayer can actually be the beginning of our work and not the end."

--Hayley Morgan, author of Preach to Yourself

"I don't say this lightly: this is a book that will change minds. Taylor's personal story is heartbreaking and compelling, but it is her passion for justice, her well-researched arguments, and her empathy for different perspectives that make this book so powerful. I am confident that When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough will inspire many people, but I am even more confident that it will guide and inform real conversations that we desperately need to have in our families, churches, and communities."

--Kaitlyn Schiess, author of The Liturgy of Politics

"In When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough, Taylor Schumann tells a story and makes an argument. With wisdom and heart, Taylor not only unpacks the scourge of gun violence in America but provides a model for Christians who ought to be moved by experience and compassion into the public square to advocate for the common good."

--Michael Wear, founder of Public Square Strategies and author of Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America

"It's hard to think of a more polarizing topic than gun control, but When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough reminds us that before we talk policy, we need to listen to people's stories. As a shooting survivor, Taylor Schumann invites us into her story before inviting us to consider broader policy issues and the responsibility of Christians to address the well-being of our neighbors. The result is a poignant and clarifying book that will help facilitate a much-needed conversation."

--Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

"On my thirty-fifth birthday I witnessed the close-range shooting of a police officer by a felon. My story is not the same as Taylor's, not as tragic for me nor as potent to tell, but it became a story that changed my life in more ways than I can count. In the months and years after my experience, I wanted to find comfort and solace in the church, and I couldn't. Most church folks I knew had only thoughts and prayers for survivors but no plans, personally or politically, to reconsider any Second Amendment reform. I needed allies like Taylor, who understands what only victims of gun violence understand: something must change."

--Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author of Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry

"There are two things that are abundantly clear in When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough. The first is that there are few things more important than the power of one's story, and the second is that we should all care about gun violence and the havoc it wreaks on its victims. Not only does Taylor Schumann humbly ask us to consider the impact of gun control legislation through well-researched, thorough, and illuminating information; she does so by first inviting us on her honest and raw journey of trauma, faith, and survival."

--Kat Armas, host of The Protagonistas podcast and author of Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength

About the Author

Taylor S. Schumann is a survivor of the April 2013 shooting at a college in Christiansburg, Virginia. She is a writer and activist whose writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Sojourners, and Fathom. She is a contributor to If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings. Taylor and her family live in Charleston, South Carolina.