"America's prayers" not answered

Update: The NY Times wasn't the only major paper to get the story wrong about the 12 West Virginia miners. The Boston Herald also reported the miners alive and well, in a story headlined "Miner Miracle: America's prayers answered."

Greg Saunders takes particular issue with the choice of words in that headline:

"I can’t let the Boston Herald’s awful (and in retrospect, horribly inappropriate) headline go without comment. Now that we know the twelve miners were killed, does this mean America’s prayers weren’t answered? Just like gambling addicts remember their big wins but not their losses, the fate of the twelve miners has transformed from a faith-inspiring act of God to another horrible tragedy in which it’s impolite to mention religion at all. Cute little sayings like 'the Lord works in mysterious ways' are cop-outs for the logical conclusions that many of us draw from experiences like this. If something fantastic and improbable can be used as proof that there’s a benevolent god, doesn’t the reverse point toward the conclusion that a higher power is indifferent at best? If you believe in a god that could have saved these men’s lives (which I don’t, btw), why didn’t he? People are quick to throw around the word 'miracle' when something wonderful happens, so what the hell do we call this?"

http://www.thismodernworld.com/