In the wake of Damar Hamlin’s Monday Night Football collapse, a new poll shows that Americans support public prayer. The poll was conducted by Summit Ministries, polling 1000 likely voters during January 19-23. The poll posed the question, “In light of the public outpouring of prayer for NFL player Damar Hamlin, do you believe that public calls for prayer after a national tragedy are helpful or pointless?” Sixty-seven percent of respondents stated that they found public calls helpful, 20 percent said pointless, and 13 percent either didn’t know or refused to answer.

Conservatives were the highest group to say public prayer was helpful, with 80 percent stating so. Fifty-nine percent of liberals stated public prayer was helpful, while they were the group with the highest share that believe it was pointless at 30 percent. Women found public calls to prayer more helpful than men (71 percent vs. 63 percent), while married individuals found it more helpful than single individuals (69 percent vs. 62 percent). Broken down by age, older Americans found public prayer more helpful, with 77 percent of those over 65 stating it was worthwhile. Only 55 percent of Americans in the 18-29 range found it helpful. 

The poll is far removed to some of the cynicism “thoughts and prayers” has faced in the last few years. In the wake of the mass shooting at Parkland school, the idea of “thoughts and prayers” was met with derision by those who felt it was just another phrase meant to continue inaction against violence. At times, politicians who used it were derided for being thoughtless or part of the problem. “The phrase has gone from sincere to funny, but not in a ha-ha way. It is political commentary,” wrote AJ Willingham for CNN. 

Yet Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, summed up the latest poll findings positively. “In times of crisis, Americans are still likely to come together even in spite of their partisan differences. The fact that people want to pray together, I think, is one of those … increasingly rare moments of unity. If it happens around prayer, all the better.” Social media was flooded with calls to prayer after Hamlin collapsed on the field. Both the Bills and Bengals prayed on the field for Hamlin’s recovery, and Bills fans even held a prayer vigil outside the stadium. 

Writing an op-ed for USA Today, Daniel Darling, director of The Land Center for Cultural Engagement, reflected on what America’s turn to prayer during the NFL tragedy meant. “In a supposedly secularizing nation, our true instincts emerge in times of crisis,” he wrote. “We appeal to something outside of ourselves, to a power beyond us, to save us. Our greatest stories tell this same tale, from superhero movies to our interest in the paranormal. We know there is a world beyond this world. Christianity tells us that not only is this true but that we seek something bigger than ourselves because we are made to worship. C.S. Lewis, a one-time skeptic turned believer, said that we know we were ‘made for another world.’”