On a somber Sunday 25 years ago, the late Rev. Billy Graham shook off the flu to try and explain how a loving God could have allowed the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to occur.

But [Billy] Graham — America’s pastor-in-chief — had no answer.

“I appreciated him saying, ‘I don’t know why,’ that this was something we were not going to understand,” said Lynne Gist, whose sister, Karen Gist Carr, 32, was among the 168 dead in what remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Despite the lack of answers, the April 23, 1995, prayer service — four days after the bombing — began the healing process for this Bible Belt state and millions of TV viewers around the world.

“It was a time when it didn’t matter if you were red or blue, Republican or Democrat,” said Kari Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. “We were just Americans, and we came together and leaned on our faith as one of the first steps to get over this, and I don’t think we have ever looked back.”

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25 years ago, a prayer service gave hope to a shaken America. My story for @AP https://t.co/tRKj1ViAUm #WeRemember

— Bobby Ross Jr. (@bobbyross) April 17, 2020

God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.

@Hallaschka_HH

Icon of the Resurrection depicting Christ having destroyed the gates of Hades and removing Adam and Eve from the grave. Christ is flanked by saints, and Satan—depicted as an old man—is bound and chained.

Von Nutzer Surgun100 bei Wikipedia pic.twitter.com/joIvnk8xF8

— Dystopian Expectations (@dystopianexp) April 21, 2019

In Nellie Bly’s chapter, you write of her experience: “the first day, she quickly learned what it was like to be discarded by humanity…” and end with: “Other than some money being thrown at the problem, nothing changed after Bly’s exposé […] one of the most sophisticated and moneyed cities in the world, now aware of such cruelty visited upon its citizens, simply shrugged. As we still do.” This is potent. Instead of shrugging, othering, or hastily diagnosing, in what ways would you like to see the psychiatric community shift in the coming years? What’s your hope?

There’s so much to be excited about from the research side, but as we wait for these interventions (and I remain an optimistic), I hope that psychiatry can really take a hard look at what it can offer to those suffering right at this very moment. Good care comes from truly listening and bonding to patients — the whole “laying of hands” that distinguishes mediocre doctors from great ones — using all the senses with the patient and maintaining an open mind, searching for answers outside of the immediately obvious. I think we’ve turned our back on the more artistic side of clinical care because it’s not lucrative and it’s difficult, because it’s much easier to write a script and call it a day, and the system itself does not reward this kind of interaction. So clearly things need to change within our broken medical system in general. But I think that at the very simplest: psychiatrists need the time and space to spend more time with their patients. And we need to figure out a way to force the system to give them that opportunity.

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“The big difference was that she was misdiagnosed for two years and I was only misdiagnosed for a month. She would, her doctor told me, never fully recover.” Taylor Larsen in conversation with Susannah Catalan on her latest book, “The Great Pretender”: https://t.co/rkvOZXJvkm pic.twitter.com/hZPBfKwaHM

— LA Review of Books (LARB) (@LAReviewofBooks) April 18, 2020

O God, who through the mighty resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ hast delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of thy love: Grant that as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life and seek those things that are above, where with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, he liveth and reigneth for ever and ever.

Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ from the 6th-century Syriac Rabbula Gospel
The lower register includes an angel in front of an empty tomb and the appearance of Christ to the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene
The Holy Pascha (Easter) is celebrated by Orthodox Christians today pic.twitter.com/K6DBPV6qmF

— The Byzantine Legacy (@ByzantineLegacy) April 28, 2019

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

–2 Corinthians 4:16-18

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
2 Cor 4:16 pic.twitter.com/kK36ASkLbh

— heine kapp (@HeineKapp) May 23, 2019