"They’s a army of us without no harness…Ever’ place we stopped I seen it. Folks hungry for side-meat, an’ when they get it, they ain’t fed. An’ when they’d get so hungry they couldn’ stan’ it no more, why, they’d ast me to pray for ’em, an’ sometimes I done it…Use’ ta rip off a prayer an’ all the troubles’d stick to that prayer like flies on flypaper, an’ the prayer’d go a-sailin’ off, a-takin’ them troubles along. But don’ work no more."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 20. Jim Casy speaks about the army of migrants hungry for food and for justice. Once he was able to pray for them and prayer would take away their troubles. But now that no longer works, says Casy, highlighting how conventional prayers and religion are not effective against mass starvation and injustice.