Of course they did. To challenge the idea that “praying” somehow “absolves” one from actual action is going to get push-back from those who wish to, in effect, live “religiously vicariously” rather than upset any patterns of living. It’s one of those social consequences of the “Gnostic” fallacy that our “religious life” is a private, “internal” matter; and that our involvement in the world has no “eternal consequences”.