Is God Really Good? The Oil Spill Edition

The damage to the coast is beyond my scope of comprehension. In relation to this catastrophe, I live in something of a bubble, and I don’t want to come off as trying to sound like I know very much about it. I know only enough. I know the spill is probably three times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. I know that BP has been treating us, “the public,” like we’re imbeciles and babies. And I know that it’s once again provided plenty of fodder for attacking the goodness and existence of God.

This column is about God's role here.

I started following on Twitter a writer who goes by lx69. I’m not sure who he is or when or why I followed him. 

Whatever the case, in reading things he’s written on Twitter this morning, I learned that apparently the state of Louisiana’s solution to the oil spill is now “prayer.”

My Twitter acquaintance’s feelings on the matter are: “Are you f-ing kidding me? When will we learn that this God s--- is a delusion? We are idjits.” (sic)

In borrowing from my previous blog: I look at this oil gushing into our ocean and the lives, both human and non, that it’s ruining, and the venomous nature of humanity it’s brought out in so many of us, and I think, This is so not how this was meant to be.

And again the question arises: If God is really all-loving and all-powerful – if he really is good – then how does stuff like this happen?

I’m not picking on lx69. Truly, I’m not. And while this seems like I’m responding specifically to him, I’m writing this more because it will be a good exercise for myself in articulating and understanding my own thoughts and feelings about this disaster and what we can do about it, and, I hope, provide an appropriate perspective for the rest of us to consider.

The primary reason I’m going draw specifically from what lx69's written is because he’s said what I think a lot of people are saying. And I’ll be honest, even though I’m a Christian, I kind of agree.

I wish prayer would work. I wish it were that easy. But this isn’t a faith matter. I know God can fix this; I also believe he’s not going to. This is a matter of reality. And the reality is that prayer, calling on the Divine, won’t fix problems of mankind’s origin.

Someone wrote to lx69, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” To which he responded, “I have faith in myself, not some made-up idiotic deity. The prayer to stop the leak goes beyond the limits of absurdity.”

I’m not going to address his thoughts on the reality of God; that’s not the point of this column, nor would it be profitable anyway. But his other points stand to reason: sometimes we, as humans, don’t give ourselves enough credit.

Or, perhaps a better way or wording that: sometimes we don't take enough responsibility.

This all comes down to what I wrote in my previous blog, to be completely honest.

I wrote that God is good, and the original design of humanity and our interaction with this earth is good. But we’ve broken it. God remains good; we’re the ones creating the problems.

Like all the other disasters and deaths that God gets blamed for, this oil spill is ultimately our fault. It’s been a tragic error in judgment, on too many levels to name now.

God is not punishing us. He did not make this happen.

He allows us to do what we want with the world, with this earth, and sometimes, the consequences are devastating. Of course they are; as much as we think we know, as smart as we think we are, we still don’t and never will know everything, and when one doesn’t know everything, it’s possible something can go tragically wrong.

Now, when it comes to repairing the oil leak or preventing any damage, prayer won’t do any good. God won’t be sending any angels to stick a finger in the gusher hole, and even if he did now, we’d question his reason for waiting so long.

Prayer won’t do any good because there’s no good to be done here. All that can be done here, at this point, for the people of the Gulf is to hope it ends sooner than later. That sentence alone makes me feel as though I’m mocking them, because “sooner” would have been the week of the accident before countless thousands of people’s lives were ruined.

Prayer may be part of the answer. And, tragically, it might be the only thing left to do as we wait, helplessly, for BP to fix this. But to say that prayer will fix this, will make this right, is to lie.

The movie I mentioned in my previous blog returns to mind. In Jarhead, some of the Marines spend a few miserable hours in a deluge of oil after some oil wells are blown up. “The earth is bleeding,” Swofford says.

The simple fact of the matter is this:

The earth is bleeding.

We cut her.

We’re responsible for healing her.

I’m not saying not to pray. But I’m saying that prayer is not enough, and for a lot of Christians, it’s a cop-out for not doing more. And for a governing body to pass a bill -- spending time and taxpayers' dollars -- to pass a resolution calling on people to pray is simply confounding, and nearly angering.

We’re meant to do all that we possibly can; the rest, it’s been said, is up to God.

A final thought: Christians, avoid the slinging of stones that is evangelizing through crises. Such "witnessing" is no better, and no less aggravating, than the politicians who are jockeying to turn this into some way to gain an advantage.

God is not responsible for this disaster; we are. Thus we are the ones who can fix it.

Comments

[@nicolewick]

Holy cow. There are a lot of great points here. This oil spill is killing me by the way. So sad.