You might think that in the fever swamps of Christian fundamentalism, a disaster as devastating as the BP spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be considered the devil’s handiwork.
Cindy Jacobs, co-founder of the U.S. Reformation Prayer Network, told Charismamag.com that her network has been praying since the spill occurred in April: “Our prayer network all along the Gulf is fervently praying.”
In an earlier online message Jacobs wrote that she believed only God could stop the leak. “There is no help for this nation apart from God,” [Jacobs] wrote on June 3. “We must cry out for God to plug the oil well in the Gulf for He’s the only one that can do it! And He’ll only do it when the church cries out.”
…In the money graph of Charismamag.com’s piece — quite reminiscent of Jerry Falwell’s blaming the gays, the pro-choice community, ACLU and a host of other liberal entities for the 911 attack – the evangelical magazine reported that “Jacobs believes the oil spill is more than a natural disaster … but partly the result of greed, debauchery on the beaches, poor environmental stewardship and a lack of U.S. support for Israel … all issues her network has been repenting of since the leak began.”
“Whenever there’s violent weather or some things like this, you have to ask if it’s just a natural disaster or if you’re reaping something that’s been sown,” she said. “We feel this is a cumulative thing.”
If God views frat boys’ beer bongs as “debauchery,” perhaps He should lighten up — and only in Opposite World are liberals more guilty of greed, poor environmental stewardship and not supporting Israel, or even of debauchery on the beach, than Republicans.
And yet, right-wing prophet Jacobs truly believes that the spill is a smack from God in retaliation to Pres. Obama’s chilly response to Israel’s for-all-intents-and-purposes Republican Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
According to Charismamag.com, “Jacobs points particularly to President Obama’s treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited the White House in March. Netanyahu reportedly was scolded for proceeding with plans to build in disputed areas of east Jerusalem and denied a photo op, press conference and other trappings of visits from heads of state.”
“We can’t say that’s all the reason why, but certainly I believe we need to come into some repentance,” she said. Jacobs notes that the last point of Second Chronicles 7:14 is that if God’s people pray, He will heal the land. “This is the same God that caused all the plagues of Egypt to go in a night,” Jacobs said. “He’s no different today. He can do what we cannot do in miraculous ways.”
But if God had wanted to unambiguously smite liberals, why didn’t he put the unstoppable oil leak under San Francisco Bay, Santa Monica Bay or the New York Harbor? And if He’d wanted to punish countries that were causing trouble for Israel, why didn’t he open a gigantic leak in the Strait of Hormuz?
Earlier this year, we asked, “Why is God smiting the Deep South?” — in hopes that Christians would re-examine their interpretation of these signs from God. Really, our only motive here is to help them see the error of their ways.
Sadly, however, that hasn’t happened.
For example, in His current smiting of the Gulf with the BP oil spill, God is unambiguously doling out punishment directly onto the reddest of red states, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, along with two GOP-leaning purple states, Florida and Louisiana. (It should also be noted that His previous worst smiting of the United States by oil spill — the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 — was inflicted on another red state, Sarah Palin’s own Alaska.)
As we also pointed out earlier, right-wing Christians have also conveniently ignored the curse of kudzu, the poisonous vine that only afflicts the former states of the American Confederacy. Strange how they can’t see God’s handiwork in this rapacious vine that consumes 125,000 acres of God’s little acres every year. You want signs? Here’s one: Kudzu was introduced at exactly the same time that Jim Crow laws were enacted all across the Bible Belt.
If you’ve ever been to church, you know that God-fearing conservatives are risking their immortal souls by ignoring the fact that the divine retribution they’re testifying about is not directed at godless liberals, with their do-gooder, pro-underdog ideology, but rather at themselves. It’s hate-filled right-wing Christians who exclusively vote for politicians who use racism and hatred of gays to win elections and, once in office, routinely vote to punish the poor, homeless and sick while doing everything they can to help fat-cat corporations like BP, Citibank and AIG.
As we pointed out in May, despite all these manifestations of God’s anger at the South, southern conservatives reflexively refuse to heed Luke 6:42, “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”
And we know what God — or rather, Satan — has in store for hypocrites, don’t we?
I think it is the words/actions of people like Jacobs, Palin, Barber, Terry, Robertson, etc., that have caused many Americans to shun organized religion. These folks are committing blasphemy when they presume to know the mind of God, but please don’t mention it to them since they’d deny it and think of some other group of people to hate or another lie to tell.
I read about the results of a new Luntz poll done for a right-leaning group today, and the results are interesting. I wish I could recall the site I was on. The results weren’t at all what the group expected. The poll was intended to measure Americans’ perception of Netanyahu’s actions taken against the humanitarians who were trying to assist the people in Gaza last month. Surprise, surprise, over 50% of those participating in the poll have a negative view of Netanyahu’s actions in the event. Maybe Jacobs and the rest of the “c”hristians who claim to speak for God should pay more attention to the reality of situations.
“God” told me that Cindy Jacobs head will plug the hole in the gulf. I think we should at least give it a try. If for “Gods” sake anyway.
Your article sure has a point about the smiting of the republican states. God’s wrath is always something republican-only Christians like to bring up. Bad things happen and it is not usually fair or easy to explain if it is something terrible. Oil corporations and unsafe tactics and conditions can cause terrible things and God would not have to be involved at all. Just the republican policies that enabled all the shortcuts and questionable subsidies.
I must add that republicans should be smited by voters for their ignorance and lies. How evil and stupid can some people continue to be when republicans have only wanted failure for the country since President Obama was elected? In church you will always be turning off many people with the vitriol and hate against other Americans who just happen to know you are a republican who is political all the time and terribly wrong. Our churches should smite politics from their churches so that more are welcome and feel welcome.
Looks to me as if Deepwater Horizon isn’t the only hole in the region spewing out toxic crap. Perhaps they should both be plugged.