Deepwater Horizon and God

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has sure gotten a lot of press. And almost as much ink has been spilled about it. OK, I exaggerated a bit. But because it’s such a huge catastrophe and has yet to be brought under control, the on-going reporting and opinion-writing is a necessity. We do need to be informed – and we need to be exposed to a variety of ways of looking at the tragedy of this event.

With few exceptions, the analysis and comment all seem to focus on money. Now, money is important in our society. There’s no question about that. But it seems money has been placed at the top of the list of how all things are measured in our society. With money as our national standard for all matters, it’s fairly easy to conclude that money is our national god.

Looking at BP’s blown-out well illustrates this quite clearly. The well-documented decisions that BP managers made as they cut corners in drilling the well were based on money. The demands to keep the government out of the affairs of corporate enterprise are also based on money and also very well documented. Past efforts by government agencies to regulate private industry for safety and for environmental protection have been lampooned, ridiculed, and mocked because it “costs too much” money. And for that reason, money, regulatory laws and agencies have been gutted, ignored, or both.

The reason we continue to have an almost total reliance on oil is because of money. Secret meetings of federal government and oil industry representatives to determine long-term energy policy have resulted in continued significant subsidies to the oil industry along with the continued snubbing of R&D funding of alternative energy sources – because of money.

Although there have been environmental concerns mentioned in relation to this mess, most of them have been connected to the loss of business. Beaches will be spoiled – so tourist industry money will be lost. Fishing grounds are off-limits – so the fishing industry will lose money. Shrimp beds are being spoiled – which is costing the shrimping industry plenty of money. Supporting and related business are being devastated and losing money.

Certainly, money is important. There are hundreds of thousands – maybe millions – of families who are feeling the severe economic pain of lost jobs and damaged property. But is that all that’s been lost?

In a few conversations lamenting the damaged beaches, I thought I might hear a different value other than money or self-centeredness. As it turned out, the sadness was because they couldn’t go to their favorite beach and enjoy it.

We got to this point of being money-centered and ego-centered over several generations. Because this was a gradual process that evolved over time, it now seems like the normal way to look at things. Our entire economy and social system is built around this focus. I should hardly expect to hear anything different. And changing our system to one that would be more God-honoring would probably take a few generations. There would be, as you can surely imagine, a lot of resistance. And so we continue.

As a result, our economy puts a value of close to $0.00 on God’s created order. The only exception is when a part of Creation can be exploited to feed the profit margin of some corporate entity. But it appears that no part of Creation has any intrinsic value and, so, can be ravaged with impunity.

The odd part is that some among us assert that God has given us the “authority to dominate”, which – manipulated to suite the status quo – gives people the freedom to do as we wish. Some even claim that God would never allow us to destroy creation – that if God didn’t approve of what we were doing God would stop us. I’m not making this up.

What would it take for us to adopt a view of Creation similar to that of the Native American? What if, instead of looking at our natural surroundings and seeing endless opportunities for exploitation and making money we instead saw endless opportunities to show our respect towards all of what God has provided and to find many ways to show our gratitude? Could our needs for fuel, food, shelter, and clothing still be met? Certainly! There would probably be a lot fewer of us, and our economic system would likely be structured in such a way that the worth, dignity, health, and well-being of each and every person would have a higher value than fuel, shelter, or any other object.

And what if we would honestly believe that each person is created in the image of God – meaning, it would be obvious in how we live and relate with other persons? Would it be obvious in how we would provide for the weak and vulnerable among us? Would the attitude of “it’s mine, I earned it, I deserve it, and I’m keeping it!” still permeate society as it does today?

What do you think?