The people prayed. The prayer was loud, public, unashamed. "Drill, baby, drill," the people cried. It was an odd prayer, but it was a prayer nevertheless, because the people were Republican, and they were gathered in His name. They were the "Christian" party, and the woman who led them made it clear that she believed that her Christianity amounted to a political credential. And so, when she led the "Drill, baby, drill," prayer at the Republican party's political convention and then at subsequent campaign events, the prayer was not just a bestial cry of lip-smacking greed, as it sounded to outsiders. It was about man's dominion over nature, and it was meant to answer those pantheist liberals who believe that nature has dominion over man. It was about the stewardship of our natural and national resources. For if God put the oil in the ground — under the oceans — he must have put it there for man's use, and for man to refuse such a gift was tantamount to the refusal of grace. It was sin, and so in the fall of 2008 you could not only hear the divine appeal in the cries of those whose sins had been forgiven, you could also see it on the bumpers of their SUVs: "Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill..."
You don't hear their cries right now, though. You don't hear those prayers. You don't hear from them at all now that God has answered their prayers in the biblical way — with a sign. And a not very subtle sign, at that. Indeed, if you are given to believe that God intervenes in the events of humankind, you might think that an unstoppable oil-spill currently the size of Rhode Island and soon to be the size of New England makes His preferences quite clear, in regard to offshore drilling. If you are the kind of believer who sees signs of God's judgment in diseases (AIDS), hurricanes (Katrina), and terrorist attacks (9/11), you might think that an ecological catastrophe about to swallow a fair portion of God's creation is God's way of saying that more research is needed before "drill, baby, drill" becomes the official energy policy of the United States. You might even think that in the face of such clear rebuke to her chanted agenda, the woman who inspired the Tea Party would be on her knees in repentance, alongside the Democratic president whose blase response to the threat of a few million seabird feathers getting tarred would have gotten his Republican predecessor tarred and feathered, at least in the liberal blogosphere. But no. Suddenly, people who feel no shame crediting God for the signs that told them to run for office, stay in office in the face of scandal, or leave office to "spend more time with their families" or pursue lucrative careers on television see no evidence of God's hand in the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, they stress the stellar safety record of the offshore oil-exploration industry and the accidental nature of the tragedy, as if we live in a random and capricious universe after all... as if they can see His face in a plate of spaghetti and meat sauce, but not hear His voice when His voice drowns out their own.
by Tom Junod
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