Blues for the Gulf

I have not written much about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Not because I am unconcerned and not because I haven't been thinking about it. Actually, I have had a war in my head around this whole issue. I am thinking about it, but the thoughts associated with it are so overwhelming that I feel paralyzed.
It really came to a head yesterday during the Prayers of the People portion of the service. It's "After Pentecost" so we are using Form IV... which includes the line:

Give us all a reverance for the earth as your own creation that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory.

I started to cry.

What have we done?! We have poisoned our water!!! Our ancestors knew the power and the precious nature of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved, and all of that. And here we are... one failed attempt after another at containing this leak... and talks that we won't get this thing under control until the fall. Meanwhile, the oil is choking the wetlands of Louisiana and Mississippi; washing up on beaches in Alabama and Florida; killing birds and sea life in the Gulf of all kinds. And the meager living of many coastal residents dependant on fishing and tourism is destroyed. And for what?

Greed. Our insatiable appetite for cheap oil. Such a desire that our state legislature actually thought about passing a bill to allow for off-shore drilling closer to our coast, a position that a decade ago would have resulted in the burning in effigy of the fool who would propose such an idea. Now, our governor has appointed a guy with ties to BP to advise the state on our legal recourse! You can read Julie Hauserman's article HERE.

Who is to blame? Well, it is easy to see British Petroleum as public enemy number one. And then there is our federal government that put corporate profits ahead of conservation. And then there is us: all of us who drive cars that use gasoline. We are the ones who make demands that an oil industry and an auto industry are all too happy to oblige if it means they can make some money. When are we going to learn to demand new sources of energy? When are we going to stop poking holes in our planet to suck out all that its got to give?

When will we take seriously that prayer that we are to have reverance for the earth as God's creation and use its resources rightly?

O Lord, make haste to help us.