{"id":7,"date":"2010-05-04T12:04:29","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T12:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html"},"modified":"2010-05-04T12:04:29","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T12:04:29","slug":"oil-god-and-the-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html","title":{"rendered":"Oil, God, and the Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>So, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/05\/04\/rick-perry-oil-spill-may_n_562491.html\">Governor Rick Perry<\/a> blamed the Gulf oil spill on an &#8220;act of God.&#8221; &nbsp;Of course, &#8220;act of God&#8221; is a phrase used to describe something beyond human control, an unavoidable event. &nbsp;But isn&#8217;t it also the case that the words convey theological meaning as well&#8211;implying that the Gulf spill was somehow predestined or ordained by divine design? &nbsp;Perry gives into spiritual fatalism by attributing the terrible oil spill to divine purposes. &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The oil disaster in the Gulf, of course, has nothing to do with God and everything to do with greed, political corruption, and human destruction of natural resources. &nbsp;No, Rick, this isn&#8217;t God. &nbsp;This is BP and their outsourced farm team, it is the lack of regulation by decades of Republican policies regarding the oil industry, and it is the fact that we can&#8217;t seem to make the necessary changes toward a new energy economy. &nbsp;As as Christian, I really wish people would stop blaming God for their own stupidity.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Read the story <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/05\/04\/rick-perry-oil-spill-may_n_562491.html\">here<\/a>:&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Rick Perry: Oil Spill May Be An Act of God&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, Governor Rick Perry blamed the Gulf oil spill on an &#8220;act of God.&#8221; &nbsp;Of course, &#8220;act of God&#8221; is a phrase used to describe something beyond human control, an unavoidable event. &nbsp;But isn&#8217;t it also the case that the words convey theological meaning as well&#8211;implying that the Gulf spill was somehow predestined or ordained&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-history-and-theology","category-religion-and-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oil, God, and the Governor - Christianity for the Rest of Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oil, God, and the Governor - Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So, Governor Rick Perry blamed the Gulf oil spill on an &#8220;act of God.&#8221; &nbsp;Of course, &#8220;act of God&#8221; is a phrase used to describe something beyond human control, an unavoidable event. &nbsp;But isn&#8217;t it also the case that the words convey theological meaning as well&#8211;implying that the Gulf spill was somehow predestined or ordained&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-04T12:04:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diana Butler Bass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oil, God, and the Governor - Christianity for the Rest of Us","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oil, God, and the Governor - Christianity for the Rest of Us","og_description":"So, Governor Rick Perry blamed the Gulf oil spill on an &#8220;act of God.&#8221; &nbsp;Of course, &#8220;act of God&#8221; is a phrase used to describe something beyond human control, an unavoidable event. &nbsp;But isn&#8217;t it also the case that the words convey theological meaning as well&#8211;implying that the Gulf spill was somehow predestined or ordained&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html","og_site_name":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","article_published_time":"2010-05-04T12:04:29+00:00","author":"Diana Butler Bass","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html","name":"Oil, God, and the Governor - Christianity for the Rest of Us","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-04T12:04:29+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-04T12:04:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/oil-god-and-the-governor.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Oil, God, and the Governor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/","name":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","description":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2","name":"Diana Butler Bass","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","caption":"Diana Butler Bass"},"description":"Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}