A Lesson Taught by the Gulf Oil Spill

There’s not much good to say about the BP oil spill.  Fingers are being pointed, and a lot of blame will be spread around.  There is also the consideration that it was an “accident”, as all human endeavors are subject to error.

The magnitude of the damage is yet to be known.  Certainly the effects are tragic.  Environmentalists and alarmists are likely exaggerating the prospects for long term effects; this is in many instances unintentional, flowing from their perspective on things which is also usually skewed and exaggerated.

On the other hand, the “money-is-god” crowd will attempt to excuse the whole thing, in their admiration for any enterprise that produces big profits.  In the end, natural forces have a way of cleaning things up pretty efficiently, so let’s hope they can get the leak stopped soon and the damage is less than we expect.

Perhaps there is one good thing, though, that can come out of it.  It appears that many, for the first time, realized that there are actually things that no government can do, no matter how much “money” it creates out of nothing.  After Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Government was skewered because it couldn’t just erase the effects of the hurricane and make everything just fine again.  Of course, the feds bungled the whole thing, and they deserved the disrespect that they got for pretending that they were more powerful than nature in the first place.  The Federal government is no match for a hurricane, and we should stop assigning god-like characteristics to human civil government.

The point to be made here is that, contrary to false advertising, civil government cannot just step in and “fix” anything it wants.  And the oil spill is, for many, where the realization set in that the Federal Government can do NOTHING to fix it.  Hopefully this realization will cause some to reevaluate their view of civil government.

Our culture has increasingly turned to civil government for things that it cannot or should not provide.  In looking to the government for sustenance, and to be the ultimate “safety net”, citizens place an implicit faith in government that belongs to God.  In effect, civil government has become god in many peoples’ minds.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  –Exodus 20:3

~ Jim Mogel