(RNS) When man-made disasters pollute our land environmentally and politically, inquiring minds want to know: Are humans basically good, evil or just plain stupid?
Our collective heads are spinning with scenes of collapsed coal mines, massive globs of oil, and slimy politicians. It has gotten so crazy that Ted Turner is offering theological insights. This week, a California entrepreneur announced that for only for $50,000, he can guarantee your family’s security in the event of a nuclear blast, tsunami, earthquake or other disaster.
The coal-mine disaster, and — it appears — the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were entirely avoidable, were it not for stubborn resistance to safety measures deemed unnecessary by profit-conscious corporate managers who conspired with Republican and Democratic regulators to look the other way.
Citizens who remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill are not comforted that the shipping company responsible for the disaster eventually finagled their penalties from $5 billion in punitive damages awarded by a jury, to $2.5 billion agreed on by a lower courts, to $500 million — the total penalty finally paid.
In a nation where hardly anybody supports, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., he finally said something that has widespread support. “BP’s greed led to 11 horrific and unnecessary deaths. It has harmed an enormous tourism industry, threatened business at countless fisheries, and disrupted life for many along the Gulf Coast. As the pollution grows worse, those consequences will only compound.”
It is a strange day when the notoriously irreligious and legendary “mouth of the south,” Ted Turner, offers theological commentary on the state of affairs. “I’m just wondering if God is telling us he doesn’t want us to drill offshore,” he said. “Maybe the Lord’s tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they can get more coal.”
In the increasingly bizarre world of politics, Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, a golden-boy graduate of Harvard, was busted by The New York Times for exaggerating his service in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, remember when Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously quipped, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it?”
Well, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who cast a decisive vote to break a GOP filibuster to allow the health care bill to pass, without which ObamaCare would not be the law today, is now furious that abortion opponents have found language in the law that allows private insurers to limit coverage for abortions. Now that she has read the bill, Murray fumes, “Health care reform is not an excuse to take rights away from women.” Ooops.
In our nation’s heartland, Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., an eight-term Republican and evangelical Christian who has championed family values and traditional marriage, resigned after admitting an extramarital affair with a part-time staff member. To make matters worse, the nation can witness this staffer hosting a video in which she and Souder wax eloquent about abstinence education and sexual purity.
Having watched Obama win on a platform of “change,” former Speaker Newt Gingrich says he is seriously weighing a run for the presidency if the “case for basic change is clear enough, and powerful enough, that articulating it and carrying it is a legitimate part of my role as a citizen.”
This advocate of family values has been married three times, the first two marriages ending after extra-marital affairs, the first of which occurred while his hapless wife was recovering from cancer surgery. Gingrich is a smart guy, but is it just me or does this storyline sound a bit John Edwards-ish?
Which brings us to Robert Vicino, a San Diego inventor and real estate entrepreneur who plans to build and market a self-contained shelter as “a safe haven in the event of a catastrophe.” Isn’t that how sub-prime loans were described to investors before the recent mortgage meltdown?
Please understand, I am not casting stones here. I’m simply asking: Are humans basically good, evil or just plain stupid?
It seems the answer is that the whole lot of us are a gooey mess, a custom blend of good, bad and stupid. This observation led G. K. Chesterton to say that original sin “is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved!”
(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)
