26th June , 2007

MICAH TILLMAN

United States

Recently, American states bordering the Mississippi River have been flooded. The great river about which Mark Twain wrote so much has been swollen by rain, rain, and more rain.

(Here in the US we have a saying about April showers bringing May flowers. I don’t know where it comes from, but the April showers certainly have come late this year.)

They call such things “acts of God” in the insurance business, I understand. If floods and hurricanes and whatnot are acts of God, He surely does work in mysterious ways. What did the victims do to deserve this?

Of course, the sad irony of the whole situation is that the Mississippi empties out into the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans (the most famous place here in the US to have “God act upon it” in recent memory).

Many aren’t surprised to see the environment acting up, with global warming and “carbon footprints” being of such great concern. And since many have argued (for example, me) that environmentalism has the same structure as the “usual” religions, maybe it’s not so far off to call these catastrophes 'acts of God'.

To keep “God” from doing such things again, our two main Presidential candidates (Barack Obama and John McCain) have proposed environmental legislation to cut back on carbon emissions. We’re not supposed to have a state sponsored religion here in the US (the First Amendment to our Constitution says so), but our politicians are calling for “sacrifices” anyway.

But McCain is also proposing that the Federal Government lift its ban on drilling for oil off the American coasts. You see, in addition to the ecosystem problems here in the US, we’re experiencing eco(nomic)system problems too.

Gas (or is it “petrol”?) prices are way up, and home prices are way down.

I can see how the former is a problem (filling up the family car is painful), but you’d think the latter would be great.

But “no,” I’m told, it’s not. There’s something wrong with “the market” - that analogue of “the environment. Something about the natural forces of the market (“supply and demand”) has gotten out of whack. And if it’s an act of God when natural forces act up, that means someone has been making God angry.

So Congress has been holding hearings, grilling oil and finance people about whether there has been “price manipulation.” Conservative talk radio hosts, on the other hand, have been accusing Congress of doing the manipulating by limiting the development of new oil sources and refineries.

Nobody really wants to blame all this on God (what was it Jesus said about "serving mammon”?), you see, so they look for the human causes of divine wrath.

One politician in particular, however, has gotten especially involved in the debate over how we should act for God in the political sphere. Dr. James Dobson, America’s most famous Christian psychologist (and one of the most prominent Christian conservatives), has attacked Barack Obama (now the most prominent American Christian progressive) for his understanding of Scripture and public policy.

The AP report on Dobson’s criticism (the audio of which I hear you can hear here) says that Dobson won’t necessarily be voting for McCain in the upcoming elections, however. And this is but one example of what many conservative Americans are experiencing. McCain strikes many conservatives - who tend to belong to the Republican Party - as a “RINO” (“Republican In Name Only”).

McCain, you see, has a tendency to do things that make people angry, like working against his own party and working out compromises with the other party.

The question is whether McCain will be able to placate the wrath of enough voters to win him the White House in November.

Micah Tillman is a lecturer in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, and the curator of the WEeding Awards.

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