Oklahoma And The Political Whirlwind

In Moore, Oklahoma, a natural disaster has once again illuminated the unnatural disaster of our current politics.

A tornado devastated a small town in Middle America, a town that had been previously hit by a twister.  Lives were lost.  Millions of dollars of property was destroyed.  And how did we respond?

There was a time in our national life when, in a crisis of this nature, the American people would have mobilized every resource at its disposal.  Volunteers.  Medical providers. Non-profits collecting donations and funneling aid.  And, of course, the federal government would have marshalled its own resources, and coordinated the efforts of others.  No questions asked.  Not an inch of hesitation, of debate, of doubt.

In short, we would have worked together.  Us. Working.  Together.

But, in 21st-century America, a nation that seems to be slowly fading in imperial twilight, we think it's enough to say a prayer.  Let God do all the work and, by all means, let's get back to the trivial pursuit of our trivialized lives.

Don't believe me?  You don't have to.  Take a look at Facebook, our electronic town hall.  Any number of posts, "liked" by any number of people, to pray for the victims.  Little, if anything, that would suggest heeding the words of John Kennedy, to make God's work truly our own.

Because, golly, that would mean really spending time and effort and (heaven forbid) money to solve the problem.  And we just don't do that anymore in America, where selfishness is a virtue.  (Ayn Rand, our new Profit--pun intended--said so.)

I'm not against prayer.  But I take the Bible seriously when is says that faith without works is dead.  The answer to the cries for help from Moore is not the application of another religious bumper-sticker to the back of your SUV.  Oklahomans expect more.  Even if the media aren't paying attention to their expectations.

On the other hand, why should I be surprised by bumper-sticker religion when our politics descended to that level decades ago?  The Moore crisis illuminates that, too.  Even Oklahoma's senators aren't running to the rescue of their home state.  They're much too compromised by their own budget-cutting hypocrisy to do so.  Even so, one of them, Tom Coburn, sees this as the perfect opportunity to practice divide-and-conquer politics.  How Barack Obama can be friends with a professional opportunist like Coburn is beyond me.

Sadly, the tornado tragedy does not end at the town borders of Moore.  It reaches into the very soul of our country, and leads us to wonder whether it still has one.

You want to please God?  Good.  Get off your knees and open your eyes.  Donate.  Give blood.  And call your Congressperson and demand that our government and our tax dollars be use to take care of people in need--without prejudicing the needs of others.

We've prayed enough, already.  If we have faith, let's show it through our works, and work together not only to heal the town of Moore, but America as well.

UPDATE, 5/25/13:  Maybe there's some room for hope after all.