After 50 Days, What Can We Do About the Gulf?

In response to the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, the Union for Reform Judaism is partnering with the Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) to help the people most affected by the oil spill. The JFSJ Gulf Coast Recovery Fund will be used to support grass roots organizations in the region that are assisting those who are out of work, retraining people for new jobs and working on recovering the coastline. Donations can be made online or by check (note: Gulf Cost Recovery Fund in the memo section) to:

Union for Reform Judaism
Attention: Development
633 Third Ave, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10017

Tuesday marked day 50 of BP oil disaster. Ironically (especially with news breaking in the morning about another potential oil leak in the Gulf), Tuesday was also World Oceans Day. As we watch this frightening environmental disaster hit our oceans – and our neighbors in the Gulf – the question is obvious: what can we do?

The difficult truth is, we don’t know yet. With the latest efforts to cap the leak achieving some moderate success, we still don’t know how big the spill will ultimately be, how far it will spread, and with hurricane season just getting underway, we don’t know who will be most affected. As we continue to gather information and resources to deploy when the time is appropriate, people of faith are coming together to reflect on both the causes and the effects of the spill, and think critically about how we can – through individual and communal action – effect change to ensure that such disasters do not happen in the future.

I just returned from the annual TEVA Seminar for Jewish educators (more to come on TEVA next week), where we joined together in prayerful discussion last night to commemorate day 50 of the spill as part of a series of nationwide solidarity events. We reflected on the number 50 in Jewish tradition: there are 49 days of the omer between Passover and Shavuot, where Shavuot is day 50. The days of the omer were a time of great anxiety in our days as an agricultural people, as the farmers wondered what sort of season and harvest the summer would bring. Like the anxiety of the omer in ancient times, we feel a great anxiety around the Gulf today, and until we know what to do, perhaps the best we can do is to stay informed, offer thoughts and prayers for our friends and neighbors in the region, and be prepared to act when the time comes.

Faith leaders of diverse traditions are leading reflection and prayer, and calling for all of us to think critically about the contributions of our own actions to the oil-driven economy that enabled the Gulf spill. As Episcopal Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori wrote last week, the Gulf spill is yet another reminder that all God’s creation is deeply interconnected and we all must do our part to care for each other. In another faith reflection on the Gulf, Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Joint Ethics calls the spill a moral crisis, driven by the greed, sloth, and pride (three deadly sins in the Christian tradition) of BP. Finally, our friends at Sojourners are compiling on their blog a series of reflections on the Gulf, with a recent piece by the Reverend Jim Wallis calling again on people of faith to seize the teachable moment of the oil spill to change our own fossil-fuel driven behavior.

Read together, these pieces send a powerful message: we are obligated to care for our earth and for each other, we have failed to do so (and the Gulf spill is just one piece of evidence of this moral failure), and we must begin to do better. So maybe, as we wring our hands waiting for an opportunity to offer hands-on help in the Gulf, we can help galvanize the conversation around changing the economic and social norms that enabled this disaster. As Reverend Wallis explains, “To use an over-used phrase, this could be a ‘teachable moment,’ but as 9/11 and Katrina demonstrated, we don’t necessarily learn the right lessons from teachable moments. This time we had better do so.”

With so many unanswered questions – who is to blame, when will it stop, what can we do – one thing is clear: even if the latest attempts to stop the gusher succeed, the spill will have tremendous impacts on the economy and environment of the Gulf for many years to come. The fishing and tourism industries alone – two of the lifeblood businesses of the Gulf Coast – will suffer great losses going forward, and the local workforce and wildlife alike will suffer. And as we continue to follow the news from the Gulf and look for opportunities to help, we can contribute resources as we are able, engaging in thought, prayer, and reflection, and thinking critically about how we can make the kinds of personal changes that will protect our earth from a future of oil spill disasters.