In Islam, we're familiar with praying to God for rain in time of draught. So, praying for things in our daily life that seem out of our control, makes sense to me as a Muslim. But praying to God to lower gas prices? Come on.
I received an Email from one of my pastor friends at the Toledo First Seventh-day Adventist Church. I believe it's the first church I've ever visited where their senior pastor is younger than me. And he's a cool guy, not only as a pastor, but also as a blogger. And he finds it a mandate to update his Fortune Cookies blog frequently.
In his Email of today, he informed us about the National Pray Down The High Gas Prices Summit. Sounds funny? or too materialistic? Maybe, maybe not. He's explained here, why increasing gas prices should concern Christians. It would harm the car-less poor and needy more than the rich and wealthy with their luxurious cars. When transportation of goods becomes costly, it would raise prices of everything (even the junk food that the poor survive on).
And then, he heard about Pray at the Pump Movement and invited Rocky Twyman (a choir director from DC and the founder of this movement) to Toledo. And what do they do exactly? Just what the name of their movement implies: they go to gas stations and pray to God to lower gas prices. Read here for more. And now, they're going to have a prayer vigil at the church, from 7 pm tonight to 7 am tomorrow.
My experience with other Christian prayer vigils had shown me that (unlike Muslim prayer vigils at mosques) they really don't stay at the church for the whole night; they gather in the evening, say some prayers, and then leave the church and do the pledged prayer slots at the comfort of their home. I assumed the same would happen here also. I was wrong. They're going to actually stay at the church for the whole night and do pray and lots of other fun things (including tips on energy conservation, green energy, etc). Read here for more details.
As I had to return some CDs and a book that Pastor Mike had lent me, I found it the best opportunity to make some sociological field observation on a prayer service over something that sounds worldly and consumeristic (on the surface at least). Unfortunately, I couldn't have stayed for the whole night, but what I saw (and what I knew about Pastor Mike) would give me an idea on how this prayer vigil would go on: cool.
When I was about to leave, Rocky (the founder of the movement) asked me to stay till 10:30 pm and say some Iranian prayers when they go live on Fox News. Sorry, I always remember poor people in my prayers, but I'm not interested so much in going live. And I'm not a big fan of Fox News.
There was just one thing that didn't quite make sense. These prayer warriors, like most of the western world, were brainwashed by the media that hiking gas prices was a result of OPEC keeping gas prices high, supply and demand and stuff. Well, not exactly.
First, there is a War of Terror going on and instabilities in the Middle East would do something to prices and these psychological shocks to the market play by their own rules (not necessarily by old dictates of supply-demand). And Russia, the biggest oil producer of the world, is not a member of OPEC. And although those Muscovites have considerably increased their oil production over last year (hence winning the first title from Saudi Arabia, the former good old ally of the US), they refuse to play the game by the rules of the Western Bloc (a note for people who believe the Cold War is over). And complications of a global economy with emergent superpowers-be (China and India) is another issue.
And last not least, there are some big creatures in the US called oil companies who benefit from high oil prices and as they hold an unscathed monopoly over production and refining of crude oil in the US, they enjoy high gas prices. Have refining utilization and capacity in the US increased at the same rate as consumption and demand? How many refineries have been shut down permanently over recent years? When was the last time they built a new refinery to increase refining capacity of crude oil?
I can anticipate outrage from both anti-God and anti-consumerism camps alike and how they would react to a gas prayer at a gas pump (of all places). Anti-God people would find new fuel to rant against those well-off church-goers who are so concerned about their cars and lifestyle under the disguise of prayer; and anti-consumerism guys (part of whom you can find among the leftist faithful), lamenting about reducing God to the temple of consumerism (i.e. gas pumps).
I wouldn't be very concerned about gas prices on a personal level; I've been riding my bike all along, in hot muggy summer and in cold snowy winter, regardless of gas price. As a poor student, I can't afford to buy a car, no matter what I read on gas pump boards. My only personal concern would be the price of the fruits (imported or transported from God-knows-where) that I rely on as a veggie (I eat fish and dairy though). And those tasteless inorganic fruits are already much more expensive than the organic delicious fruits I cherished back in Iran.
Anyway, even under simplistic assumptions about what's going on in our world (and that happens when you listen too much to Fox News), it's always good to pray to God.
I received an Email from one of my pastor friends at the Toledo First Seventh-day Adventist Church. I believe it's the first church I've ever visited where their senior pastor is younger than me. And he's a cool guy, not only as a pastor, but also as a blogger. And he finds it a mandate to update his Fortune Cookies blog frequently.
In his Email of today, he informed us about the National Pray Down The High Gas Prices Summit. Sounds funny? or too materialistic? Maybe, maybe not. He's explained here, why increasing gas prices should concern Christians. It would harm the car-less poor and needy more than the rich and wealthy with their luxurious cars. When transportation of goods becomes costly, it would raise prices of everything (even the junk food that the poor survive on).
And then, he heard about Pray at the Pump Movement and invited Rocky Twyman (a choir director from DC and the founder of this movement) to Toledo. And what do they do exactly? Just what the name of their movement implies: they go to gas stations and pray to God to lower gas prices. Read here for more. And now, they're going to have a prayer vigil at the church, from 7 pm tonight to 7 am tomorrow.
My experience with other Christian prayer vigils had shown me that (unlike Muslim prayer vigils at mosques) they really don't stay at the church for the whole night; they gather in the evening, say some prayers, and then leave the church and do the pledged prayer slots at the comfort of their home. I assumed the same would happen here also. I was wrong. They're going to actually stay at the church for the whole night and do pray and lots of other fun things (including tips on energy conservation, green energy, etc). Read here for more details.
As I had to return some CDs and a book that Pastor Mike had lent me, I found it the best opportunity to make some sociological field observation on a prayer service over something that sounds worldly and consumeristic (on the surface at least). Unfortunately, I couldn't have stayed for the whole night, but what I saw (and what I knew about Pastor Mike) would give me an idea on how this prayer vigil would go on: cool.
When I was about to leave, Rocky (the founder of the movement) asked me to stay till 10:30 pm and say some Iranian prayers when they go live on Fox News. Sorry, I always remember poor people in my prayers, but I'm not interested so much in going live. And I'm not a big fan of Fox News.
There was just one thing that didn't quite make sense. These prayer warriors, like most of the western world, were brainwashed by the media that hiking gas prices was a result of OPEC keeping gas prices high, supply and demand and stuff. Well, not exactly.
First, there is a War of Terror going on and instabilities in the Middle East would do something to prices and these psychological shocks to the market play by their own rules (not necessarily by old dictates of supply-demand). And Russia, the biggest oil producer of the world, is not a member of OPEC. And although those Muscovites have considerably increased their oil production over last year (hence winning the first title from Saudi Arabia, the former good old ally of the US), they refuse to play the game by the rules of the Western Bloc (a note for people who believe the Cold War is over). And complications of a global economy with emergent superpowers-be (China and India) is another issue.
And last not least, there are some big creatures in the US called oil companies who benefit from high oil prices and as they hold an unscathed monopoly over production and refining of crude oil in the US, they enjoy high gas prices. Have refining utilization and capacity in the US increased at the same rate as consumption and demand? How many refineries have been shut down permanently over recent years? When was the last time they built a new refinery to increase refining capacity of crude oil?
I can anticipate outrage from both anti-God and anti-consumerism camps alike and how they would react to a gas prayer at a gas pump (of all places). Anti-God people would find new fuel to rant against those well-off church-goers who are so concerned about their cars and lifestyle under the disguise of prayer; and anti-consumerism guys (part of whom you can find among the leftist faithful), lamenting about reducing God to the temple of consumerism (i.e. gas pumps).
I wouldn't be very concerned about gas prices on a personal level; I've been riding my bike all along, in hot muggy summer and in cold snowy winter, regardless of gas price. As a poor student, I can't afford to buy a car, no matter what I read on gas pump boards. My only personal concern would be the price of the fruits (imported or transported from God-knows-where) that I rely on as a veggie (I eat fish and dairy though). And those tasteless inorganic fruits are already much more expensive than the organic delicious fruits I cherished back in Iran.
Anyway, even under simplistic assumptions about what's going on in our world (and that happens when you listen too much to Fox News), it's always good to pray to God.
3 comments:
Thanks for the shout out Mehraad!!! Thank you for also clarifying OPEC. I did not know that!!!
Glad to hear that.
I was not sure about how my criticism (which was not very mild) would be received.
One more point about oil production. US sanctions (directly or through UN) have made foreign investment in Iranian oil sector unreasonably uneconomic and costly .
Although it's just one factor among others, escalating these sanctions (which is on the US govt agenda for flimsy reasons) would contribute to hiking gas prices.
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