“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” - Matthew 15:8
Like many Oklahoma right-wingers, faux-Christian Mary Fallin seems to have forgotten the Biblical edict that you can’t serve two masters by asking her fellow Okies to bow down and pray before the Golden Calf that is the oil industry with the deceptively unholy declaration that today is “Oilfield Prayer Day.”
While she may sugarcoat this idea with the misleading intention of praying for the salt-of-the-earth “workers” in this energy field, make no mistake: if Mary Fallin’s tenure as Oklahoma’s governor is any inclination, she worships only one thing and that is the root of all evil itself, the almighty dollar.
“They claim to know God, but they deny him by what they do. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit to do anything good.” - Titus 1:16
Protecting the bank accounts of herself and her Conservative cronies as they continue to destroy this land is what today’s holy day of writ is truly about. Let’s face it: if Fallin truly cared about the people of this state in the way the Lord Almighty commissioned us to, she would be more like her supposed Lord and Savior, taking it to the streets, working amongst the meek, truly trying to make the so-called “Oklahoma Standard” a reality for even the least of us.
Instead she campaigns for perverted spray-tanned false idols, grinning all the way to the bank as she wipes clean the needle from a botched execution on her caped blazer, the Devil himself haw-hawing behind her like a badly sketched panel from a Jack Chick religious tract.
Yes, it’s true—Oklahoma does need prayer. It needs all the help it can get. If Mary Fallin was truly a devout Christian, however, here are five issues she would publicly ask for us to join with her in spiritual invocation for, and, perhaps even more Jesus-like, help take pro-active action via charity and service, with the oil industry and its duplicitous disciples being the least of her worries.
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1. The Impoverished
“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” - Proverbs 14:31
Oklahoma has the nation’s third-highest rate of people working at or below the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 16.6% of Oklahomans living below poverty level. Winter is coming fast and many of this state’s kids won’t have coats in time for winter. Many families and especially the elderly won’t even be able to afford basic home heating. When you live in a state where even food can become a luxury, I’m thinking the poor and impoverished could use your prayers a little bit more than some billionaires in a boardroom.
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2. Public School Teachers
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
Oklahoma Public Schools rank third-worst in the country. Budget cuts have resulted in some schools considering going to 4-day weeks while many other can’t even afford to update the tools needed to educate our future, tools as simple as books and school supplies. How is a teacher supposed to do her job when she can’t even be afforded the basic requirements of the job? I guess that’s really not something you have to think about when you can ship your hatchlings off to Casady or some similar private school. Forget prayer in schools; let’s take time to pray for our schools.
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3. The Sick
“And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.” – Matthew 10:7-8
Many Oklahomans stay sick, toughing it out and working through the pain because not only can they not afford even the most basic of doctor visits, they can’t afford to take the time off work to recuperate. According to a 2015 study from Modern Health, Oklahoma ranks worst in the nation for healthcare access. With a state government that boastfully did everything it could to distort and destroy the Affordable Health Care Act, the only hope of winter wellness many of us have is a quick prayer to St. Jude and calling up a friend or family member that still might have some leftover generic Wal-Mart antibiotics that haven’t expired yet.
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4. The Mentally Ill
“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:17-18
According to a report released by the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 630,000 Oklahomans suffer from some form of mental illness. With this year’s massive $22+ million dollar cut to the state’s mental health programs, the Department of Mental Health predicts there will be a rise in suicides and illegal drug use, as well as fear of public safety. With the costs of therapy and many psych drugs unaffordable to many individuals who need them, all that may be left to help is our prayers that they be healed. What more can we do, right?
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5. Destructive Earthquakes
“You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.” – Numbers 35:33
Many people tend to blame God for earthquakes. A massive trembler hits and people are quick to ask “Why does God allow this to happen?” However, here in Oklahoma, we should really know better. Here in Oklahoma, as we patiently wait for the next 6.0 or above, we can calmly and peaceably absolve God from any maliciousness. Any earthquake that occurs in the Sooner state has nothing to do with God and everything to do with Fallin and her fracking fiends pumping that precious oil that we’re supposed to be dutifully praying for. Just remember who to truly blame when you’re crawling out from the rubble of “the big one.”
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Louis Fowler invites you to come to non-denomination church with him this Sunday. Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler.
