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A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Tina Carter*

1:00 P.M. EST July 16, 2010

A photoshop illustration by Kathleen Barry. Photos courtesy
of NASA and U.S. Coast Guard, Creative Commons.

I am often appalled at the power that we Americans give to scientists and engineers. We assign to them almost godlike status. And why wouldn’t we? They have given us the Internet with instant access to everything, cell phones that can connect us to anyone anywhere, and the ability to reach beyond the gravity of our planet into the celestial beauty formerly reserved for God and the angels.

As a pastor, I carry the title “Reverend.” I wear my clergy collar when I go from place to place. But, consistently, it is not my theological knowledge or faithful practice that gains me respect from other Americans inside and outside church. It is the fact that the letters “Ph.D.” follow my name. It is my degrees in chemistry and a decade of work in environmental remediation that draw people’s dreamy adoration.

I am held to a higher standard not just because I’m a pastor but mostly because I am a scientist. Folks assume that I know the answer to any question they might think up.

With our increased demand and consumption of oil, with our increased demand for money and the greed that pervades our culture, and with the expectation of instant results born of the very technology that scientists and engineers have given us come no room for error and no offer of grace.

The people who were on the drill rig when the oil spill happened in the Gulf of Mexico and those who have sought a solution to this incredible error in judgment are nothing more and nothing less than children of God. Lacking godlike qualities, they are thinking and testing everything that they know to do.

Most of the environmental disasters that I encountered as a consultant were not the result of a failure in science or technology; they were the direct result of the increasing pressure on scientists and engineers to think that they are the solution to all the world’s ills. That’s too much pressure for any group of humans to withstand.

The Rev. Tina Carter

Scientists and engineers are well equipped to solve the small problems that occur, and the design of the planet is great at smoothing out small upsets in the balance of nature. But neither humans nor non-human creation are equipped to remedy major disruptions in balance.

We have created an idol of science. We need to get back to worshipping God. We need to quit seeing environmental disasters happen and pointing our fingers at those who are “godlike” enough to solve our issues — forgetting that every time we point one finger, there are four fingers pointing back at ourselves.

As a scientist, I can’t help but think that we need to slow down — slow down our consumption, our demand, our desire for instant results.

If everyone lived the way an average American lives, we would need 10 planets to sustain the world’s present population (www.myfootprint.org). Americans have a hard time thinking of ourselves as wealthy, but the truth is that if you make $25,000 a year, you are richer than 90 percent of the world’s population. If you make $50,000 a year, you are richer than 99 percent (“The Hole in the Gospel” by Richard Stearns). As a scientist, I long for us to lay aside the hubris that says, “If humans can dream it up — it must be good.”

As a pastor, I wonder when we will quit putting our trust in things. When will we say enough is enough? I have been earnestly praying for the scientists and engineers who are trying to repair the oil leak in the Gulf. I have been praying that they might persist in the face of this overwhelming task.

I have been praying for us, too, that we might learn to do what John Wesley taught us so long ago: Refrain from consuming. That is in part what he meant when he admonished, “Save all you can,” allowing us to give all we can so that folks around the world might have the essentials of life — the real essentials of food and clean water.

*Carter is an ordained elder serving Parker Lane United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas. She holds a doctorate in applied chemistry and has worked in environmental remediation.

News media contact: Kathy Noble, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.