MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Four Gulf
Coast governors are calling on residents to set aside Sunday as a Day of Prayer
to pray for a solution to the oil spill and for citizens impacted by the
disaster.
Alabama’s Bob Riley, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour and
Texas’ Rick Perry all issued proclamations calling on prayer for the spill,
which entered its 67th day today.
“Throughout our history, Alabamians have humbly turned to God to ask for His
blessings and to hold us steady during times of struggle. This is certainly one
of those times,” Riley said in a statement.
Riley’s proclamation reads in part, “Citizens of Alabama are urged to pray for
the well-being of our fellow citizens and our State, to pray for all those in
other states who are hurt by this disaster, to pray for those who are working
to respond to this crisis, and to pray that a solution that stops the oil leak
is completed soon.”
Perry’s proclamation says it “seems right and fitting that the people of Texas
should join with their fellow Gulf Coast residents” and others across the
country and around the world “to thank God, seek his wisdom for ourselves and
our leaders, and ask him for his merciful intervention and healing in this time
of crisis.”
Barbour’s notes that the spill threatens the “livelihoods of our fellow
citizens, the environmental beauty of our coast, and our quality of life.”
Jindals’s says “Louisianians all across the world are united in hope for an end
to this catastrophic event and pray for” the coast’s recovery.
Southern Baptist Convention messengers meeting in Orlando, Fla., June 16 passed
a resolution calling on churches and Christians “to pray for the end of this
catastrophe and for the homes, lives, cultures, and livelihoods of those in the
Gulf Coast region.”
The resolution also made a statement regarding the
environment, asserting, “Our God-given dominion over the creation is not
unlimited, as though we were gods and not creatures.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Foust is an assistant editor of Baptist Press.)