Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin invites Christians to thank God for the oil industry.

Governor Mary Fallin has issued an Executive Proclamation designating October 13 as Oilfield Prayer Day.

The official proclamation states:

Whereas, Oklahoma is blessed with an abundance of oil and natural gas, allowing the state to be a prosperous producer of these valuable resources; and Whereas Christians acknowledge such natural resources are created by God; and Whereas the oil and gas industry continues to produce countless opportunities for wealth generation for Oklahoma families; and Whereas Oklahoma recognizes the incredible economic, community and faith-based impacts demonstrated across the state by oil and natural gas companies; and Whereas Christians are invited to thank God for the blessing created by the oil and natural gas industry and to seek His wisdom and ask for protection; now, therefore, I, Mary Fallin, Governor, do hereby proclaim October 13, 2016, as “Oilfield Prayer Day” in the state of Oklahoma.

NewsOK reports the statewide prayer initiative focusing on the oil fields and beleaguered energy industry will culminate Oct. 13 with an annual breakfast in downtown Oklahoma City.

Commenting on the “Oilfield Prayer Day,” the Rev. Tom Beddow of Ada, coordinator of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s Oil Patch Chaplains ministry said:

The oil field is hurting right now… We’re asking churches all over Oklahoma to open their doors, put on a pot of coffee and pray for the oil field, and not only for the oil field but the state, because the economy of our state is so connected to the oil field.

Also commenting on the “Oilfield Prayer Day,” Nation of Change opines:

Perhaps it would be more prudent for Gov. Mary Fallin and the Republican-dominated legislature to stop praying to the oil industry and start passing laws to make their state’s oil billionaires pay their fair share of taxes.

Bottom line: There is something profoundly perverse about Gov. Mary Fallin asking citizens of Oklahoma to pray for the oil and natural gas industry, instead of, say, the homeless, or kids with cancer, or those suffering from war, famine, and oppression around the globe.

Yet perhaps more important, there is something deeply distasteful about Fallin using her authority as Governor to promote her particularly perverse and crass vision of Christianity. At the very least, her sectarian call for prayers is an insult to the U.S. Constitution, and the secular values upon which this nation was founded.

(H/T Daily Kos)