Gas prices are now much higher in America. We all know this. Some of us saw it coming (though I thought it would happen a lot sooner) and planned for it. We purchased smaller, fuel efficient cars, car pooled, and moved closer to where we work and/or go to school. We may have even taken public transportation now and then. Others, well, they continued living in the suburbs and continued driving their two SUVs 40+ miles to and from work.
You know the type. They insist that they ‘need’ an oversized vehicle to transport their kids to and from school and extra curricular activities. Not that their kids couldn’t walk the mile and half twice a day (yet they wonder why their kids are getting so fat). Despite this claim you usually see the driver alone in their tax-subsidized suburban tanks. You usually see them most often when they are right in front of you, blocking 90% of your visibility. That’s when you can’t help but notice that, more often than not, somewhere on the backs of these eye-sores, there is a little metal stylized fish.
That’s right, the owners of these monsters are often Christians. I couldn’t find any hard statistics to confirm this anecdotally formed opinion, but it stands to reason considering two commonly accepted facts. 1. Liberals are more likely to drive smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles. 2. Christians are more likely to be conservatives. Thus Christians are more less likely to drive smaller automobiles. Regardless, the point of this rant post is to highlight some hypocrisies of the Christian SUV/minvan driver, and how that hypocrisy has reached new heights recently.
How is ownership of a large, fuel-inefficient vehicle hypocritical for the Christian? Greed. First of all, SUVs are tax-subsidized, meaning that people rich enough to buy a large vehicle save money at the cost of everyone else, including those who cannot afford such a vehicle. Second, they produce more pollution. Harming everyone via the environment is not excused by the convenience of having a large vehicle. Third, SUVs are more safe for the owner (presuming they opt for the non-flipping kind), but less safe for everyone else. Fourth, they create a disproportionate amount of road damage for which everyone’s taxes must be used. And Finally, they create a high demand for gasoline which has pushed prices up for everyone. Continue reading…
The above image is created and licensed by She’s Not Ther.
Of course these reasons are hypocritical for anyone who considers themselves a good and conscientious person, not just Christians. But here’s where a few Christians have taken it to new heights. A group of activist have started praying for lower gas prices! Why? Because lower gas prices would help the poor to make ends meat? No, because “Someone’s making a lot of money and it’s really, really wrong,” according to Rocky Twyman, founder of Prayer at the Pump. He goes on to say, “We call on God to intervene in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices high.” So it’s other people’s greed he’s admonishing. He does not, however, admonish the greed of those driving gas guzzling large vehicles. Nor does he promote increasing fuel economy, which would lower demand and reduce prices of gas. No. He wants God to lower gas prices for a country where two automobile homes are the norm. He wants God to enable us to continue our hyper-consumptive lifestyles.
Rocky Twyman and like-minded Christians disgust me. Several American news outlets describe his idea as a radical solution. I have no problem with characterizing his beliefs as ‘radical’, but it’s certainly not a ’solution’. Instead of seeking real alternatives, like lobbying the government to end SUV subsidies and applying the taxes to the development of alternative fuels or promotion of fuel economy, they ask God to ‘intervene’ in the capitalistic market. They want Him to end the greed of others so that they may continue their own. Even if their God was real, He’d see right through their ploy and take no action. If they took the time to examine their own lives, they’d recognize that and make real solutions in their own lives instead of lazily asking someone else to do it for them.
After all,
God helps those who help themselves.
-Benjamin Franklin (not the Bible)
Okay I’ll bite. We own a rather large “mini”-van. We do have three kids so the larger transport is to a large degree necessary. We are a 2 vehicle family. Often you will see one or the other of us driving the green machine (green in color not in eco-friendliness) by ourselves. Would you have us buy a second smaller vehicle to use when we don’t need it? That’s actually not a bad solution and when we’re in better financial position to do so we will. I need a commute friendly vehicle for those days when I don’t/can’t take the bus.
I’ll go one further. We have three children. Should Christians/eco-concious people only have 1? That would be more economical/better for the environment. I know, we should also forego having central heat and air. That would be better wouldn’t it?
I get that this isn’t directed at us and I feel your frustration here. I think too many people are driving large vehicles that they don’t need. My wife is proposing a “sin tax” on SUV’s/large vans. I think that the higher fuel prices are going to force people to start thinking smarter at least if not more eco-friendly. That’s my prayer. Praying for lower gas prices is equally puzzling to me.
As for the 1.5 mile crack, most folks I know live further than that from work/school so I don’t understand that.
I’m so glad you did take the bait, Scott
My rant was not aimed at anyone in particular, though you do fit many aspects of the profile. Really, religion is ancillary to all but the “Prayers at the Pump” section. You seem to agree with me to an extent about that latter portion. Christians shouldn’t be asking God to help them continue their own immoral lifestyle, they should be taking action to change their lifestyle.
There is, of course, no one-size-fits-all solution. But I would object to your characterization of a minivan as ‘necessary’ for a family of five. I was raised in a family of five and we never owned a van (’mini’ or otherwise) or an SUV. Until they divorced (an environmental and economic disaster, in general), they owned only one car. It was inconvenient, but doable.
That just begs the question though. To what extent should we inconvenience ourselves for the sake of others? I think that’s the question you were getting at with this statement:
From what I understand of your religion, Christians have a very high calling with regards to serving others. The rest of us have to rely on a conscience, empathy, and reason to find the right balance. I have thoughts on the specifics of your comment based on the balance I’ve come to. I’ll address them if you’d like me to. However, I will mention that a large vehicle for a large family isn’t an immoral indulgence. But it should be mitigated by other choices, like the eco-friendly 2nd car that you mention for when the entire family is not traveling.
The 1.5 mile crack relates to another section of my rant. Where one chooses to live is, perhaps, the most important environmental decision one can make. It’s simple: live close to work and school. That’s a choice. Small commute times means very low fuel usage. In cities, it likely means public transportation is available. I know it’s not always possible, but it’s a goal worth working towards for many reasons.
The specific number, 1.5 miles, is about the average distance me and my brothers and I walked to school most everyday from 1st through 12th grades. It was a personal touch
Sid,
Love you to death - but I think you are obsessed.
lol! Hi Mom!
I’m curious to know what it is you think I’m obsessed with. I suspect you mean religion. Do I pay it more or less attention to that then, say, my brothers pay to sports? Is it any more or less attention than evangelicals pay to everyone else’s sex lives? Also, if you look at the number of posts under each category (on the left sidebar), you’ll see that there are nearly twice as many posts about politics as religion. Does that make me doubly obsessed about politics?
I probably seem obsessed with religion because I criticize it despite the social taboo against such criticism. It’s the taboo violation that sticks out. That taboo is crumbling. 9-11, creationists’ full-throttle attack on science, and eight years of an incompetent, religiously-elected House, Senate, and White House have highlighted just how much of a need there is for some criticism of certain religious ideas and practices.
You’re the best mom anyone could ask for, but I suspect that you may have to adjust to this new reality. My religious posts are not extreme anymore.
It’s certainly not a necessity in the same way that say air and water are, but when we go places as a family (which is most places you go, especially if we take anyone with us, it does get to be crowded. As far as how things were when you were a kid, car seats, especially the huge ones that are out these days weren’t required. Heck when I was a kid seatbelts were optional. I’ll grant you we could cram all five, with car seats in a mid size car, but the mileage would be negligibly better. So to a degree it’s a matter of convenience, but not in the main. To offset we do walk to church and school to some degree. Leigh has a carpool set up for taking the kids to school. I do take the bus on a pretty frequent basis. Etc. So we do mitigate the largeness of the van were possible.
I would live closer to work, but there you run in to a cost of living issue. Housing in HP is more expensive in general. That may be offset to a degree by a lessening of mileage, especially now that gas is so high. But considering in town gas mileage is frequently lower and there’s no way I could live within 2-5 miles of work I think it’s a wash. It’s more likely that I’ll be looking for a job in Winston for that very reason.
As it is for school we do live within walking distance. That will be moot soon as homeschooling is in our future. For a tongue in cheek look at that from a Christian POV read this http://branthansen.typepad.com/letters_from_kamp_krusty/2008/05/kamp-krusty-fix.html
Also, be nice to your Mama.
Hello Scott,
That’s a good point. We were all free and wild in the back seat. Those kid seats are as wide as two seven-year-old versions of myself. I am, admittedly, ignorant of the 21st transportation challenges faced by a large American family. Perhaps child seat laws are overreaching?
It sounds like you do some good things to mitigate the SUV use. Your comment reminds me of another way of viewing how much gas mileage your vehicle gets: measure it in people-miles per gallon (p-mpg). It increases the complication of your environmental impact, but it is more fair.
Let’s look at a hypothetical situation. Let’s say, for sake of argument, your SUV consistently gets 20 mpg. In the morning you and your wife drive the three kids 10 miles to school. For that portion of the drive, you are getting 100 p-mpg (20 mpg * 5 people). No one can fault you for that! Then suppose you drive another 5 miles to drop off your wife during which you’ll get 40 p-mpg! Finally, you drive another 5 miles at only 20 p-mpg. This means, on average, you’d be getting 65 p-mpg over 20 miles. This is better than a hybrid-driving non-carpooler who drives the same distance to work.
On reflection, my rant doesn’t really apply to you. I’m really targeting SUV drivers who drive solo most of the time.
The link was funny and identifies a real problem. But the solution is, of course, too absolutist (which gives it its humor). For instance, more schools in more neighborhoods would be good for more than just reducing bus miles. Also, more efficient buses with lower emissions would help. Finally, consider the p-mpg of a bus with 25 kids on it. Even if it only gets 15 mpg, that’s 375 p-mpg! That’s why mass-transit is so environmental.
Be nice to my mom? Okay, I recognize that some Christians have long recognized the moral implications of vehicle choice. And you are the best for still loving your godless heathen of a son. Not all religious families are that understanding.
Sidfaiwu This is an interesting take on religion and one I had’nt thought of or noticed and I am not sure it is true.Anecdotally it sounds great however I drive by a church near where i live and haven’t seen anything different about the vehicles there or I think I would have noticed it.Actually it may be the the exact opposite because if memory serves me correct it seems to me that more educated people make the most money and are more able to afford suv’s and christians are less educated and make less money so have smaller vehicles.If you want to see suvs go to an affluent neighborhood and there you will see suvs and lots of them.As far as the people in affluent neighborhoods being more christian I don’t know but I doubt it.A simple drive-by of a church on sunday might be a plan.I am wondering about other religions and their propensity to drive large vehicles.It seems to me the saudis like big american cars and suvs and there are basically zero christians driving around there.How about venezuella where gasoloine is 10 cents a liter?It might be interesting to check the statistics on vehicle ownership there.Sorry Sidfaiwu I hate to say it but I think this one is a non starter and should probably be classified as an urban legend.On a related topic sort of have you seen the mansion al gore lives in how earth friendly is that thing but he buys carbon offsets.Anything wrong with this picture but i doubt if he is much of a christian except when it suits his purposes
I wouldn’t be too surprised if you were right, sawaz. As I mentioned in my post, the SUV-Christian correlation is an anecdotally formed opinion, which makes it suspect at best. If you can find hard numbers, that would be great. I was unsuccessful at finding any.
I went on to mention in one of my subsequent comments that religion is ancillary to most of the post. It’s really a critique of American over-consumption. I tried the SUV-Christian angle as a ‘vehicle’ to discus the absurd Prayers at the Pump. That was the point of the post (hence the title Christians Focus on the Fuel. Do you have any thoughts on that portion?
I have on last suggestion for you. I like your contributions to the posts, but as a courtesy to your readers, may I suggest a paragraph format for your comments? It would make reading your comments much easier.
Sidfaiwu I don’t think there is any hard data on a correlation between between religion and the type of vehicle driven.I suppose in order to find that out you would probably have to do your own survey.
I suppose driving past a church on Sunday would be a start although you would have to factor in the area where the church is and maybe even if one of the congregation sells cars!A particularly zealous salesman in their midst could skew the results before you even get going and you would probably never even know it.
The prayers at the pump is one of the most ridiculous things i have heard in a long time however it is perfectly consistent with the idea of God answering prayers in the first place.In any axiomatic system if you have an inconsistency then any statement is derivable so in that way what they are doing makes perfect sense within their headspace.I just cannot enter that place no matter how hard I try.
Anyway since he started his campaign gas prices have stabilized ! :)Would’t it be funny if after all our mocking gas prices start to fall?
Do you suppose the universe has a sense of humor and your blog only helped spread his message or maybe you have vastly underrated this guy and he figured that gas prices have gone about as far as they can go so now he will jump in and pulicise his prayers and then claim credit for something which would have happened anyway.
If that is the case then Mr Twyman is a pro who got a million dollars of free publicity and can say look what we did with the power of prayer.
I don’t know if that happened and it is taking cynicism to the n’th degree but it is not impossible.Sometimes guys in pickups are way smarter than you think
And maybe throw a space or two in after the periods.
Anyway, I’d like to see some numbers regarding Christians (in this country since 3rd world would skew heavily poor) and education. Most of the churches I’ve gone to have had a pretty good mix of blue collar and white collar workers. The church I’m in now is pretty well educated as a rule. Quite a few doctors/lawyers/small-large business owners/professors. We also have a pretty active student contingent from WFU and other colleges. Now granted that has a lot to do with location, but there are certainly a number of smart, well educated (not always mutual) Christians. Seems to me that some atheists (perhaps none here) think that their “free-thinking” monniker indicates that they’re smarter than the average theist.
Also, and this is purely anecdotal, it would seem to me that the correlation between education level and car size might not be as straight forward as you may think. More educated (and therefore likely more liberal) would seem to me to be more likely owners of smaller more eco-friendly vehicles.