The state of Oklahoma wants you to pray for the oil industry

People in Oklahoma have started to pray for oil fields.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 5 October 2016

Oklahoma has invited all its residents to participate in a statewide initiative of prayer for the oil industry which will culminate Oct. 13 in Oilfield Prayer Day, marked by a special breakfast event in Oklahoma City.

Gov. Mary Fallin declared the prayer day with an executive proclamation. "Whereas Oklahoma is blessed with an abundance of oil and natural gas ... [and] Christians acknowledge such natural resources are created by God," it says, "Christians are invited to thank God for the blessings created by the oil and natural gas industry and to seek His wisdom and ask for protection."

Rev. Tom Beddow of Ada, Oklahoma, who coordinates the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma's Oil Patch Chaplains ministry, supports the initiative. "The oil field is hurting right now," he told The Oklahoman. "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."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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