A church in Detroit prayed over hybrid SUV's for a bailout.
With sport-utility vehicles at the altar and auto workers in the pews, one of Detroit's largest churches on Sunday offered up prayers for Congress to bail out the struggling auto industry.
"We have never seen as midnight an hour as we face this week," the Rev. Charles Ellis told several thousand congregants at a rousing service at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. "This week, lives are hanging above an abyss of uncertainty as both houses of Congress decide whether to extend a helping hand."
Local car dealerships donated three hybrid SUVs to be displayed during the service, one from each of the Big Three. A Ford Escape, Chevy Tahoe from GM and a Chrysler Aspen were parked just in front of the choir and behind the pulpit.
Ellis said he and other Detroit ministers would pray and fast until Congress voted on a bailout for Detroit's embattled automakers. He urged his congregation to do the same.
The pragmatic point is that what they do not realize is that even if there is a bailout, there is simply no guarantee that any of that money will trickle down to workers in severance, much less allow them to keep their jobs. They only need to pay attention to how the bailouts before the consideration of the auto industry have gone. Workers in Chicago are not faring well after the first bailout.
A union spokeswoman said Bank of America is not letting the company pay the workers.
"We're just shocked that Bank of America, after receiving $25 billion in bailout money, not only do they refuse to extend credit to companies but, to add insult to injury, they don't allow these companies to fulfill their legal obligations to their workers," union spokeswoman Leah Fried said.
The other point is that it is very odd to anoint and offer prayers over merchandise. Earnest prayer and gathering the community is a good thing. Praying for something that might not yield the result for which they hope is mis-guided. Anointing the kind of vehicle that has been the source of failure for automaker mismanagment is theologically strange. Thinking that all of this will help God intervene in people's jobs seems ignorant of what corporate executives really want, and it has very little to do with the condition of the worker these days. As Jesus said,
Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.
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