Ted Turner: God Says 'Don't Drill'

In the past, Pat Robertson has declared disasters, natural and man-made, to be messages from God.

On those occasions, Robertson would be condemned for his ludicrous claims.

Now Ted Turner is beginning to sound like Robertson, only Turner isn't being chastised and ridiculed for his remarks. His claim that the oil spill in the Gulf may have been a message from God is accepted as reasonable.

Video.


From CNN:

Sometimes referred to as “The Mouth of the South,” the CNN founder lashed out against religious believers in the past. He once dubbed Christianity a “religion for losers” and wondered aloud whether the Ash Wednesday observers around him at work were “Jesus freaks.” His marriage to Jane Fonda was rumored to become strained when she started finding religion.

And while his stance has certainly mellowed with the years - he apologized for his past comments and joined with churches in 2008 to fight malaria - his suggestion that God may have had a hand in the oil disaster that killed 11 and is threatening the Gulf Coast may take some by surprise.

“Could be,” God’s work, he told CNN’s Poppy Harlow. “He’s sending us a message.”

Turner sat down with Harlow recently to discuss the energy policy in the United States.

...“I’m not a real religious person, but I’m somewhat religious. And I’m just wondering if God is telling us he doesn’t want us to drill offshore,” he said. “And right before that we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners,” as well as repeated mining disasters – “seems like there’s one over there every week” – in China.

“Maybe the Lord’s tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they can get more coal. I think maybe we ought to just leave the coal in the ground and go with solar and wind power and geo-thermals where it’s applicable.”

So Turner seems to have found religion.

His hostility toward believers has given way and he's joined their ranks.

Suddenly, Turner is listening to God and sharing his understanding of God's signs.

According to Turner, God may be sending us a message: Don't drill!

I find it very hard to believe that Turner is being sincere about God making his wishes known via the BP spill.

It's possible he's had a dramatic change of heart when it comes to religion, but I think it's more likely that Turner wants a headline. I bet this is a cheap stunt. Very cheap.