Commentary: We pray only after all we can do.

In March, I, among many leaders in the interfaith community, received a letter from Gov. Gary Herbert asking us to pray for precipitation. Rain or snow would help saturate our mountains and keep the forests safe from wildfires, he said.

I love prayer. As a woman of faith, I have found through prayer a way to articulate what I have a difficult time saying in any other way. Through prayer, we ask for the safety of our children and in this Valley, famously in 1848, when we called for protection against the crickets, those angelic seagulls flew in and ate their fill.

I grew up on those stories. Prayer was the refuge of my great grandmother, who lost her husband soon after they pioneered into Wyoming. She warned us, though, about prayer unaccompanied by hard work. We were to break our backs in the fields as we prayed for a good harvest. I could only pray for good grades if I had studied hard to learn those subjects. Greatmama was clear about that: We pray only after all we can do.

When I read the governor’s letter, asking us to request from God an extra measure of providential help against fires, saying that “the health of our waterways, our wetlands, our agriculture, and our forests in particular depend on an abundant snowpack and because none of us can afford to witness the destruction that comes with wildfire, I am again reaching out to you and your faith communities with an invitation to unite in prayer,” my Greatmama’s voice took over:

Utah, you have neglected to take the steps that were within your hands. You did not take practical steps to protect the environment such as forward-thinking building code amendments (HB 121) that would have significantly reduced air pollution and saved homeowners money and helped reduce the air pollution that comes from building, which constitutes 40 percent of the pollution in northern Utah. And just this year, you failed to pass HB497, a Zero Emission Vehicle program. Why?

For six legislative sessions, I have driven and walked through a thick layer of smog to get to the Capitol to plead with legislators to do something to make our air cleaner. I have stood with mothers of children with asthma and marched with people wearing gas masks. And in these six years, I have seen opportunities lost. Wild lands have become public and opened to environmental degradation to get yet more fossil fuel. The air has become worse.

Only a few days after sending this letter to faith leaders, Herbert approved an inland port that could cause more pollution and destroy bird habitat, or it could be a chance to encourage environmental innovation that combines the needs of industry, the nesting of pelicans and herons and does not further pollute the air.

My ancestor would say that we need the “intestinal fortitude” to make choices to clean our air and protect our wild lands from the polluting effects of mining, fracking and other shortsighted ways to get more fossil fuel.

Unfortunately, I can’t wait until that day. I will be leaving Salt Lake City this summer because the pollution in this Valley has put my family’s health at risk. As a minister, I urge members of our community to see the world from the standpoint of people living in poverty struggling to provide for their families.

I wonder: What if we made our choices about the environment from the standpoint of parents and spouses standing by the side of a loved one struggling to breathe, with lungs becoming more and more compromised by life in this state?

When we see that we are trading the legacy of our children and grandchildren for a mess of potage and take action, then, let us kneel in prayers of thanksgiving and plead that the years of misuse and inaction can be healed. I would love to return to this state and pray at that gathering that echoes in the valleys and mountains when the elected and appointed leaders and citizens of Utah are working together to clean the air in partnership with those companies whose vision aligns with a sustainable future for our beautiful land and air.

That is when God will listen to our cries.

Rev. Patty C. Willis is pastor of the South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society.