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Baptists in Louisiana have been active in helping reduce the effects of the massive British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The catastrophic spill has leaked millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf since an explosion on a BP drilling platform on April 20th. Baptist churches have been helping clean up beaches and offering facilities for cleanup workers.

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Baptists in the state of Louisiana have plans to offer assistance to help in reducing the effects of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The spill, which began on April 20, is threatening several states, including Louisiana and Mississippi following a catastrophic explosion on a drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil well approximately one mile or 1.6 kilometres below the surface, operated by the drilling platform, is leaking large amounts of oil out into the sea.

Eleven people died in the explosion. The millions of gallons of oil being pumped into the sea are threatening marshes, wetlands, breeding grounds and wildlife. Many communities face permanent contamination of the natural environment. Industries such as fishing, shrimping and tourism are being affected.

Baptists conducted a "pre-landfall," cleanup, that is, before the oil reaches land, on June 5 in Cameron Parish to remove natural and man-made debris and trash on the shorelines. Such debris and trash can potentially get covered in oil and make the cleanup of the affected areas more difficult. One congregation, Live Oak Baptist Church in Terrebonne Parish, offered its physical facilities as a staging area for workers hired by BP, which operates the deep water oil well, to install booms, which are placed in the sea to help prevent damage to the shoreline.

Baptists in communities affected or that are expected to be affected are fearful. "If they shut down the shrimping and then also shut down the oil industry here, we are going to be really hurting," said Tommy Bellon, pastor of Live Oak. "If we get hit by a tropical storm or hurricane, we will probably be dealing with a massive cleanup for quite some time."

"This desperate situation is threatening their way of life, culture and livelihood," wrote G. Reid Doster, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) of Louisiana. "It is all they have ever known and the prospect of losing it is obviously traumatic."

CBF of Louisiana is planning to provide training in the handling of critical incident stress and in crisis counselling. Such training, Doster said, "might also prove to be an effective way of heightening disaster awareness among our constituents and getting folks more invested in disaster response ministry."

Bellon indicated that the people in the affected areas need "caring Christians who possess crisis counselling skills," and who are available "simply to express the love of God through compassionate listening."