Why is it that the Christian Right is so fond of pontificating about sexual ethics when some of its members are so bereft of even vestigial business ethics? Case in point- a recently revealed Israeli oil scam.

According to leftist US Mother Jones columnist Mariah Blake, some fundamentalist apocalypse mongers believe in the existence of a giant, untapped oil field that lies under the southwest corner of the Dead Sea. Once enterprising petrochemical companies began to exploit this allegedly vast resource, it would drain off oil from Persian Gulf OPEC members, lead to a Middle East War and the end of the world.

There’s one slight problem. Geological surveys and seismic evaluations are not forthcoming, and while ten oil companies have sunken four hundred or so wells in the area, none of them have produced commercially feasible quantities of oil or gas. 

One Texas fundamentalist would-be oil magnate, Harold Stephens, acquired a shell company, Less, which had no oil exploration equipment. Stephens decided on a novel method of fundraising for shares, which consisted of appealing on Kansas-based fundamentalist end of the world zealot Stan Johnson’s radio show, The Prophecy Club. Stephens bilked his audience into purchasing non-refundable shares that could not be onsold. He and his corporate cronies derived much profit as share prices soared after he misled fundamentalist investors about the actual operational status of his business, and then leaving those investors angry, puzzled and poorer after the bubble burst.

Blake travelled to Israel to investigate Ness’  “Israeli” operations, all she and Israeli Deputy Oil Commissioner could find were no Ness drilling licenses or operational platforms, but those of a Stephens-owned subsidiary, Hesed. It turned out that Ness and Hesed had a division of labour, whereby Ness would do the drilling, while Hesed profited from it, and Ness investors wouldn’t see a cent. Stephens had misled investors about the “geological survey” that purported to show the mythical vast oilfield. There is no such current geological or seismic data about the alleged drilling area.

Happily, Stephens perished in May 2003 after a heart attack. Unfortunately, his son, Sha Stephens, took over his father’s holdings in his stead.

There’s a history of fundamentalist oil exploration in Israel which dates back to the sixties. In the eighties, Andrew Sorelle was able to raise $US 25 million from fundamentalist investors, drilled down 21, 500 feet and struck…limestone.

His drilling equipment broke, and former Israeli Oil Commissioner Moishe Goldberg reported to Blake that he received several letters from grief-stricken fundamentalist oil investors, who had sunken their lifes savings into the deal.

Zion Oil and Gas is another legitimate fundamentalist operation, and like Sorelle, relies on mainstream credentialed geologists. It redrilled on Sorelle’s abandoned site, but had to abandon the well in June 2007 due to equipment problems, although they hope to open a second platform soon.

There are other hucksters out there. In 1999, Covenant Energy tried the same tactic, only to be busted by the Delaware Securities Division. In 2003, its corporate personnel were convicted of pocketing the proceeds, while not actually doing any drilling

At least Sorelle and Zion actually performed the task of exploration. As for Sha Stephens and his Ness associates, they used the services of Stan Johnson and The Prophecy Club back in Kansas, again making misleading comments about the company’s operational status and profitability, leading to inflated share profits, which Stephens and other Ness personnel milked. In December 2006, Ness sold its Texas corporate headquarters, while in July 2007, it was removed from the Washington state corporate registry, where it had originally been cited. In September 2007, Stephens and Ness associates appointed UK businessman Tony Allenby as CEO, triggering clause contracts that provided massive payouts for them in the event of new corporate leadership, even though Allenby left in October 2007. Ness has no personnel or offices, and still has no

actual petroleum facilties.

Ah, the wonders of fundamentalist “business ethics.” It never ceases to amaze me that given their obsession with the minutae of consensual interpersonal sexual relations, the Christian Right is so wilfully blind and silent when it comes to the strikingly opportunist approach to business conduct displayed by some of its members.  Which seriously blight the later years of some of its older members, come to that…

One hopes that the New Zealand Christian Right has no holier-than-thou high rolling snake (or any other) oil salespeople concealed in its own ranks, otherwise opportunist New Zealand centre-right political parties and business interests could find themselves holding, not the baby, but an empty cradle.

What does this have to do with LGBT issues? Merely this. Why can’t they practice what they preach? It’s all very well to play moral absolutist when it comes to sexual ethics, but why do they automatically become devoid of any such interest when it comes to ethical economic and corporate behaviour? O tempore, o mores…

Recommended:

http://www.motherjones.com

Mariah Blake: “Let There Be Light Crude” Mother Jones 33:1 (January/February 2008: 55-57, 81