Baking Temperatures and Theology

I’ve been downloading various manuals while at work, looking at different formats and gleaning some good (and bad) ideas from all of them. For a portion of the day today, I read manuals on ovens, cameras, and vacuums. Occasionally, when reading instruction manuals, you come across something that strikes you – something odd or out of place. This afternoon, while perusing the last few pages of the GE Trivection Oven manual, I found one of those unexpected statements in the warranty section:

What GE will not cover:
• Damage to the product caused by accident, fire, floods, or acts of God.

I found this fascinating. I’ve never heard of God smiting household appliances before, but apparently this has come up at some point, or it would not be in the manual. But then, by making this assertion, does GE open itself up to theological debates? I mean, what if some customer’s oven is possessed by demons? Should GE be required to exorcize the spirits, since such occurrences are not acts of God?

I can see it now – two Jesuit priests standing in a dark kitchen lit only by candles, facing a dual-door convection oven with menacing red light and smoke pouring from its hellish maw, chucking holy water at it, and shouting “The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!” And all the while, there’s a GE business rep crouching in the corner, simultaneously documenting the service costs and wetting himself in terror.

I feel like writing GE and asking what prompted the inclusion of this exception.