Unbelievable. Unimaginable. Impossible. Those are the word I hear applied to the unfolding disaster in New Orleans and the bayou, the Mississippi, and Lake Ponchartrain try to reclaim the city.
What I am finding interesting about this disaster is the difference from 9-11, which now has achieved mythic status in the American psyche. I haven’t heard of anyone making any comparisons – I may just be different in how I perceive things. I do remember in 9-11 the countless stories of selfless acts of courage, a city rallying together in a time of tragedy, and the repeated notice of the absence of looting, crime, etc… Was it all as pristine as we tend to retell it now, probably not but no one seemed to play the blame game in those early days.
What seems different about Katrina is just as New Orleans had the reputation of being one of the “rougher” cities in the US, with higher poverty, crime, etc…, we are seeing a shocking, more gritty side of disaster than we are used to. While I am certain there are stories that will emerge of out of this disaster of courageous, selfless people, of communities rallying together in their need from the Big Easy up into Mississippi and Alabama, what I see being reported most often are the pictures of looters carting off TVs and jewelry and political pundits like Robert Kennedy Jr. blaming the Governor of Mississippi and the President for this “logical” outcome of global warming. One of the poorest regions of the country gets levelled by a natural disaster and what we get offered on the airwaves are green party politics and images that imply why poor people shouldn’t be helped!
I have always loved New Orleans – its has a down to earth, live life to its fullest charm and history that I have appreciated every time I have gone there. The best national youth gathering our denomination ever held (in my opinion) was in New Orleans in 1998 – 36,000 Lutheran teenagers doing community service, worshipping in the Superdome, walking Canal and Bourbon Streets, and the French Quarter. So much of what was there is now gone for good and I mourn that.
So far I have not heard any evangelical publicity seeker declare that Katrina was God’s judgment on the Sodom of New Orleans or vengence for the homosexual/pagan cultists/New World Order/secular humanist agendas that are undermining the American Way of Life and polluting our precious bodily fluids. Its going to happen. God is to blame and God has his reasons for putting his smackdown on the Deep South and turning the people over to their sins. Someone is going to say, get a big headline, and make the rest of us who believe in a God want to crawl in a hole or consider doing something positively ungodly to get them to shut up.
The question that has come up before, along with a couple of requests to deal with it is the age old question about why is there evil, why do bad things happen to good people. Just so happens I have been reading the book of job which wrestles with this. So, I’ll take a stab at it in light of Katrina. I will try and get out a quickpodcast on this tonight and The Burning Man will have to wait until Friday (two podcasts in a week?). In anticipation, let me just say this – if you are looking for someone/something to blame, you are missing the opportunity. Instead of trying to figure out the why, figure out the “what shall I do?” How does your spiritual jouney intersect with this real tragedy? How are you being drawn to serve and love, to make a loving and compassionate God real to people who have literally lost everything? Are you going to try and explain evil/tragedy or are you going to live a life of meaning in the face of it?
Here are a couple of links of ways to help now but I’ll dig up more. Just don’t get sucked into the blame game – do something real instead.
The American Red Cross
Lutheran Disaster Response
Hi Pastor Lyberg,
I love your podcast! I’ve been a regular listener since finding you on iTunes 4.9. I look forward to each new episode with eager anticipation. You have a wonderful way of digging deeper into the psyche and making me think. Keep up the great work!
One thought I have about the “blame game” that seems to be so prevalent in the Katrina aftermath, especially in New Orleans… One major difference between the flooding of New Orleans and the events of 9/11 is the source of the tragedy. On 9/11, we were a city, a Nation, and a united people against a common foe: terrorism. Terrorist blatantly attacked U.S. soil, and the nation united in our reaction. I think much of the frustration in New Orleans, and the rest of the gulf region, is the lack of a “common foe” for people to unite against. In the face of such pain and loss, it seems natural for people to want to blame someone or something. On 9/11 there was a general attitude of “US against them.” It’s very hard for people to unite against Mother Nature. There simply isn’t one reason why so many have had to suffer in New Orleans and the rst of the gulf states hit by hurricane Katrina… When things are not so “black and white” sadly, people do not unite at all. Instead, they turn their frustrations and sorrow onto each other, and on to the very people trying to provide aid.
I don’t think that this idea explains all of what is going on in New Orleans. It is obviously more complex than this. But I have found it interesting how many times I have heard the comparison between Katrina’s aftermath and 9/11. You are correct. The 9/11 tragedy has become mythical in the American phsyche. It has become something that no longer reflects the reality of the events of that day. 9/11 is now something that we can all cling to when we need an image of unity and teamwork. Sadly, I think New Orleans will become a mythical symbol for anarchy, chaos, and the low point of the human condition in the United States. There are many reasons WHY New Orleans has been decimated. It is futile to assign blame and compare two completly unrelated events.