Theological Response to Hurricane Katrina
What causes natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina? Was it a typical late-summer tropical storm caused by wind, water, and heat? Mother Nature crying out on behalf of the earth’s pain? An angry God? Depends whom you ask. All along the theological and political spectrum, Katrina has crystallized people’s fears into a now-familiar brew of apocalyptic theories similar to what we saw after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington four years ago to this day and after the Asian tsunami several months ago.
I want to address this in my sermon this morning because there is a religious issue here. People who do not read the Bible want to know what the Bible has to say, people who do read the Bible disagree on what is there, what is important and what is not, but most of all people religious and non-religious disagree on what God’s intentions are toward the people of the earth, and the implications of these events.
At least one New Orleans-area resident believes God created the storm as punishment because of the recent role the United States played in expelling Jews from Gaza. Bridgett Magee of Slidell, La., told the Christian website Jerusalem Newswire that she saw the hurricane "as a direct 'coming back on us' [for] what we did to Israel: a home for a home." Stan Goodenough, a website columnist, described Katrina as "the fist of God" in a Monday column. "What America is about to experience is the lifting of God’s hand of protection; the implementation of His judgment on the nation most responsible for endangering the land and people of Israel," Goodenough writes. "The Bible talks about Him shaking His fist over bodies of water, and striking them."
Meanwhile, spiritual and political environmentalists say that massive hurricanes such as Katrina, along with the Asian tsunami, are messages from the earth, letting humanity know of the earth’s pain. These hurricanes are caused by global warming, environmentalists say, which are the result of using too much fossil fuel. They see the catastrophic consequences as a kind of earth’s revenge. Katrina forced oil workers to evacuate rigs in the Gulf of Mexico; meanwhile, seven oil refineries and a major oil import terminal have been closed. The Gulf Coast region is home to a quarter of U.S. oil refining. As a result, Common Dreams, a liberal website, wrote Monday: "Oil may be achieving a new impact on daily news, people’s pocketbooks and world history--perhaps even the end of history and the world." James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century," predicted in his Monday blog: "It seems possible to me that we will be seeing gas station lines all over America within the week." "We are entering a period of economic hardship and declining incomes...We're going to see a fight over the table scraps of the 20th century."
One media expert said: "God’s got a two-fer here. Both sides are eager to see America punished for her sins; on one side it’s sexual immorality and porn and Hollywood, and on the other side it’s conspicuous consumption and Hummers."
It seems that these are mainstream feelings: In a recent CNN poll, 55% of those responding believe that global warming is causing the severe weather we've experienced recently, which is a kind of admission that a huge hurricane is part of the consequences of (environmental) sin. Most polls also show that 40% of all U.S. adults believe the physical world will eventually end as a result of a supernatural intervention, perhaps with a literal Rapture, Tribulation, Antichrist, and Battle of Armageddon described in the Book of Revelation. Nearly half of all Americans believe the Middle East will be "heavily involved" in the events surrounding the end of the world. And 40% believe the end of the world will come in their lifetime.
Why this rush to doomsday thinking? Stephen O’Leary, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at USC and an expert on the media and apocalypticism, says it is related to our need to process emotion in the face of suffering. "The mass media confront us with emotion that is almost impossible to process, and the only way we have to deal with that is to put it in terms of the drama of apocalypse and redemption--you transform suffering into a story of God’s plan. If you don’t have that, then what you do is turn off the TV and have despair."
It’s not just conservative Christians who tune in to this cycle of apocalypse and redemption, however. New Agers and left-wing environmentalists subscribe to a theory that the world is undergoing what they call Earth Changes--a time when, because of humanity’s degradation, the climate severely reacts. Many of these believers say the United States will be almost completely submerged in seawater when the Earth Changes are complete. "When people leave behind the Christian version of the apocalypse, they don’t quit being apocalyptic," O’Leary says. "They switch brands."
Even the media, begin to react to their own cycle of hype and emotion of the moment and prime the doomsday pump. Interestingly, last year’s string of Florida hurricanes didn’t seem to cause much doomsday rhetoric. But Katrina is different for a few important reasons: It’s much larger than usual storms; it hit a region that is home to one-fourth of U.S. oil production at a time when Americans are feeling tremendous anxiety over rising fuel costs; it happened a couple weeks after Israel pulled out of Gaza; and it conjures up horrific images of dirty water contaminating a city with a Sodom and Gomorrah reputation.
The thought of this region, or even the nation, being somehow punished for its sins, conjures twin feelings of excitement and dread among apocalyptic thinkers. On one hand, they seem delighted that a divine plan appears to be unfolding. With horrific events such as this, they believe, God (or Mother Nature) has shown them the world is so evil that it is closer than ever to the end of human history--which means they will spend eternity in a happier place. Yet they also believe God (or Mother Nature) is punishing Americans. That gives rise to their urgent need to stave off destruction through prayer, scolding, and trying to convert people to their way of thinking.
It’s worth noting that end-times fever also broke out during the Persian Gulf War, around the turn of the millennium five years ago, and then around September 11, as it has many times in history. Each time it happens, Americans (and humanity for thousands of years before) become convinced the End is upon them because they’ve sinned and that God or Mother Nature is angry.
But what I want folks to know, is that if people read the Bible, they can just as easily find an alternate view of the divine. A view that is diametrically opposite to God the wrathful avenger. The Book of I Kings reads: "Behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire - a still small voice."
The early Christians were painfully aware of the fact that the Romans had destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. With the destruction of the Temple came the end of the Temple cult which was primarily concerned with offering sacrifices and prayers to appease an angry God. It would have been easy for Christians, or anyone for that matter, to say that the Temple was destroyed because God was angry with the Jews and they were being punished for their sins. But it is quite remarkable that this sentiment is never expressed in early Christian writings. C.H. Dodd one of the greatest New Testament scholars of the 20th century wrote: This surely is added proof of their conviction that God is merciful and forgives rather than punishes.
One of my heroes is Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, he was asked once if he ever thought God was unjust. Hse replied: During apartheid I got angry, very angry with God, but never doubted that the issue would be resolved through the triumph of good. There were, of course, times in South Africa when you had to whistle in the dark to keep your morale up, and you wanted to whisper in God's ear, "God we know You are in charge, but can't You make it a little more obvious?" You see, we are free to be completely human and authentic with God. Jeremiah says, "God, you have deceived me." Sometimes I did get furious with God. I officiated at many funerals.
People often ask whether I was afraid. You bet. Especially for my family, all of us experience fear, but when we confront and acknowledge it, we are able to turn it into courage. Being courageous does not mean never being scared; it means acting as you know you must, even though you are undeniably afraid. Actually, courage has no meaning unless there are things that threaten, that make you feel scared. Whether we are afraid of physical harm or social shame and embarrassment, when we face our fear instead of denying it, we are able to avoid it paralyzing us.
There are three verses in our second lesson for today that are especially fitting. I hear Archbishop Tutu quote them at a dinner in downtown Los Angeles 21 years ago: He said ultimately I believe that death is not a separation from God, and therefore it cannot be a punishment. Verses 7-9 of the 12th chapter of Romans: We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.