I’ve been wanting to do a positive Hurricane Katrina followup for weeks. I’m frustrated. I nearly could, but I can’t, just yet.
So, I give. I’ll report the lack of a report.
So, there was a big Christmas party scheduled in New Orleans this weekend. Sponsored by Hosanna Fellowship, the A/G’s national Children’s Ministry Agency (CMA), and Convoy of Hope, it was to be free, packed with at least a hundred volunteers, full of Christmassy “Bags of Blessings,” and replete with Things-in-Church-That-Require-Blow-Hards:
"We will have carnival games with free prizes and candy and giant inflatable games and slides. There will also be free refreshments each evening along with a 'sleigh ride' through a winter wonderland and the Hosanna Choir will be presenting a musical called 'Hope has Come.'"
(Note to my fellow Chicagoans: “Sleigh Ride,” above, gets the funny-quotes because our
Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Charles Krauthammer has written a great “big-picture” view of the blame-shifting realities of Katrina’s fallout: “Assigning Blame.” It’s not long and is worth reading. Here’s a graf Krauthammer put out there as a “throw-away” item, but it brilliantly sums up what I wish I had written:
This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever, but I'll give it a paragraph. There is no relationship between global warming and the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Period. The problem with the evacuation of New Orleans is not that National Guardsmen in Iraq could not get to New Orleans, but that National Guardsmen in Louisiana did not get to New Orleans. As for the Bush tax cuts, administration budget requests for New Orleans flood control during the five Bush years exceed that of the five preceding
I received the following email late Friday evening:
-----Original Message-----
From: Office of the General Secretary [mailto:churches@ag.org]
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:45 PM
Subject: A/G Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts Update: 9/9/2005
VIDEO CLIP FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT
General Superintendent Trask has made a video clip regarding his trip to the devastated Gulf Coast yesterday. You can view this at http://ag.org. The brief clip is available for you to download to show to your congregation or Sunday school class this Sunday.
REPORT ON US MISSIONARIES IN AREA
Several USM missionaries and ministries were affected by Katrina. Go to USMissions.ag.org/ to get up-to-date information on these.
HOW TO HELP
Cash: Cash donations are the best way to get people help the fastest.
You may give online at ag.org/. Credit cards are accepted and 100% of all donations go directly to the Katrina relief projects.
Medical Teams: HealthCare Ministries at headquarters is coordinating medical teams to go to these areas.
I just received this from the General Council of the A/G:
--
From: Office of the General Secretary [churches@ag.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 1:45 PM
Subject: A/G Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts Update
The General Council of the Assemblies of God, together with the Convoy of Hope, continues to respond to the Hurricane Katrina disaster with acts of compassion and practical helps.
Convoy of Hope
As of today COH has distributed 75 truckloads of ice, water, food and other relief supplies with another 16 truckloads scheduled to arrive in the next couple of days. To date over 3.5 million pounds of life-sustaining relief materials have been distributed in the following communities:
Louisiana: Gretna (West bank of New Orleans)
Mississippi: Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Caesar, Gulfport, Henryville, McComb, and Picayune
Convoy of Hope has ongoing distribution
Bill Whittle at “Eject! Eject! Eject!” has posted a brilliant, if sometimes crudely worded (R-Rated), post about the nature of white hats and black hats, pink and grey, or sheep, wolves, and sheep-dogs: TRIBES. It is a passionate, reasoned response to the aftermath of Katrina, the erosion of moral levees, and the shocking polar opposite of 9/11 heroism. Watching this, many of us struggle for answers: “Why?”
Bill’s post doesn’t offer a solution, but he does offer a perspective and a cultural critique that is thought-provoking. There’s no way I could do it justice by summarizing it. If you are not easily offended by coarse language, you should read it yourself. Bill is not a man of faith, his language is blue, but his passion is righteous.
Here’re the final grafs to tempt you:
It takes courage to fight oncoming storms. Courage.
Courage isn’t free. It is taught, taught by
As I’ve watched the news feeds over the last several days, I noted that the A/G has been quick to respond, first with nearly a dozen Convoy of Hope trucks being sent down (over twenty more on the way), and an email plea from the General Superintendent, Thomas Trask, to contribute funds at the A/G disaster recovery site. Already $25,000 was sent to the Louisiana district to help some 400 people stranded at the LA district campgrounds.
Here is a good update on what is known and not known about the state of our churches and district offices in the Gulf region: Hurricane Katrina—much still unknown.
At this point, giving money is more effective than sending things. Let the organizations with the infrastructure in place to provide help turn your dollars into tangible aid. Currently, the hardest hit areas are still evacuating survivors and I’m reading that well-intentioned helping
UMC pastor, Donald Sensing, over at the One Hand Clapping blog, has posted his sermon manuscript on the failure of moral levees. It’s an excellent sermon in the wake of the Katrina disaster, regarding the fallen nature of man, and the need for the rule of God’s law in our hearts through love.
His best graphs, like finely polished jewels, come at the end:
One of the things that churches should do is train the moral sense of it members. The God who created us also demands a high level of morality in us. The Ten Commandments do not say that a little murder is okay, a little adultery is permissible, a little thievery is allowable. Instead they instruct: No murder. No adultery. No stealing. There’s no wriggle room.
Our continuing challenge as Christians is to follow the moral commandments of God’s law
An interesting interview by Hugh Hewitt is available in transcript form, over at Radio Blogger. It’s worth the read, featuring commentary from his three guests, Biola University, Professor John Mark Reynolds; Louisville, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler; and Dr. Mark D. Roberts, theologian, author, pastor. There are no ground-breaking insights in the show transcript, but it’s a useful, brief, discussion of the problem of evil in the world and the proper Christian response to it.
One interesting point that I want to highlight was raised by John Mark Reynolds regarding a lot of the blame-casting that’s been going on about how slow the gummint has been to respond:
I … think we have a problem that's unique to our culture. And that is that people are used to information, and even money, changing hands very quickly.
I’ve been wanting to do a positive Hurricane Katrina followup for weeks. I’m frustrated. I nearly could, but I can’t, just yet.
