c. 2005 Religion News Service
NEW ORLEANS _ In the garden behind St. Louis Cathedral on Royal Street lies an incredible tangle of zig-zagging broken tree trunks and branches, mixed with smashed wrought iron fences.
But right in the middle, a statue of Jesus is still standing, unscathed by the storm, save for the left thumb and index finger, which are missing.
The missing digits immediately set off speculation of divine intervention. Perhaps in an answer to prayer, some said, the hand of Jesus had flicked the hurricane east and spared the city from a direct blow.
But why, others ask, wasn’t it there to hold back the levees that broke and flooded the city?
Across the ravaged region and the country as a whole, people are looking for the hand of God in all of the destruction. Some have found it, while others say it was never there, or ask why it couldn’t calm the wind and waves.
As survivors are sheltered, people are evacuated and damage is assessed, people from all walks of religious and nonreligious life have offered their interpretations.
“God led us here,” said Lucille Nunez, who ended up in Brewton, Ala., after evacuating from St. Bernard Parish, La., a commercial fishing community south of New Orleans.
The disabled woman left her home with her husband, some extended family members, a few articles of clothing and a modest disability check. But she felt many of her needs were supplied upon her arrival in the small, southwest Alabama city.
“I needed medicine and they took me to a doctor here,” she said. “He didn’t charge me anything and neither did the pharmacy. The people have been so good to us.”
As happens with many disasters, theologians are focusing more on God as the comforter after the storm rather than the cause of it.
David S. Dockery, president of the Southern Baptist-affiliated Union University in Jackson, Tenn., said it is only natural for questions like “Where is God?” to arise when people go into crisis mode.
“In times like these many of our answers to these questions seem hollow, shallow and narrow,” he said. “The only answer that doesn’t sound that way is the one that God himself offers. Instead of reasons, God offers himself. Somehow in the midst of our struggle and despair, God’s comfort hovers over us.”
While God is viewed by some as a shepherd, others say the storm portrayed him more as an almighty judge _ exacting his wrath on New Orleans, a city long known for its colorful excess.
“Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city,” declared Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America, on the Web site of his Philadelphia-based evangelistic organization that opposed the annual gay “Southern Decadence” festival that was scheduled for Labor Day weekend.
“New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge.”
Marcavage believes the city turned away from God long before the hurricane, but that didn’t stop government and clerical leaders from seeking God’s help in the storm’s aftermath.
“Please pray that God give us all the physical and spiritual strength to work through this crisis and rebuild,” said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco in a statement that pronounced Wednesday (Aug. 31) as a day of prayer for her state.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation pooh-poohed the gesture, asking the same question that even some more religious folks have on their minds right now.
“How can typical Christians reconcile their belief that their god is all-good and all-powerful with the heartbreaking scenes of devastation being telecast from Louisiana and Mississippi?” asked Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the atheistic group. “Where was their god? … Their omnipotent god was certainly conspicuously absent when two levees broke (Tuesday), submerging the city of New Orleans.”
Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., whose suburban New Orleans house was swamped by the storm, offered an answer for some with questions.
“Even if we don’t understand why things are happening, we have to have faith that there is a reason,” said the devout Catholic and first-term House member.
He considers the gruesome aftermath of Katrina to be a “unique teaching moment for people of faith.”
Jindal had advised his 3-year-old daughter, Celia, to pray for people in Katrina’s path as it headed to Florida days before it struck his city. When she saw news accounts of death and destruction left behind in the Sunshine State, she turned to her father and said, “Daddy, why didn’t those people pray?”
“I think a lot of people are asking why do bad things happen to good people,” he said. “ We have to find faith and meaning in this.”
KRE/JL END BANKS
(Connie Baggett of the Mobile Register and Bill Walsh of the New Orleans Times-Picayune contributed to this story.)
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for photos to accompany this story. Search by slug. Also see sidebar, RNS-KATRINA-RELIEF, for an updated list of religious organizations soliciting aid for hurricane victims.
