Adelle M. Banks and Suleman Din write in Wednesday’s RNS report about the efforts of churches to find members and assess the damage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: Faith-related assessments of damage from Hurricane Katrina are hard to come by, and people are dispersed so widely that some pastors have no clue how their congregants are doing. … But the emotional and spiritual toll is certainly heavy as church families are separated, with the future uncertain.
A second Katrina story looks at “disaster fatigue,” and questions how long Americans will pay attention to post-hurricane recovery efforts. “This tends to set in when people feel not only overwhelmed by the images but also feel helpless to do anything. Perhaps they’ve already made donations to the Red Cross or Salvation Army, already held a bake sale or yard sale to raise money,” says Susan Moeller, author of “Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death.” And according to reporter Dru Sefton, September is the worst month for a crisis, since families are concentrating on going back to work and to school.
A third story today focuses on a national trend of more college students studying religion. Reporter Jeff Diamant reveals three chief reasons for this growth: Sept. 11 spurred many students to learn about Islam and their own religions; recent immigration has made Americans more curious about their new neighbors’ faiths; and Christian evangelical students seem more comfortable studying religion on campus.
