Friday, September 02, 2005

Hurricane Katrina

Normally, I don't like to comment on news events like Hurricane Katrina until I've had some time for reflection. I tend to reserve judgment until the facts start to unravel themselves, and I respect the 'experts' to do the unraveling.

I guess my area of expertise has to do with the question, Why God?, which I am asked as His supposed proxy on a regular basis. And it's a question no 'expert' can answer, especially for someone whose life has been washed away. I firmly believe that there are times when questions serve us better than answers. So I think I'll come up with a list of them, and try to tackle some in future posts. See if you have any to add.
  • Why didn't the government invest in better dikes or hydraulic sea walls? The Dutch seem to do pretty well living below sea level?
  • Why didn't the government do more when they knew the hurricane was going to make landfall near New Orleans? Why didn't they have hospital ships, relief supplies, national guard troops on the way before hand? Sure, they didn't know it was going to be this bad, but they knew it was going to be bad, right?
  • Does God pour out judgments of sin cities like New Orleans? Do only the evil suffer when he does it?
  • If Jesus could calm a storm on Galilee, why not Katrina?
  • Who makes it a disaster, the storm or the human response to it? Why all the looters and gunmen? Who's really the bad guy here? Why did they build the stupid city there in the first place? Why don't we ever learn that you can fight nature and win? Why would anyone refuse to leave?
  • How do you rebuild after something like that? Should New Orleans be relocated?
  • Why is it that the poorest and most vulnerable get screwed? Shouldn't our society protect such people? Isn't that what the government is for?
  • How can a just God allow innocent children to suffer?
Well, those are the questions on my mind. I'm starting to think of some possibilities, but I don't want to put down any pat answers. I believe that it is at these boundaries that our faith grows. So, what do you think?

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