Is God angry with New Orleans?

An interesting report from a Washington Post reporter, though perhaps not in the way the author intended, since it's obvious he was trying to bring racial relations into some sort of focus.

Wil Haygood interviews Bernadette Washington and Brian Thomas who survived the initial flooding of their home but endured many injuries and deprivations on their journey to rescue out of the dying city. Their observations are worth noting:

"It [Scripture? -DTO] says there'll come a time you can't hide. I'm talking about people. From each other," Bernadette Washington said.

Thomas, the philosopher, waved his bandaged hand. He had a theory: "God's angry with New Orleans. It's an evil city. The worst school system anywhere. Rampant crime. Corrupt politicians. Here, baby, have a potato chip for daddy."

The 2-year-old, Qadriyyah, took a chip from her daddy and gobbled it up. Her face was covered with mosquito bites. But she smiled just to be in daddy's arms.

Thomas continued: "A predominantly black city -- and they're killing each other. God had to get their attention with a calamity. New Orleans ain't seen an earthquake yet. You can get away from a hurricane but not an earthquake. Next time, nobody may get out."

It is not an isolated comment.

Meanwhile, New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas after witnessing the horrors first hand and hearing talk of Sodom and Gomorrah commented, "Maybe God's going to cleanse us."

Or this:

"Call it biblical. Call it apocalyptic. Whatever you want to call it, take your pick," said Robert Lewis, who became marooned by floodwaters in his downtown New Orleans home where he and others had sought to ride out Hurricane Katrina.

"There were bodies floating past my door," he told reporters on Thursday night, describing how he and other men at his home put children on their shoulders and walked 2 miles through flooded streets before being rescued by a helicopter.

"We were like on an island. We did the best we could. We were just like zombies walking around at night."

Michael Brown, editor of SpiritDaily.com and author of several books on prophecy and faith, noted that Labor Day Weekend has evolved into "Southern Decadence," an annual rite of revelry, and Katrina has put a stop to this year's version. He quotes someone knowledgeable of the event:

"When people who have never spent Labor Day weekend in New Orleans ask me what Southern Decadence is, I usually take the easy way out and tell them that it's sort of like a gayer version of Mardi Gras, although Mardi Gras is pretty gay itself," says a writer on Frenchquarter.com.

Brown, while claiming no prophetic ability himself, has interviewed many who have demonstrated prophetic gifts, and he keeps his eyes on the "signs of the times." He notes that Katrina hit on the feast day of Saint John the Baptist (August 29), whose own message focused on repentance and the cleansing of watery baptism.

We have noted that the name "Katrina" means "purity." A storm now was washing not only over the Mardi Gras costumes and fortune-telling booths and strip clubs, not just over the antique shops selling voodoo items, and the haunted graves, but on the outskirts it was purifying other manifestations that are not usually thought of as evil -- the factories pumping out toxic chemicals that have caused illness in a city that has some of the world's highest cancer rates.
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if there is no message in Biloxi and Gulfport -- the "southern capital of gambling" -- there is no message anywhere.

The casinos there have been smashed and tossed around like toys and those two cities would be extremely wise to follow Church teaching on gambling and never to allow them back.

Of course, there are those with dissenting points of view, including Stephen Green of VodkaPundit, who doesn't believe in God but encourages people of faith to pray hard for Katrina victims anyway.

"Act of God" is what the guy on CNN called Hurricane Katrina. To most of us, that means some random and unavoidable catastrophe. Once it's over, we clean up, fix up, and move on.

But that's not how others see an Act of God. To them, it's Divine Retribution in the Old Testament sense. Or to be more accurate, in the Really New Testament sense - ie, the Koran. Those others see Hurricane Katrina as God smiting the wicked.
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I never believed in God, but I still sometimes think He/She/It must be on our side.

But - nah. We're simply decent people who understand that an Act of God really is just some random, unavoidable tragedy. We lend it no special significance, and we'll help clean up no matter who God smites.

We enjoy reading Green's blog -- he's a thoughtful man of generally good will toward all -- but we'll have to disagree with this disregard for the "signs of the times" and his understanding of what constitutes divine retribution. Nothing happens randomly, and all things, even tragedy, can accomplish a greater good through God's intervention. God does not smite so much as He allows bad things to happen, to the good and bad alike.

It is in cooperating with His Will and His Grace that we can limit the effects of disasters and avoid future catastrophes of Katrina's impact.

It is in ignoring His Will that we run the risk of future events of this sort.