the church geek

This week my current hometown, Cedar Rapids, has been affected by the most devastating river flooding in the history of the city. It’s far beyond anything that has ever been seen here and greater than what most imagined would happen. Other communities like Iowa City and Coralville are also currently experiencing flooding beyond anything they’ve experienced before.

One thing I’ve been hearing over and over again, on the radio, on the TV, in the newspaper, and by people just chatting about what has happened is this; “This is our Hurricane Katrina.” While damage is certainly beyond what people here could imagine, I absolutely object to this statement and to this comparison.

Folks, this is NOT our Hurricane Katrina. Why is that? Well, here are at least a couple of reasons:

1.) We have not had less than three days to convince an entire metropolitan area of over a million people that they need to move out of harm’s way before a hurricane passes, followed by a week of search and rescue operations over an entire urban area totally submerged in flood waters.

2.) We have not had a dozen hospitals, scores of nursing homes, a handful of housing projects, or thousands of people who because of a lack of resources and access to public transportation could not leave town before the levees broke.

3.) 90% of our city will not stew in flood waters for several weeks as we wait for the Army Corp of Engineers and others to try to figure out how to dam up breached levees before the water will even begin to recede from the area.

4.) Search and recovery efforts were not severely hampered by rioters and looters nor by others seizing the moment to create a situation of mayhem, nor were there significant political conflicts between city, state, and federal officials that got in the way.

While we are experiencing a disaster that is beyond comprehension to many of us here in Iowa, it is no where near the magnitude nor level of circumstance that makes a comparison to New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina anywhere close to appropriate.

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Malibu Presbyterian Church has lost its church building in the fires sweeping through southern California. Pray for the pastor and their congregation as well as for all the folks who are being displaced as a result of these fires.

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Today marks the 6th Anniversary of the terrorists attacks on Sept 11th.

On that morning, I had just completed a final examination session as part of my psychological evaluation for my entry into the ordination process in the PC(USA). Living in New Orleans, I was preparing to leave my job at Tulane University in order to head to seminary in Dubuque Iowa that coming January.

Following that session, I remember getting into my truck with the radio turned on to NPR when announcers broke in to say that it looked like an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Driving over to the University, I then sat with a number of colleagues huddled around a TV watching as the report of those events turned more and more tragic. Later that day, we tried to get back to normal in the office, but it was hard not to surf the web to look for whatever information we could.

I remember one incident that I found truly pathetic: During lunch I headed over to one of the school cafeterias. As I was eating I could clearly sense that there was a feeling of panic and uneasiness. At one point someone, presumably a student, yelled out “There’s a bomb in here.” People went screaming and scrambling everywhere trying to get out of the building, while I just sat there eating my sandwich. I’m not sure how anyone would ever think that sort of thing was funny or how others would be that gullible and fearful.

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“The enormous volume of corn required by the ethanol industry is sending shock waves through the food system.” - from an article called “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor”

This has been my concern all along with jumping on the biofuel band wagon. The reality is that biofuels will not solve anything.

The long and short of it is that we’ve got to find a way to curtail our use of non-renewable fuel sources. My guess is that using food products to do so is only going to screw up our global economic system.

HT: Rob Bell and his sermon series “God is Green.”

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A fascinating and grace filled reflection on the life of Tammy Faye which makes me think that, perhaps, I’ve not personally given her a fair shake.

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Well, I guess I can no longer be the “church” geek, since the Pope is now finding it difficult to grant protestant communities the title of “Church.”

I wonder how long it will be before I get a letter from the pontiff asking for this blog to be returned to its proper owner, which is evidently the Roman Catholic Church?

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What’s going on in Darfur doesn’t really seem to be on most folk’s radar screens. Thankfully Google and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum hope to change that by teaming up to raise our consciousness.

Check out the Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative for a harrowing look at what’s really happening in Darfur. This is the first effort in the creation of an interactive “global crisis map.”

I was made aware of this by way of the July issue of Sojourners Magazine.

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In a thoughtful post, Diana Butler Bass reminds us that another mother, most of us will fail to remember, also grieves for the loss of her son. Read Diana’s words here and please remember and lift Cho Seung Hui’s mother up in prayer.

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Julie, one of my favorite bloggers, asks some very tough questions following the VA Tech Massacre. There are no easy answers and it’s my hope that we refrain from such a tendency to provide them. If you head over there please do so with an attitude of hearing her out. (Plus: she invokes Bonhoeffer, who is my personal hero in the faith and is the author of the quote I’ve titled this blog post with.)

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If you’re a pastor or maybe a Christian education director at a church, then you’ve probably been getting packets of promo material from Fox Faith in the mail.

What have you done with them? I’ve quickly perused through them and then felt some small pangs of guilt as I’ve tossed them in the circular bin. Real Live Preacher has gone a step further and has offered some insightful comments about those packets from Fox Faith.

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“Thanks to the Boston Police bomb squad, this is one traffic counter box that won’t get a chance to kill anyone.” HT: Boing Boing

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Today you get two photos of the day since I didn’t get a chance to take or to post a photo at all on Saturday.

We got to take in a Mardi Gras parade on our last night in New Orleans. It’s great to see the city pull together to keep the big bash rolling once again this year.

Since Saturday was a full day of travel and I had to finish my sermon when we got home late in the evening, this picture from the night before will have to count for Saturday’s photo of the day.

I don’t like black birds at all, but I guess they need to eat too.

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Jeanette, the owner of this new Habitat for Humanity home, expresses thanks and joy for the work that is being done to rebuild her life. The home will be dedicated a little over a month from now. Thankfulness and gratitude are the words of the day to describe the feeling of being able to help out in just a small way. It has been a wonderful week being able to be a part of the recovery work here in New Orleans. More photos from our day our here.

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Today as we worked on a Habitat for Humanity home in New Orleans I noticed a man across the canal washing his car. It was so good to see someone taking care of such a normal everyday task. It seemed like a hopeful sign of life in the midst of what is still a devastated area.

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This empty lot and the house across the street are in the Lakeview neighborhood close to one of the many levee breaches. We took a tour today to get an overview of the destruction in this city: 80% of which was flooded in the aftermath of Katrina.

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