Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Wed, Aug 29 2007
Katrina didn't cause crime or fix crime; it only spotlighted issues
Two years after Katrina caused much of the population of New Orleans to flee, reports are that crime is flourishing there. People seem angry and even surprised. I guess they thought that a rebuilding of the city would result in higher morals and more caring for one another. A little reading into the Book of Genesis could have told us that a big old flood doesn't really change human nature for very long.
Many times when people talk about the Genesis flood there's a lot of emphasis on the wickedness of mankind and how God used the flood to pronounce judgement on those who were evil. But the flood story mostly speaks to me of salvation. Once people had been told that rain was on the way, there were only two choices. Get into the ark and be saved or don't believe it will rain and continue the path you're on—and drown. It wasn't rocket science, but it did take faith to choose to go into a boat on dry land and be safely sheltered there long before the first raindrops ever hit the ground. And it says a lot to me that we don't read in Genesis of hordes of people, or even a few people, coming to Noah and asking for refuge during all that time he was making ready a way of salvation from the destruction to come.
I'm not picking on the people of New Orleans. They aren't an exact representation of the people of Noah's day. But some folks' surprise that the physical rebuilding of much of New Orleans didn't automatically transform it into a crime-free, shining city reminds me that we often forget what saving is. Any sure form of saving takes a savior who is willing to save, one in trouble who chooses to rely on that savior and the joining of the two with a mutual faith and trust that makes it impossible for anyone to ever really take that experience away from them.
posted at: 09:50 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
Two years after Katrina caused much of the population of New Orleans to flee, reports are that crime is flourishing there. People seem angry and even surprised. I guess they thought that a rebuilding of the city would result in higher morals and more caring for one another. A little reading into the Book of Genesis could have told us that a big old flood doesn't really change human nature for very long.
Many times when people talk about the Genesis flood there's a lot of emphasis on the wickedness of mankind and how God used the flood to pronounce judgement on those who were evil. But the flood story mostly speaks to me of salvation. Once people had been told that rain was on the way, there were only two choices. Get into the ark and be saved or don't believe it will rain and continue the path you're on—and drown. It wasn't rocket science, but it did take faith to choose to go into a boat on dry land and be safely sheltered there long before the first raindrops ever hit the ground. And it says a lot to me that we don't read in Genesis of hordes of people, or even a few people, coming to Noah and asking for refuge during all that time he was making ready a way of salvation from the destruction to come.
I'm not picking on the people of New Orleans. They aren't an exact representation of the people of Noah's day. But some folks' surprise that the physical rebuilding of much of New Orleans didn't automatically transform it into a crime-free, shining city reminds me that we often forget what saving is. Any sure form of saving takes a savior who is willing to save, one in trouble who chooses to rely on that savior and the joining of the two with a mutual faith and trust that makes it impossible for anyone to ever really take that experience away from them.
posted at: 09:50 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
