PART 1
WHY DID THE HURRICANE KATRINA HAPPEN?

Some reasons given by religious conservatives

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Essays discussing the beliefs of others are available elsewhere.

A brief review of the Katrina hurricane of 2005 (repeated):

On 2005-AUG-25, Katrina, as a Category 1 hurricane, struck south Florida. It strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico to Category 4. It hit New Orleans, the rest of Louisiana, and Mississippi on AUG-29.

As of OCT-04, the search for victims of Katrina ended. The total death toll in Louisiana is 964. Mississippi's death toll is 221. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been dislocated; a quarter million into Texas alone. "The evacuees [from New Orleans], most of them black and poor, spoke of violence, anarchy and family members who died for lack of food, water and medical care." ₁ Many have no homes, assets, or jobs to which to return. Property damage is immense.

Reasons given for the 2005 tragedy by religious conservatives:

Many religious conservatives have a very different worldview than do religious liberals, secularists and others. Many conservatives believe that God is present in every major event in the life of Christians and of nations. Thus, they believe that Katrina, with its anticipated massive loss of life, dislocated lives, property damage, and general devastation, must have involved God in some direct way.

Conservative Christians also generally believe in the existence and insidious, pervasive power of Satan.

In the list below, we describe many articles, sermons, etc. which suggest that God took an active part in the devastation brought by Katrina to New Orleans, the rest of southern Louisiana, and southern Mississippi. A near consensus of religious conservatives is that God's motivation for his involvement in Katrina was to send a message to Americans. However, the precise  message does not appear particularly clear. Various conservative Christian individuals and para-church organizations cannot agree on the reason for God's punishment:

The following individuals and groups disagree almost completely with each other. Yet, each seems to be absolutely certain of their beliefs. None of them give any no room for vagueness in their interpretation. An observer is forced to conclude that most of their beliefs are wrong. Perhaps all are wrong.

A sampling of conservative religious sources:

"It's that kind of stuff -- not God -- that brings disaster. When you invoke dark spirits, you get a storm....when we look at the Bible we note that black magic -- the very definition of voodoo -- was quickest to bring the Lord's judgment.

God allows this to purge us when we don't purge ourselves. It doesn't have to happen but unless evil is expelled -- especially hardcore occultism like voodoo, which is the darkest form of evil -- it's inevitable.

And the cycles may be coming due. The return rate for a category-three is 31 years, a category-four 65 years, and a category-five 170 years.... If a category-five made landfall between your city and Baton Rouge, according to an emergency manager named Walter Maestri, it would be "the most catastrophic hurricane in the history of the United States." ₄

"New Orleans, symbol of America, seen for what it is: a putrid, toxic, stinking cesspool of fag fecal matter....America is irreversibly doomed. It is a sin to pray for the good of this evil fag nation...It is a sin NOT to rejoice when God executes His wrath and vengeance on America. Pray for more dead bodies floating on the fag-semen-rancid waters of New Orleans. Pray for more American bodies blown to smithereens by cheap home made Iraqi IEDs - like the IED America bombed WBC with August 20, 1995, hoping thereby to terrorize us into silence about America's fag sins. America became WBC's terrorist. So, God, in retaliation, became America's Terrorist." ₁₅

The reference to terrorism by America apparently relates to the triggering of three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Topeka on the same date. One was in the driveway of Shirley Phelps-Roper's home, which is part of the church compound. She is a member of the WBC. ₁₆ The church found evidence that three men were the perpetrators. However, they attribute responsibility to all Americans.

"New Orleans is the first of the cities going to tumble down... unless America changes its course...It is the wickedness of the people of America and the government of America that is bringing the wrath of God down." ₅

"Jesus said, 'When you see these things begin to come to pass, then look up, for your redemption is drawing near' (Luke 21:28). 'These things' does not refer to a great spiritual revival upon earth. Rather, '…signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, and upon earth distress among nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear…' (Luke 21:25-26). The New Testament has a lot to say about the future, and it nowhere indicates a glorious finish to this age. Rather, false doctrine and abating love, earthly disasters and perilous times await us." ₁₀

"The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt."

'New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again." ₁₁

He seems to be implying that when New Orleans is rebuilt, that gays, lesbians, abortion providers and their clinics, and non-Christians should be not permitted to return to the city. Religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity do not appear to be among Rev. Shanks' priorities.

Additional reasons, and a rebuttal
are located in Part 2 of this essay

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, "White House shifts blame for Katrina response. Administration, embattled FEMA chief point to state, local officials," The Washington Post, 2005-SEP-04, at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

2. "Pat Robertson's statement regarding terrorist attack," Christian Broadcasting Network, 2001-SEP-14, at: http://www.cbn.com/

3. "New Orleans City Council President: 'Maybe God's Going To Cleanse Us'," LifeSiteNews.com, 2005-SEP-01, at: http://www.lifesite.net/

4. Michael H. Brown, "Oh New Orleans, shed ye the darkness or face disaster," Spirit Daily, 2004-SEP, at: http://www.spiritdaily.org/

5. "Farrakhan: God punishing U.S. for Iraq with storm," ExChristian.net, 2005-SEP-04, at: http://exchristian.net/

6. Ray Ruiz, "Friendly Gay New Orleans," at: http://www.funmaps.com/

7. "A home for a home," Jerusalem Newswire, 2005-AUG-29, at: http://www.jnewswire.com/

8. Chuck Baldwin, "Is God removing his hand of protection from America," Covenant News, 2005-SEP-02, at: http://www.covenantnews.com/

9. Walter Russell, "Remember and Repent," Covenant News, circa 2005-SEP-02, at: http://www.covenantnews.com/

10. David Alan Black, "Shining in the Darkness," 2005-SEP-02, at: http://covenantnews.com/

11. Jody Brown and Allie Martin, "New Orleans Residents: God's Mercy Evident in Katrina's Wake" Agape Press, 2005-SEP-02, at: http://headlines.agapepress.org/

12. Tony Campolo, "Katrina: Not God's Wrath--or His Will. The Hebrew Bible doesn't say God is omnipotent. When disaster strikes, he cries with the rest of us," Beliefnet.com, undated, at: http://www.beliefnet.com/

13. "Roberts blames hurricane on choice of Ellen Degeneres to host Emmys," Dateline: Hollywood, 2005-SEP-12, at: http://datelinehollywood.com/

14. "God's Wrath," Snopes.com, 2005-SEP-12, at: http://www.snopes.com/

15. "Thank God for Katrina," Westboro Baptist Church, 2005-AUG-31, at: http://www.godhatesfags.com and http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

16. Shirley Phelps-Roper, "The Night America Bombed Westboro Baptist Church..." God Hates Fags, undated, at: http://www.godhatesfags.com/

Copyright © 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-SEP-04
Latest update: 2005-OCT-04
Author: B.A. Robinson