WHY DID THE HURRICANE KATRINA HAPPEN?

Reasons given by religious liberals and secularists

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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 SEP-05, the total death toll is unknown; it will probably exceed 1,000.  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 many religious liberals and secularists:

The secular media, liberal religious web sites, etc. have described the hurricane as a natural disaster. They have not generally attributed its devastation to an angry or judgmental God who decided to punish the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi for their behaviors.

In our website's section about the South Asian Tsunami of 2004-DEC, have described the beliefs of  Scientists, secularists, etc., Religious moderates, liberals, etc., and Religious skeptics towards natural disasters. Those opinions probably apply equally well to Katrina as well.

We have scanned a few dozen official web sites belonging to liberal religious denominations, as well as Agnostic, Atheist, Humanist and other organizations. There were many references to the devastation caused by Katrina, and appeals for their visitors to send money to charitable organizations who are helping those dislocated by the hurricane. But we were unable to find any theological speculation on whether supernatural forces were involved in Katrina.

Some Internet surfers who read Deborah Caldwell's essay on Beliefnet.com titled "Did God send the hurricane?" responded with additional reasons why they felt that God was not involved in Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast. ₁ The postings covered 22 columns. We have selected ten postings which appear to be from religious liberals or secularists:

References used:

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

1. Deborah Caldwell, "Did God Send the Hurricane? This natural disaster is bringing together a perfect storm of environmentalist and religious doomsday sayers," Beliefnet, circa 2005-SEP-03, at: http://www.beliefnet.com/

Copyright © 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-SEP-06
Latest update: 2005-SEP-17
Author: B.A. Robinson