Crossposted at Sacred Space: Reflections from the religious left
I just read on AMERICAblog that Rev. Bill Shanks, the pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, actually spoke these dreadful words, indicating that Hurricane Katrina was God’s judgement on New Orleans
“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.”
Thankfully, we have voices like Rabbi Harold Kushner and Rev. William Sloane Coffin to turn to in times of tragedy…
But, Kushner’s theology describes a God of boundless love and compassion. During times of trial, we can turn to God for help precisely because God is as outraged as we are about the world’s calamities. In the words of William Sloan Coffin, the former Chaplain of Yale University, when his son died in an accident, “When my son died, God’s heart was the first to break.” Kushner said, “I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, easier than I can believe in a God who chooses suffering for whatever exalted reason.”
Indeed. Reading Rev. Shanks words brings to mind the words to “Here I am, Lord” by Dan Schutte:
I will break their hearts of stone
give them hearts for love alone
Well, break them already! Please!
…and Jesus wept.
