September
20, 2005
That’s the basic question, isn’t it? That’s
the question that most of us are trying to answer, and we come
at our answers from very different perspectives.
Sometimes we create over-arching explanations that encompass
history, theology, science, culture, and who-knows-what-else.
We believe that there must be an answer “out there” to
why disasters happen, and we believe that we may be able to “find” it,
eventually. We just have to look hard enough, think hard enough,
or ask smart enough people.
Then, at other times, over-arching explanations are actually
intended to further our pre-existing agendas. For example, some
members of the far right-wing of Christian fundamentalism are
claiming Katrina as an act of God in response to their usual
punching bags: gays and abortions. One group, RepentAmerica.com,
sent out a press release on August 31 saying that Katrina’s
devastation was God’s judgment on gay pride in New Orleans
and the Gulf Coast. They proclaimed: “this act of God destroyed
a wicked city.” As evidence, they cite that the first week
of September was supposed to have been a time when thousands
of revelers flocked to New Orleans for the “Southern Decadence” festival – obviously,
now cancelled.
Other, similar groups believe it can be demonstrated that God
used Katrina to punish the abortion clinics in New Orleans. They
point to satellite photographs of the devastation taken from
space and then sickly indicate how the images of flooding resemble
the outline of an unborn fetus approaching the third trimester.
On the other hand, there are the hopeless explanations that offer
Katrina as proof that the universe is actually a cold place without
any god whatsoever. American Atheists, the U.S.’s largest
organization lobbying for the complete separation of church and
state, has said in recent days: “New Orleans is perhaps
a caution about life in general on this delicate planet we call
Earth; nature, to be controlled and commanded, must also be obeyed.
And in times of calamity, we can forget the gods. All we have
is each other.”
And so I asked some clergy and counselors: Why do we construct
these meta-theories for natural disasters? Do they simply help
us cope? Are they necessary? What’s the alternative for
us, as we try to understand why Katrina happened?
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at Congregation Emanu-El
of San Francisco says: “Anyone over four years old knows
that terrible and unforseeable things happen, and any theory
that lessens human responsibility is just sick theology. Or,
if you insist on using what I would call degenerate, retributive
theism [such as that used in the press release by RepentAmerica],
then you must ask yourself why Boston and San Francisco, and
for other reasons, Las Vegas and Atlantic City—also centers
of disbelief—were spared, while the heart of the Bible
belt was ravaged.”
When I asked Rabbi Kushner why we construct meta-theories to
try and answer “Why?”, he offered: “People
who have survived what, by any reasonable standard, is a senseless
tragedy, are often drawn by a stubborn insistence to learn something
from it and then teach it to anyone who wants to listen.”
The Reverend Mary Haddad, senior associate rector at St. Bart’s
Church in midtown Manhattan, offered different answers. “My
short answer,” she said, “is that I have no idea
why disasters happen.” Not what you usually hear from clergy.
She went on: “A meteorologist can give a scientific answer,
and experts on the environment can answer why the levee broke,
a crisis that was long anticipated, making Hurricane Katrina
both a natural disaster and a not-so-natural disaster, one in
which a colossal amount of damage was actually preventable. So,
if you can't live with that for which there is no answer – what
we might call the inexplicable or mystery – then you make
up an answer. In that sense, meta-theories are necessary in providing
answers where there are none. Perhaps they are comforting in
the short term but, ultimately, meta-theories say more about
our needs to have God fit our agendas than they do about God.”
Haddad believes that whereas grand theories for “why did
it happen?” will disappoint us, our human responses to
the mystery left in disaster’s wake will not.
She explains: “Ask yourself: ‘How can I respond to
suffering, either my own or someone else’s? Where and how
can I experience God’s presence in the healing from suffering?
The over-arching meta-narrative of scripture invites us to explore
these questions and answers in community, never in isolation
from the text, the tradition or the people asking and answering
them.
“Both
as a human being and a priest, I feel fairly qualified to reflect
on these questions. My father died many years ago in
a tornado. I still can’t tell you why that happened,
but I can tell you that my ache to find meaning in an otherwise
meaningless
situation led me, ultimately, to fill the void with God, who
didn’t
stop the rain but who eventually led me to a faith-filled community
who nurtured me in life-giving ways. No meta-theory or interpretation
could have brought me there.”
© 2005 Jon M. Sweeney
Jon Sweeney is a writer and editor living
in Vermont. His new book is a memoir, BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN: SURPRISING
GIFTS OF A FUNDAMENTALIST CHILDHOOD.
More
by Jon Sweeney.
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