By Svend White

The worst of the devastation seen in New Orleans is ultimately man-made and springs from our skewed priorities and neglected values

The images of abject suffering, neglect and destruction beamed out of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina transfixed a horrified world. They turned the American political scene upside down, and in a single stroke called into question many of the orthodoxies that reign in today’s American political establishment. Despite its tragic nature, Katrina presented America a precious opportunity to reexamine its priorities and rededicate itself to the religious values upon which the Republic was founded.

The mayhem wrought by Katrina was so awesome, sudden and anachronistic that it is difficult not to see parallels with the many accounts of Divine punishment visited upon wicked peoples of the past in scripture. Comparisons to Noah’s flood—a terrible punishment meted out to idolatrous people who stubbornly ignored warnings from God’s messenger—are inevitable at the sight of a modern metropolis and international icon suddenly submerged under an angry sea. In these strife ridden times, it comes as little surprise that some Muslims (including Al-Qaida operatives, who promptly issued a propaganda video on the occasion) ascribed this natural calamity to America’s support for Israel and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Comparable jeremiads were also heard from non-Muslim leaders. An Alabama Senator caused a furor by explaining Katrina as punishment for New Orleans’ wild night life and the general prevalence of abortion in America. Not to be outdone, the Evangelical leader Franklin Graham—who famously declared Islam “a very evil and wicked religion”— linked Katrina to the abolition of prayer in public schools. The most original contribution to this discussion was undoubtedly that of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of Israel, who caused outrage by chalking this up to American support for Israel’s partial withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and the fact that New Orleans’ mostly African-American and Gentile residents don’t study the Torah.

While I have no doubt that much of what one sees around us today is displeasing to God, I find such interpretations of these tragic events problematic on many levels. Unlike in the examples cited, here many of the guilty escaped punishment whereas the weak and innocent bore the brunt of the trial. The notion that the poorest, most disenfranchised Americans would be held accountable for foreign policies made with little if any of their input does not sit well. Nor does the idea that God would smite the residents of New Orleans for the excesses of Mardi Gras while leaving unscathed millions from around the country who eagerly flock to its festivities every year.

The idea that God would manifest His displeasure over lax Torah study in the overwhelmingly Christian and African American city of New Orleans seems counterintuitive, to put it mildly.

That is not to say that God isn’t sending America and the world a message. I just suspect it’s not about sex, war, or real estate. This is about community, compassion, and responsible stewardship, qualities that I think are in increasingly short supply in American life and government. Today, Noah would have to contend with different, far subtler idols, but unmistakable idols nonetheless. Perhaps Katrina was an old fashioned warning from on high, after all.

It is commonplace to contrast “Religious America” with “Secular Europe,” but I find these categories increasingly inadequate. Although I have no doubt that there is truth to this dichotomy, I do not think there is much cause for complacency among believers on this side of the Atlantic. For all of its emphasis on religious values, I would argue that contemporary America is in the grips of a grave new heresy, namely religiously sanctioned Social Darwinism.