If you listen closely, there are rumblings in New Orleans and the rumblings aren’t thunder.
And they’re not the rumblings of a recent report issued by the White House citing failures by the Homeland Security Department and other agencies concerning planning, communications and leadership on Hurricane Katrina either.
But rather they appear to be the rumblings and grumblings of what can only be described as right-wing conservative Christians.
Of course it was a right-wing conservative Christian named Pat Robertson who affirmed last year that Hurricane Katrina was nothing more than “his” God’s way of cleansing New Orleans of its sin and corruption too.
And isn’t Robertson the same right-wing conservative Christian who recently proclaimed that Israeli Prime Minister Sharon’s stroke was “his” God’s punishment for giving away part of the West Bank to the Palestinians?
It’s with remarks like these that occasionally give credence to the Bertrand Russell “Why I Am Not a Christian” argument. “Fear was the foundation of religion, [and] fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder [that] fear and religion have gone hand in hand.”
But if one ascribes to the classical deism reasoning that “God does not intervene in the world and it’s not that God doesn’t care, but rather that the best of all worlds has already been created and any intervention could not improve it,” then hurricanes are merely an act of nature and not of God’s making.
Unfortunately though, the good people of New Orleans are now being inundated with right-wing conservative Christians chastising them for even celebrating Mardi Gras, especially since so many bloated bodies still need to be interred, or for that matter, celebrating while some bodies have yet to be located among the debris.
New Orleans should be ashamed of itself.
Yes, tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, and the people of New Orleans shouldn’t be allowed the luxury of excessive eating, drinking and fornicating, but rather should be guided toward Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, and contemplating giving something up for Lent instead of partying at the expense of the dead.
Give something up?
Now there’s an interesting concept considering everything the residents of New Orleans have already given up: Their lives, their property, their income, their sanity, their pride and their homes. There’s not much left to give up.
And what about the rest of America?
Hasn’t enough been given up here too?
Thanks to the Bush administration and their continual prodding that “it’s all about 9/11 and terrorism,” Americans have already been forced to give up a portion of their most fundamental and precious freedoms. But just a few days ago, this same administration decided that the United Arab Emirates should assume operations of six of our country’s major sea ports.
Perhaps this administration is confused by its own definition of terrorism.
At any rate, by the time Bush leaves office (which can’t be too soon) there won’t be much left to give up or give away.
Perhaps then those right-wing conservative Christian grumblings should not be aimed at New Orleans and its desire to move in a new direction, but rather at the Bush administration which shoots from the hip on almost every decision, and then with arrogance to spare, thumbs its nose at the American people.
Of course this would mean grumbling at one of your own, and that wouldn’t be the Christian thing to do.
But there’s always the option of giving up grumbling for Lent.

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