Out On a Limb

Does God care about the 5th US Supreme Court of Appeals and their Ruling on the US Army Corps of Engineers?

2011-11-15T11:56:00.001-08:00

The US Supreme Court 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is currently reviewing oral arguments between the plaintiffs and the US Army Corps of Engineers, that the Corps is liable for its incompetence in managing the levees of New Orleans, that led to the 2005 disaster.

The arguments are not that complex. Did the corps practice competently or not? Is the US Government responsible or not? Can insurance money (which was paid at 70% on the dollar insured by the way in a known and open conspiracy by US insurers) really cover and propitiate the level of disaster, impact on life, loss of life, loss of livelihoods, destruction of a city, and the emotional and mental anguish the citizens of New Orleans endured? The insurance money was a rip-off, there was some federal aid to make up the difference, but did it really "make it right"?

What would God want a government to do if it was liable? Would God want these people made whole and loved after abuse and such suffering? Would God care?

Read on?

November 15, 2011

Fifth Circuit Mulls Katrina Flood Ruling

by Robert Verchick

Mr. Go is Gone

Today’s question: When are flood waters not “flood waters”? We New Orleanians have become fluent in all things subaqueous; last week three Texans sitting on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals took their turn. Yes, we’re talking about Katrina. Or, more specifically, its flood waters, which busted federal levees in fifty places, swamped 80% of New Orleans, and caused 800 deaths in the urban area. It is beyond argument that federal malfeasance played a key role. But sovereign immunity under the 1928 Flood Control Act (FCA) seemed sure to prevent residents from pursuing any flood-based claims against their government.
Yet as recent developments suggest, the case for immunity may not be nearly so open and shut.
Back in the 1920s, when the federal government assumed responsibility for levees on the Lower Mississippi, Congress worried that such a mammoth endeavor could expose the country to overwhelming liability. So they wrote into the FCA an immunity provision: “[no] liability of any kind shall attach to . . . the United States for any damage from or by floods or flood waters at any place.” This sweeping language has proved remarkably steadfast, if not occasionally abhorrent. Take, for instance, the time when federal operators idiotically opened floodgates of a recreational reservoir without first warning a group of waterskiers, one of whom was summarily sucked down the vortex and killed. In James v. United States(1986)a majority of the Supreme Court found government immunity too clear to avoid, leaving a trio of dissenting justices wailing about an outcome they called both “perverse” and “barbaric.”
But I digress.
The point is that after Katrina many assumed FCA immunity would shield the Corps from any responsibility for its wrongdoing. That changed in 2009 when federal trial judge Stanwood Duval held that the government’s broad immunity had limits. The case involved claims by residents in the New Orleans area for damages resulting from storm surge allegedly funneled through the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a now de-authorized navigation channel that locals called, “Mr. Go.” Plaintiffs assert that the Corps' negligence in design, construction, and maintenance of Mr. Go increased Katrina’s surge and made the levees more vulnerable than they otherwise would have been.
After an endless trial, Judge Duval found that the most important facts alleged by plaintiffs were all essentially true and that the Corps had been serially negligent. On the government’s assertion of FCA immunity, Duval wasn’t buying. Such immunity, the judge explained, did not cover harm caused by negligence unrelated to flood control management. Put another way, flood waters in everyday language are not “flood waters” in FCA language, unless their damage flows from a mishandled flood control project. And because Mr. Go was a navigation project, not a flood control project, the Corps’s immunity was gone.
Judge Duval awarded a total of $720,000 in damages to five plaintiffs, and the government appealed.
And so, last Wednesday a thoughtful Fifth Circuit panel (Judges Jerry Smith, Edward Prado and Jennifer Walker Elrod) pondered once again the fluid meaning of the term, “flood waters.” (Judge Duval had also rejected a second theory of immunity based on agency discretion, but that holding did not seem to interest the panel much.) (You can listen to the panel’s argument here.)
Now, as you have probably already figured out, this case is about way more than $720,000. The Army Corps has already received around half a million administrative claims from flood victims alleging similar facts. If the Fifth Circuit sides with the plaintiffs (and is not reversed on appeal) the precedent could leave the government on the hook for billions of dollars in future damages.
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Pierce O’Donnell reminded the court that FCA immunity has not always proved immovable. The Supreme Court, in Central Green Co. v. United States (2001), distinguished between irrigation water and flood-control water to hold the government liable for flood damage arising from negligent operation of an irrigation project. If you call Mr. Go’s surge “navigation water,” Mr. O’Donnell suggested, the plaintiffs win. Besides, he noted, there’s Graci v. United States(1969), a trial court decision the Fifth Circuit had itself affirmed years ago, that specifically holds that flood damage from the mishandling of a navigation project does not bring immunity.
Justice Department lawyer Mark Stern insisted instead that the statute’s plain meaning must control. But from the bench, hypotheticals came flying. What if federal construction workers accidently weaken a nearby levee and it breaks, does immunity accompany that kind of flood water? What about a naval ship that smashes through a levee? Or an Air Force jet that crashes through a levee? Or a scrap of the Hubble Telescope that sails out of orbit, screams through the atmosphere, and vaporizes a levee? (O.K., I made the last one up, but you see where this is going.)
And, by the way, what does the court do with Graci, that child of the ‘60s, which seems, after all, so directly on point? The court really doesn’t know what to do with Graci. No one even knows how to pronounce it. At one point an exasperated judge asked for a show of hands on whether one should say “GRAY-see” or “GRAS-ee.” Even after that, the parties couldn’t keep it straight.
Robert Verchick's recent book, "Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World," will soon be available in paperback.

Robert Verchick, Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law, Loyola University, New Orleans. Bio.

1 The 5th Circuit CA has not favorably regared joint causation constructions of insurance policies. So did these people already receive some flood insurance compensation by private or NFIP policies as flood damage and is this something that would collaterally estop the USACOE from arguing against flooding as the cause? Also has the NFIP claimed subrogation rights over any of the claimants claims? And did the lower court review and determine factually that no portion of Mr. Go was justified based on flood control or reduction?
-- William Cumming

Red Letter Christians » Would Jesus Occupy Wall Street?

2011-11-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Would Jesus Occupy Wall Street?

by Dan Martin Monday, October 31st, 2011

Welcome to Red Letter Christians! If you're new here, subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on the RLC Movement and/or sign up for the RLC newsletter!

The other day, a Facebook friend of mine posted a big caption on his profile: “JESUS Is With the 99%.” Predictably, he got a bunch of “likes” from his liberal buddies, and just as predictably, he got some major push back from his conservative friends. The Christian camp has divided along the usual lines, with one side loudly shouting that Jesus would join the rowdy crowd occupying the parks of our major cities, and the other side decrying the suggestion that Jesus might be even a tiny bit “socialist.” Sadly, if not entirely surprising, the proclamations on either end of the spectrum seem to reflect the political biases of the speaker with little, if any consideration for what Jesus actually said.
Whether or not Jesus would be with the whistle-blowing, bucket-thumping folks camped out in the parks is an interesting thought exercise, and one I’ll address in a bit. Quite apart from this question, any reasonable reading of the gospels and the prophets should make it patently obvious that Jesus would absolutely NOT be defending the Wall Street bankers and financial elite against whom the protesters are shouting.

In this regard, the biases of conservative American Christians have gone unchallenged for far too long. For the most part, I try to stay away from obviously partisan issues on this blog, but sooner or later we have got to face the fact that the Bible message is blunt and troubling: when their interests collide, God sides with the poor and marginalized against the rich and comfortable. When American Christians attempt to wrap a mantle of divine blessing around those in the upper strata of capitalism, they do violence to the clear message of scripture. Let’s take a look at some examples:
Usury Even before they entered the promised land, God explicitly forbade his people from charging interest when they loaned money to each other. Exodus 22:25 is the first such command, and in verses 26-27 it goes further to state that a cloak given in collateral for a loan must be returned at night so the debtor can stay warm. One might be tempted to say this only applies to charging interest to a fellow-believer (Jew in those days) who is poor, but just before in verses 21-24, God forbids other sorts of oppression of the sojourner, the widow, and the orphan. That context suggests to me that God might see anyone who is at economic disadvantage as “my people who are poor.” Leviticus 25:35-37 and Deuteronomy 23:19 reinforce the prohibition against charging interest to “a brother,” although Deut. 23:20 explicitly permits charging interest of a foreigner.
Lest we think this is just an antiquated concept from the Mosaic law, take a look at Ezekiel 18:5-18. Here, Ezekiel repeatedly refers to taking interest as an “abomination” worthy of death right up with robbery, adultery, and idolatry (see verses 8, 13, and 17). These verses echo strongly the Levitical law both in forbidding usury and in criticizing those who fail to return collateral. Nehemiah chapter 5 relates a similar account.
In stark contrast, the “financial services sector” embodied in Wall Street depends heavily upon the charging of interest…often exorbitant interest. While mortgage rates are at historic lows (for those who can qualify, that is), credit card interest is another matter, ranging from 10-14% for normal usage, but jumping as high as 30% for delinquent accounts. Factor in the myriad fees banks are now piling on top of their interest charges, and “usury” is not an unreasonable noun. There was a time when we actually had anti-usury laws in the U.S. More accurately, we still do in State law, but Federal law supersedes it for “National” banks.
What is more, the most usurious of rates and fees are most likely to fall on the poorest and least-educated of borrowers. This is in part due to the fact that they are deemed the highest-risk and most likely to default, and the usual defense of usury on the part of lenders is that the rates are high to compensate lenders for the risk of losing their money to default. I would counter that the recent rates of profit (and compensation packages) posted by the large banking institutions in this country suggest that whatever risk exposure they may have has been more than countered by the rates they charge, and of course mitigated even further by the taxpayer-funded bailout of the banking sector.
Likewise, the foreclosure of homes, cars, and other collateral clearly runs counter to the Biblical injunction to return a man’s cloak to him at night. Again, one may respond that the lender is only carrying out the terms of a loan contract into which the borrower freely entered. But is this true? I actually read the terms of my home mortgage before I signed it…all 30 or 40 pages of fine print. But how many, particularly among the less-educated, could understand those terms even if they did take the time to read them? And how freely have they entered into a contract when they see the loan as the only thing between them and hunger or homelessness?
No, the Biblical injunction is that, at least where the poor are concerned, lending should be done not for the investment benefit of the lender, but for the moral and vital support of the borrower. The world sees otherwise, to be sure. God’s math is different, and no amount of free-enterprise posturing can defend Christians from the fact that we are complicit in an industry that blatantly disregards the law of God.
Interestingly, we could learn a thing or two from Islam in this regard. When American Christians hear the word “Shariah,” they usually think of oppressed women, thieves getting their hands cut off, and all manner of capital offenses including converting from Islam. It is indisputable that some countries do implement Shariah in this manner. However, there’s another side to Shariah that, if Christian Americans knew about it, might scare them even more, and that’s laws guiding finance. I encourage interested readers to check out this article on Shariah-compliant investment to learn more, and even Google “shariah investment” to see how it’s being implemented. While some Christians might get lost in the legalism of the above article, the key elements are:

Muslims must choose investments only in companies whose business activities do not violate the principles of Islam;
Muslims may not invest in a company or fund that either charges interest or borrows money on interest;
If a Muslim invests in a company (for capital growth or operating purposes), he may not do so on terms of a guaranteed return (i.e. interest), rather he must take what amounts to an equity position where he will share in the profit OR LOSS of that company. In other words, a Muslim investor must have “skin in the game.”

I’m not sure how this would work in the case of a home mortgage. I don’t have an Imam to whom I could ask this; perhaps someone reading can help me here, but if I understand these principles correctly, I’m guessing if a Muslim were to lend money to someone else (Muslim or not) to buy a house, he’d have to do so solely on the basis of shared equity…that is he’d share in the gain or loss in value of the property at resale. Perhaps he could also charge rent to the homeowner in proportion to his ownership share in the house, and maybe work out a declining-balance calculation whereby ownership gradually transfers from the lender to the borrower. However, I’m pretty sure the American model where the primary risk rests with the borrower who may lose his home and assets, and where only the lender is protected by tax-funded bailouts, is in violation of Muslim Shariah. I think it’s in violation of Judaeo-Christian principles as well.
Infinite Accumulation A repeated refrain among Christians when they are faced with Biblical challenges to their wealth is to respond that God does not forbid or curse wealth itself, and this is true. The patriarchs were rich. The kings of Israel were rich and at least with David and Solomon, those riches are portrayed in the Bible as God’s blessing…however it’s important to remember that the prophet Samuel warned against the king and his cronies accruing wealth (see 1 Sam. 8:10-18). Some of Jesus’ followers were rich, too.
But the law of Moses has some interesting provisions that would have prevented the permanent creation of a wealthy class such as we see throughout history. I refer, of course, to the laws of sabbatical and Jubilee. Take a look at Deuteronomy 15:1-11. (I mean it. Take a break from this article and go read the law.) God provided in his law that debts (except to foreigners) would be canceled every seven years. He also provided that generous assistance to the poor was a non-negotiable requirement.
Now go read Leviticus 25–the whole chapter. In addition to the Sabbatical year described above, in the fiftieth year, any non-urban real estate that had been acquired over the last 49 years reverted to its familial ownership (and property was to be valued pro-rata by the number of years till Jubilee). Taking interest or profit from the poor is expressly forbidden (Lev. 25:36). (as an aside, have you notice that conservative Christians who advocate lower taxes on the basis of the Mosaic tithe, seem to have collective amnesia about Jubilee? Coincidence? I doubt it…)
Fast forward to Jesus. I have never encountered a Biblical scholar, conservative or liberal, who disputes that the “year of the LORD’s favor” Jesus announced in Luke 4:18-19, refers to the year of Jubilee. They may try to spiritualize it, but they don’t deny the allusion. Jesus himself said very little else about debt, though I can think of no reason “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” somehow excludes debts of the financial sort. Of all the “you have heard it was said/but I say to you” statements Jesus made, however, I can think of none that justifies the infinite pursuit of acquisition –and indifference to the poor– that marks American society today.
WJOW? So…would Jesus occupy Wall Street? Obviously I don’t know. I suspect he would not be camping in the park and thumping drums with the protesters, but I rather think he’d show up there just the same. He’d blast the corruption and greed of the bankers with every bit of the zeal he showed when he cleansed the temple (John 2:13-17) or when he lambasted the Pharisees for their nitpicking on the edges of the law while neglecting justice (Luke 11:39-44). I do think he might encourage the folks who are there to at least be nice to the poor schmucks who will have to clean up the mess, and encourage people to keep the place neat while they’re protesting (after all, he did have his disciples clean up after the crowd in John 6:12).
I do know this…he’d be more likely to be in the park than in the boardroom at Goldman Sachs. If the Goldmans were ever to invite him in, he’d go, but if they listened to him, I think they’d wind up behaving rather like Zacchaeus in Luke 19:8. If you ever see bankers giving half of what they own to the poor, and returning fourfold anything they’ve taken by unjust means, then you’ll know that Jesus has …finally… been to Wall Street.
—-
Dan Martin has worked in health, international development, and information technology, and now lives in Atlanta with his wife and three children. Raised to look back to the source for his faith, Dan has been gripped by the contrast between the life Jesus described, and the practice of the church. Dan blogs on faith and discipleship at http://nailtothedoor.com.

Five Facts You Need to Know about Poverty in America - Tim King - God's Politics Blog

2011-10-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

You should read this!

Five Facts You Need to Know about Poverty in America

by Tim King 10-26-2011 01:36 pm

What you don’t know about poverty can hurt you, and the nation’s poor. I’m guessing there are quite a few people who don’t know that the poverty line for an individual is just 22,314 a year for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual. Or, that three out of four poor adults have jobs and half of them are working full time. They also might not know that one in four children under the age of 5 live in poverty.

This morning, the Center for American Progress released their first annual report to track progress on the goal of cutting the poverty rate in our country in half over the next ten years. There is a lot in there that more people need to know. Here are my top five quoted from the report:

Between 1964 and 1973, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the U.S. poverty rate fell by nearly half (43 percent) as a strong economy and effective public policy initiatives expanded the middle class. Similarly, between 1993 and 2000, shared economic growth combined with policy interventions such as an enhanced earned income tax credit and minimum wage increase worked together to cut child poverty from 23 percent to 16 percent.
In 2009 the earned income tax credit lifted 6 million people—half of them children— out of poverty. The child poverty rate would have been nearly a third higher without it. The credit is also a powerful work incentive for single parents as research shows that 60 percent of increased labor force participation among single mothers from 1984 to 1996 can be attributed to an expansion of the EITC.
Since 1970 real wages have not kept pace with employee productivity. Since 1973 worker productivity has nearly doubled, and Americans 25 and older have achieved higher levels of high school and college educational attainment. Unfortunately, increases in these areas have not translated into increased wages for workers across the board. Only workers with already-high wages experienced big wage gains.
Between 1979 and 2007 overall direct expenditures by the federal government on education, training, and employment services fell by half, from 8.8 percent of GDP to 4.3 percent. Increasing high school and college graduation rates and investing in job training for middle-skill workers must be a part of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy that also includes major economic reforms and incorporates wages, nonwage benefits, and other components of job quality.
High poverty rates among families with children cannot simply be explained by low work effort. Low-income parents work more hours than those in many other developed countries, but a parent working full time (40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year) earning $10 an hour would only bring home only $20,000 annually—less than the official federal poverty level for a family of four and not nearly enough to pay for decent housing, food, child care, transportation, and health care. That’s why “work support” benefits such as earned income tax credits, child care assistance, and public health insurance coverage are a critical component of policy efforts to reduce poverty.

To see the whole report check out www.halfinten.org/indicators

Tim King is Communications Director for Sojourners. Follow Tim on Twitter @TMKing.

When Chad gets bored at a conference....

2011-09-26T16:25:00.001-07:00

Red Letter Christians » God’s Middle Finger – When the Divine Says “Up Yours”

2011-09-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

May I encourage you to take a read, not flip it off (pun intended which you'll get when you read it) and reflect if Christ might be discipling you, us - that we might be more like Him, less like our culturally ear friendly Christianity....

Red Letter Christians » God’s Middle Finger – When the Divine Says “Up Yours”

Pop Over

2011-09-14T07:50:00.001-07:00

Pop over to my other blog "Live to be Forgotten" for THREE posts today that will either encourage you, make you laugh, make you mad, but will not bore you...

Sex drugs, rock-n-roll & selective adherence to the Gospels

2011-09-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Bible talks about prayer about 500 times. It talks about faith less than that. It discusses greed over 2000 times. Hmmm.

Yesterday, The Rev posted this:
Is how we religious people can read the gospels, watch the way Jesus responds to the heretics (Samaritans), sinners (wine bibbers, sexually immoral, sabbath breakers), poor (self explanatory), marginalized (sick, lepers and slaves) and compromisers (tax collectors) with love, and his physical presence.

And how he responds to the religious people of his day, especially the leaders and devout disciples.

AND FAIL TO RECOGNIZE THAT WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH THE WHITE WASHED TOMBS, AND THE SNAKES, THAN JESUS FRIENDS.

and yes I am preaching to my own self righteous self.

Take a quick look at a short blog from The Rev!
the rev: Another amazing thing

Hope when your tired of "playing tea party Jesus"

2011-09-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

The tribes I journey with, wrestle and ache to bring to the church the reality that we've reduced the Bible to Hokus Pokus words - that we've reduced following, being like, sacrificing our own rationale, worldly wisdom, mores of our culture to become Kingdom people who live so differently from our dying society that the fragrance of life is powerful - overwhelming. We propose a Gospel of life - one that compels and consumes our lives to be like Him - radically like Him as we sacrificially give up "the American, Brit, Aussie, Kiwi, Canook dream" to be citizens of the Kingdom. No more "comfort, safety and security". No more matierialism, consumption, multiple-choice, my rights" lifestyles - but servants - servants of the Most High God; servants to the people He came to serve and loves right where they are now - as should we - loving them enough to love them hard that they might "taste & see".... We do not oft remember that salt is only used infused into food, not often alone. It makes food tasty. He told us to be salt.

We have a huge challenge in the church today... we've got an entire civilization of churches in western culture of the US and the British Dominions composed of consumer converts... a Jesus that is there to make their lives better, on their terms... one where becoming His is reduced to saying some words... as if some magic spell is conversion.

It's driven us to experiment and birth Communitas. It's driven us to sell out our lives and our porfessions to be missionaries, knowing that it would cost us - that many of our supporters would stop sending in that money, that new members would not be able to raise support. What is crazy to most people caring for their families, was so compelling that we HAD TO do this - God Himself sent us.

FINALLY - what we have been saying - along with all those numbers amongst the ne0-monastics, the new-friars, the missional community (that is actually centered in mission), and the guys contributing to thought leadership - like Mike Frost, Alan and Deb Hirsch, along with guys like Neil Cole and David Gibbons, is beginning to take root. Consider two sunbeams of hope that give me great joy:

I've begun reading a book entitled Renovation of the Church, What Happens When a Seeker Church Discovers Spiritual Formation, by Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken, published by IVP, 2011.

Dallas Willard opens in a Forward [I usually skip forwards as too many words trying to convince me that what I am about to read is worth the price I paid for it], that is compelling and as good as anyone could introduce a book, set up the situation begging to be answered.

Dallas says, "How do we present the radical message of Christ in a church that has catered to the religious demands of the nominally committed? In other words, if we have gathered people into congregations by appeasing their appetites and desires, how can we help them deal with the fact that their problems in life and character-even in church"-are primarily caused by living to get what they want? How can the cross and self-denial become the central fact in a prosperous, consumer culture? How can discipleship to Jesus-in a sense recognizable from the Bible, with the spiritual transformation it brings-be the mode of operation in a thriving North American congregation?"

If you skipped over what I just quoted, stop and read it- it's catalytic and powerful! Now consider not just reading this book, but allowing it to be a tool of spiritual formation for you - that could deconstruct your entire framework of being a Christian - that could wreck you from ever being the same leader again.... it could compel you to leave your own proverbial nets to actually sell out your life to follow Him in the most radical way you've considered since you embraced Him. I know - the veneer of life wore off long ago... or has it!

Now consider this video - it is crazy nuts and great. This mainline evangelical pastor has a hope filled exhortation that got me so excited I began composing this blog. Enjoy!

My friend, Mike Frost said this, "You can speak in tongues until the cows come home; you can get your reformed theology right until the cows come home. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, you are breathing the Missio Dei in your entire life - living that people know Him, and walk with Him."

Now, thirsty for more? If you have time, watch this, from Mike. I know him. I’ve heard him talk about this a dozen or more times in person. It still leaves me encouraged and convicted and compelled!

Okay, I'm not selling anything with what I am about to write. I simply want to make resources available to you and to call you to lay your head on that rock pillow, go to sleep and wrestle all night with the Angel of the Lord. May you lose!

Confused? Thirsty and no cup to drink from? I leave this with you:
1. Could God be calling you to live as an apostolic, incarnational missionary, who lives to be forgotten? Could He be calling you to do something like we're doing - whether it be here, or with another community, order, movement?
2. Could God be calling you to totally rewire your framework, knowing that you may lose all of your present friends because you are talking crazy? We've called people to do that when they embraced Christ for years... now, are you ready?

We're glad to support you. Part of our calling is helping saints and churches wrestle these very issues. Drop us a line.

Peace, grace and a huge woo from the Hound of Heaven!
Mike
Communitas

Six Years Ago Today

2011-08-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

On the evening of 28 August, metropolitan New Orleans was a ghost town [city]. The roads were empty, houses sealed up and two million people evacuated the largest and meanest storm to hit the continental US in a very, very long time. Worse, it was aimed at just about the worst place where the storm surge reached 25-30 feet, with 10-15 foot waves on top of that. Almost two thousand people died in that storm and its aftermath, 500,000 homes were destroyed and for the first time since Washington DC was burned in the War of 1812, Atlanta in 1864, and the Chicago & San Francisco fires, a US city was completely devastated - the entire infrastructure was decimated: police, fire, schools, medical, power, water, drainage, streets, phone (cell and line), and the city was cut off from effective relief efforts.

On the 28th, the day was sunny & blue, hot - not-as-humid, and... quiet, very quiet. That night the breezes were normal summer by the sea winds, but as it got later the winds increased until midnight when it was raging. By dawn on the 29th, we were in the thick of it!

On the 29th (6 yrs ago today) the storm raged until about 3pm when the sun came out again, the sky got blue and it was hot. No cicadas though, no crickets and no lights anywhere at all. Just dark and quiet. People began venturing out that afternoon and surveyed the damage.

We knew the wind damage was huge and the coastal areas were "washed away" literally! Then that evening it happened - the levees broke from long, long hours under the worst surge they'd ever endured.

I recall being here, and the personal, selfish and shameful relief that I did not have to live with this; that I would evac my family, get on a plane and fly back to New Zealand. I didn't have to live through this dark catastrophic mess. I didn't have a house destroyed. I didn't have to find schooling, etc. I got to go home and watch it on BBC... Yep, I cried, I grieved, for home, for my home city, for the people I know. BUT, I didn't have to "deal with it".

Summer 2006: We arrive to simply visit. We were on the way to the UK...and we were only here to see friends, to see family, to survey the city as missiologists (God's sociologists). I'd been to war zones, global worst poverty, tsunami sites, earthquake sites... I'd seen it all. I knew it would be bad in New Orleans. I'd seen pictures.

I had no idea how bad. Susanne and I wept DAILY - several times. We wanted, were compelled to see it - see it all. From the ponsy corporate suburbs, to the poorest inner-city neighborhoods, we HAD to see it all. We had to engage the people, hear the fatigue, the ache, the post-traumatic-stress, the cynicism, the anger, the loss of hope. I was headed to London and leaving here! I couldn't stay, didn't want to stay... I hated it! I hated it! My city was gone and it sucked to see it - and it sucked to even dare think of staying - NO!

God had other plans.

It's now six years since the storm hit to the day. It's five years from that visit during a move to London. We never left. We still live in new Orleans.

AND WE LOVE IT!

Warts? Plenty!
Lots still messed up? Absolutely!
No answer to so many of these challenges? Yep!

Coming along? You bet! We've got great leadership in the city, in the metro parishes (counties), support from both the state and fed's. Business is coming along great and N.O. is the #1 destination for entrepreneurs...a true creative class city. Schools are doing super and getting better every day. Streets are getting worked on, people returning home, we laugh again, there is hope like never in my life time. Heck, the Saints won a super bowl! And the storm protection has made the city safer than anytime before in my life! And it's getting better... they don't talk protection from 100 years storms - now they're working on 500 year storm protection.

Don't get me wrong - there's lots left to overcome. From business and poverty, crime and education, neighborhoods, and certainly the spiritual. BUT, it's coming along and it is a great place, a great place, a great place to live again! The spice is back, the savvy is back, the swagger is back. She's a muse again calling people here.

So, what we do - we dig in, help, sacrifice, love, give, help and pray. We pray for the complete shalom of the city. You see shalom isn't just peace, not even just peace with God. It's the holistic peace where everything - all peace - is related to that right joy and peace with God. We pray for business, education, crime, people wanting to come home, people moving here for the 1st time, for the recovery, the healing, the racial issues, the city government, the churches and the spiritual revitalization of the entire city - that God's name will be made renown....again.

Six years ago today, everything changed.

God wants to rebuild the cities - and make them better than the Towers we built on our own.

Okay, one more last poke... just watch, laugh, then cry.

2011-08-26T12:43:00.001-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

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And even Mo' MoooonnneeeeeeyyyYYY!

2011-08-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Look, I know this will upset many people I know. Maybe we need to stop. Think, reflect and maybe, repent?

Sure, I know people who give and give more than others. I also know people very modest in income who give more. The poorer giving "far more" than the wealthy... ever read about a widow and a mite in the Temple?

Ever read about Lazarus and the Rich Man? We're leaving here soon. We amass for power, celebrity, security and comfort... Did I say, we're leaving here soon?

Yes, I'm not stupid and yes, I know there are generational poverty issues with character issues involved... I also know about institutional sins we inflicted in slavery and Jim Crow laws IN MY LIFETIME that created a broken fractured poor class. Yes, personal accountability. BUT admit it - our privilege begets privilege... it takes money to make money. My boys aspire to Ivy League education and opportunity... because I'm educated, assure they get educated, are given dreams of achievement, etc. They stand on my shoulders and my and my wife's sacrifices to get them there.

I'm not talking about all the rich... lost people value like lost people... I'm talking to saints who follow Jesus. Maybe we proof text our Bibles. Maybe we could make a difference, maybe we could bring the Kingdom, healing, hope, blessing in more ways than "be warm and fed" ...read that in the Bible too.

I'm not saying anyone of means should be poor - no one wants to be poor, starting with the poor. BUT, maybe, just maybe we should take Warren Buffet's posture. Read what he said recently? Hmmm.