Posted on 09/16/2005 6:45:26 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
A few days after Hurricane Katrina clobbered New Orleans, I was sitting in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City with one of my favorite hedonists, the author Tom Robbins, mourning the destruction of the city we both adore and the suffering of thousands of poor folks who lost what little they had to begin with.
Robbins described New Orleans as "the depository of America's soul."
I hadn't heard anyone put it quite that way. It's a lovely, haunting image, and if you've ever met a real New Orleanian, you know exactly what he means.
Robbins wasn't talking about the famous (and, to some, infamous) French Quarter where unfettered decadence and nonstop music keep tourists entertained. He's talking about the folks who live outside the Quarter -- a third of whom eked out an existence below the poverty line even before Katrina struck.
'A deep state of sin'
"They are part and parcel of the soul factor. That music didn't come from those plantation houses, it came from those poor people in those shanty and shotgun houses. There is a spiritual component to the fact that this is happening to America's soul," Robbins, a spiritually eclectic fellow who is the grandson of two Southern Baptist ministers, told me, adding that he was certain sooner or later, "people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will say that New Orleans is being punished."
Well, so far, Robertson and Falwell, who were eviscerated four years ago for claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were somehow divine retribution for America's wayward morality, have remained publicly silent on all matters wrathful where Hurricane Katrina is concerned.
Unfortunately, Dr. Wiley Bennett, pastor of Woodland Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, has not followed their example.
'People took it wrong'
Not long after several thousand evacuees from New Orleans began arriving in Tyler (including two dear friends of mine who moved from Chicago to the Crescent City last year), Bennett spelled out a fire-and-brimstone message on a sign in front of his church: "THE BIG EASY IS THE MODERN DAY SODOM AND GOMORRAH."
It's the kind of thing some people do in the name of Christ that, to borrow a line from Annie Lamott, makes Jesus want to drink gin out of a cat dish.
Sigh.
Even after several evacuees confronted Bennett and asked him to remove the offensive sign, the pastor refused. Earlier this week, after vandals knocked off a few of the letters, Bennett still wouldn't take down his damn(ing) sign.
"Right now it's a crippled sign," Bennett, 74, told me by phone from his church office. "It does not say what it once said, but it is a monument to the fact that the sign was vandalized. The original intent was to point out that the United States of America right now is in a deep state of sin."
Now, it would have been easier -- and arguably more satisfying --to begin yelping at Bennett about how his moral wake-up call was ill-conceived and cruelly timed. I could have chalked him up as nothing more than a redneck fundamentalist who is best ignored.
But I really wanted to know why he would do this. His picture on the church Web site shows that he has a kindly face. He couldn't have meant to hurt people, especially people who had suffered so much, could he?
"What I was trying to do was point out that the wickedness of the city of New Orleans brought a hand of judgment on that city," Bennett said. (He wasn't going to make this easy.) "It was never put up there with the intention of saying there are no good people in the city of New Orleans. That was a misunderstanding. People took it wrong."
He told me about two women -- the evacuees -- who came to see him about removing the sign.
"One of the ladies who came in here is the harshest person I've encountered. She said she had lost everything. Believe me, I can understand the stress and the hurt she was feeling, but on the other hand she would not listen to me," he said.
What was he trying to tell her?
"I'm trying to get as many people to go to heaven as I can," he said. "When I questioned one of them, she said, 'I'm going to heaven because I'm good.' I had to tell her that 'there is not one righteous, no, not one.' But she rejected what I had to say."
Could he blame her?
'Poor people are wicked, also'
I tried to engage Bennett in a discussion of his shoddy theological reasoning (and general insensitivity), but he couldn't see what I was saying, either.
There he was, trying to preach the message of salvation, which he believes happens by grace alone and not by anything we can do ourselves, while rubbing salt in the wounds of the downtrodden. By offering no grace, only blind judgment.
"New Orleans is a wicked city," he repeated. (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Biloxi, Miss., and Tyler are also "wicked cities" according to Bennett.)
Judgment awaits. Katrina was a warning shot.
OK, but is there something wrong with the Almighty's aim? God missed the French Quarter almost entirely.
The Quarter is built on high ground, Bennett tried to argue.
So high that God couldn't reach it?
Why was the Quarter -- the seat of debauchery, the devil's playground -- spared the full force of the hurricane's havoc while poor people had their lives washed away by the ark-worthy floods?
"Regardless of what you believe, poor people are wicked, also," Bennett said. "The French Quarter is not preserved. It may be easier to rebuild . . . but it is not operating right now and is basically shut down."
Of course on Thursday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced that the Quarter will reopen later this month.
So much for divine retribution.
I prefer Robbins' theological explanation to Bennett's.
"I think this demonstrates whose side God may actually be on," Robbins said. "Maybe all of us who like to eat, drink and make merry should relax."
The truth always hurts. That is why people can't take it when it us spoken. They just want to sit back and remark in hateful terms.
"My sarc meter is out for service, sorry!"
No problemo!
:0)
We know one guy came in 1619. He was British military, so I'm not sure about the color of his neck.
But boy, the ones who went to Tennessee from Scotland--they make up for him!
God is a God of love and grace. But he is also a jealous God. And doesn't want any one to worship false Gods. And NO has a lot of false Gods being worshiped.
Yeah, Philadelphians REALLY like their Volvos, too! ;)
"Shame that we are so quick to censor the thoughts or words of others."
No attempt to censor (that would of course involve the government). Some of us simply express our opinion as freely as the Pastor, and our opinion is that he should not have put up the sign and deserves criticism for it.
What's wrong with that?
It was meant as a warning. Not a hurtful or finger pointing remark...
"How come Tom Robbins comments are correct but Dr. Benett's aren't? Looks like the writer is letting bias show. Nah, that can't be right."
Isn't it possible that a person can look at two statements from two different people, judge one statement as correct, and one as incorrect, without their being evidence of bias? If you criticized Louis Farakkhan would I have to think that you were biased against him or simply expressing an intelligent opinion?
"I have yet to see any remarks by the man that are beyond propriety."
You apparently have a different definition of propriety than most.
It was meant as a joke.
"The truth always hurts. That is why people can't take it when it us spoken. They just want to sit back and remark in hateful terms."
Havn't heard any truth from this Pastor. Criticism of his rantings is "remarking in hateful terms?"
Propriety??? I will even defend an atheists right to say what he wants. What he says is of no interest or concern to me.
Then you really need to call and speak with him or go to one of his services.
Insensitive Bennett may be, but also right.
And as for those who "eke out a living below the poverty line," for many that is a choice they have made - to rely on government handouts, government housing, and to do absolutely as little as possible to survive.
Go there and see for yourself.
"Were you one of those that were using the term such as bigot??? If you were not, then by all means criticize away."
I was not. Bigot wouldn't even make sense in this context but I imagine some probably used it.
This is so true just the other day there was a job fair here and over half the evacuees that were asked to attend said "no the government WILL take care of us." Which means we the tax payers get to feed, cloth and house them..
"Then you really need to call and speak with him or go to one of his services."
Let me rephrase. I'm sure he has probably said many truthful things. I do not think his opinions that were the subject of this article and a prior article that had a lenghty debate here revealed any truth. Just some guy's opinion that is fair for criticism.
"Propriety??? I will even defend an atheists right to say what he wants. What he says is of no interest or concern to me."
As will I. But the concept of defending free speech is different from the concept of propriety. I don't deny him his right to say what he wants. I just think it's not appropriate and is in fact harmful, in some respects the same way I think Louis Farakkhan's comments are inappropriate and harmful, though he certainly has the right to express them.
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