Many have come forward since hurricane Katrina to declare this most destructive storm in our nation’s history as God’s punishment.  One claim is that God is punishing us as a nation for insisting that Israel pull out of the Gaza strip.  Another claims that New Orleans is our Sodom and Gomorrah and God has destroyed her. 

I consider Katrina a natural disaster, not unlike many others that strike random places on earth, and neither a judgment nor a communication from God.  For those who say it is God at work, I wonder how they explain the French Quarter being spared while the Baptist Seminary was flooded?

While the destruction of property is incomprehensible, the loss of life is overwhelming, and the prospects for the future of the area are bleak,  the storm has called forth the best in Christian people and, in particular, Baptists.  I have watched in wonder and gratitude as Baptists of all kinds have rallied to help the victims.  Faster than the confused government agencies, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the National Baptist conventions, the state Baptist conventions, the associations have rushed to send disaster relief teams to the needy areas, to assist the many who evacuated into their own neighborhoods, to take them into their churches and homes, and to raise money to help care for others and start the cleanup and rebuilding.

Baptists often have black eyes from the intemperate proclamations by some who identify themselves as Baptists.  But the loving, Christ like response by the many in the wake of hurricane Katrina will certainly serve to give a different picture of Baptists.