Donor preferences; kids and Katrina; the Exorcism of Emily Rose

We continue our coverage of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday with a story by G. Jeffrey MacDonald about donors’ preferences: As Americans set new records for charitable giving in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, fundraisers across the board are seeing a principle confirmed: Donors love to help innocent victims of cataclysmic events. At the same time, […]

We continue our coverage of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday with a story by G. Jeffrey MacDonald about donors’ preferences: As Americans set new records for charitable giving in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, fundraisers across the board are seeing a principle confirmed: Donors love to help innocent victims of cataclysmic events. At the same time, however, data suggest donors are losing patience with chronic problems that have no quick solutions, such as poverty. And some, both in religious circles and beyond, fear mercy is increasingly being reserved for those who appear to have done no wrong. Comparing total giving so far to Katrina victims to giving for others perceived as more culpable in their suffering illustrates the problem.

Michele M. Melendez considers the effects Katrina and other events-like 9/11, the Asian tsunami, news of school shootings and child abductions-will have on children: These children won’t remember the events themselves, but they will inherit the outcome: heightened airport security, metal detectors in schools, sex offender registries, disaster plans. The result may be overprotective parents and a conformist, risk-averse generation on the way.

The film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” opens on Friday, Sept. 9, and correspondent Sarah Price Brown looks at how it addresses contemporary issues, with its themes of the conflict between religion and science, faith and reason and even good versus evil: It’s our culture’s obsessions magnified on the big screen, simplified in the one-on-one setting of the courtroom, where there is a winner and a loser.


Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!