Hurricanes Provide Teachable Moment, Spur Interfaith Cooperation

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Less than a month into his job, the Rev. Reid Doster is coordinating disaster recovery for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana, helping victims near Lacombe deal with the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As he works with Presbyterians, Lutherans and other volunteers to help remove wet furniture […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Less than a month into his job, the Rev. Reid Doster is coordinating disaster recovery for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana, helping victims near Lacombe deal with the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

As he works with Presbyterians, Lutherans and other volunteers to help remove wet furniture and stave off dangerous black mold, the return of cable television to his own home doesn’t seem so important.


“I concluded that my possessions have been possessing me and that as long as I have people I love, and my health and a roof over my head, what else could anybody want?” he said.

For many believers like Doster, the one-two punch of natural disasters has become both a test of faith and a teachable moment. With resources stretched, some religious organizations are putting aside theological differences, at least for now, to help those in need.

Loui Dobin sheltered evacuees from Rita in his Jewish camp near Waco, Texas, and found a “random sample of Houston” came through his doors _ including Protestants, Hindus and Muslims.

“The challenge is you want to do everything for everyone and you can’t,” said Dobin, director of the Union for Reform Judaism Greene Family Camp. “That is also the major religious opportunity here _ people are pulling together to do something for each other.”

The Rev. Renita Weems, a religion scholar based in Nashville, Tenn., spearheaded her 450-member congregation’s efforts to provide Katrina evacuees with bed linens and kitchenware, only to wonder if the supplies sent to Houston have been displaced as people evacuated from Rita. Her mostly African-American church has worked with secular and religious groups and the people who have provided the congregation with supplies have come from various faiths, and no faith at all.

“Just the sheer size of this, the widespread nature of this, forces all of us to have to rethink our theology,” she said. “We will have to be very practical. It will be awhile before we can escape back into our armchair theologizing about God.”

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Washington-based Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said practical interfaith efforts include a call by Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists for Congress to establish an independent commission to be sure the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region involves just wages for workers.


“This presents the opportunity for religious groups to work together,” he said in an interview, shortly after the multifaith press conference on Sept. 23. “Often we have interfaith dialogue _ but what’s just as important is the real work.”

At times like these, it’s easier to erase rather than draw lines between groups, said Deacon William Ditewig, executive director at the Secretariat for Diaconate at the Washington-based U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Hurricanes don’t ask one’s religion,” he said. “I think it’s the natural thing to do to reach across denominational lines.”

Kristen Sachen, assistant general secretary of the New York-based United Methodist Committee on Relief, said interfaith connections that already were established have helped both religious and nonreligious organizations better respond to the disasters. But she expects cooperation to reach a new level after Katrina and Rita.

“Because this … covers such a wide area, it demands a national, interstate response that is pushing us into a national program that, I think, will be new and needed,” she said.

At the local level, new opportunities also are surfacing.

Staffers of the Christ Church Cathedral, a prominent Episcopal congregation in New Orleans, are working from Baton Rouge on plans to make their large complex available to other churches and organizations that want to worship or work on disaster recovery.


“Out of the tragedy, there is always the possibility for realizing how much we need each other and how insignificant our differences are,” said the Very Rev. David Allard duPlantier, dean of the cathedral. “We hope to use space in as efficient a way as possible to be of service to New Orleans, and the religious communities of the city.”

Faith-based relief workers with experience in previous disasters say much of their work has only just begun.

Donna Deer, acting director of emergency response for New York-based Church World Service, said “long-term post-traumatic stress issues” have already started to surface and will need to be handled effectively.

Bill Adams, coordinator of disaster response for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, said volunteers, taxed by one hurricane after another, have far more than immediate work ahead.

“When hurricanes keep coming, it becomes challenging,” he said. “`We have teams in Mississippi doing clean-up work from last year’s Hurricane Ivan. We will be in Mississippi, Louisiana, and potentially Texas for two or three years after this.”

MO/JL END BANKS

HURRICANE PHOTOS: RNS has many dramatic photos, all with a religion angle, depicting the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To see, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search for “hurricane.” Designate “exact phrase” for best results.


Editors: Loui in the 5th graph below is cq.

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