Remembering Katrina

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Katrina's path of destruction along the LA/MS Gulfcoast as moved on shore. Pretty much, unless you have your head in the sand, you have been bombarded with images and stories related to this catastrophe over the last few days.

First of all, Katrina made me realize how blessed i truly was. I was in Ascension Parish, LA at this time last year...located around I-10 in Southeastern LA; about 30 minutes outside of Baton Rouge and 45 minutes outside of Kenner, LA.
We stayed put in our home in St Amant as Katrina blew through our region with her wrath, no chance for us to evacuate due to the "powers that wanted to be" at our previous place of service felt it unnecessary to cancel services until the last minute. I guess that is neither here nor there now, but i do know if i could have moved my family out of there for their safety...i would have.
For Katrina we got the "clean side" of the storm, meaning as that as the storm circled on land and moved southwest back towards the Gulf, that is what hit us.

We lost power for some time, lost some trees on our property and at the church, as well as the church sign. Nothing major, especially when you consider just a 45 minute drive down I-10 was Kenner 3-5 feet under water and New Orleans.

A few weeks later we got the far end of the dirty side of Rita as she moved through the LA/TX coast, and saw about 12 hours of rain and the loss of the other side of the church sign. Once again, a reminder of how blessed we were because it could have been a lot worst for us. And because it could have been a lot worst we did what we could help those who were not as fortunate.

Now my thoughts on Katrina a year later:

First, who is to blame? Michael Brown was a nitwit and should have never been in charge of FEMA, so i do say President Bush has to accept, and i do believe he has accepted responsibility for the way FEMA dropped the ball in thinking that things were not as bad as they thought.
But for the most part, i think Ray "Wonka Bar" Nagin, Kathleen "Call me Babineaux only at Election Time" Blanco and the people of New Orleans are responsible for what happened. Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin grew up in Louisiana, and know how powerful a storm of this magnitude can be...and that New Orleans was not in a good position due to being below sea level.
The should have better planned for evacuations and better planned for an emergency response. Their incompetence continues in that New Orleans is still pretty much a ghost town and Louisiana is no better prepared for a storm like that than it was a year ago.
Have you noticed MS, FL and TX don't have these same problems? And have you also noticed that those states also have Republican governors? Not that i think the GOP gov's are always right...but i'm just saying.

Now as for the people of New Orleans, these "poor, oppressed people who had nothing to begin with" other than living off of my tax money. It is evident by how much crime has gone up in Houston (41% increase in felony arrests in Houston for November 2005 compared to November 2004 according to reports). These people were leaches sucking the life out of New Orleans and are now sucking the life out of other great cities; and it is time to cut it off!
I say let them fend for themselves, cut the FEMA and whatever other gravy train they are living off of.

Second, i want to talk about the way the church of Jesus Christ stepped up. I know in Ascension Parish i met with a number of local pastors, across denominational lines, within days of Katrina for us to come up with a game plan to reach out to our community. This took place in other cities and communities across the state and region.
Add to that the number of yellow Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief hats you saw all over the place actually made me proud to be part of the SBC again. For a long time the SBC was known for what it was against...now it is once again being known for doing ministry; and it is about time.

Finally, i may seem harsh, but i truly feel sorry for those who are truly less fortunate. My wife and i went to the PMac at LSU where a triage was set up for evacuees coming out of New Orleans requiring medical attention. It truly broke my heart as i saw some people who had lost everything and had no chance to get out, and would not have if it weren't for rescue workers coming after the storm. I had a chance to pray with them, minister to them, help them get a bag of clothes to replace the dirty ones they had been wearing for three days and more.
I don't want a pat on the back, but i do want people to know that there truly were some victims of Katrina. They are not the ones who lived in 4 and 5 star hotels on my dime for the next few months and bought HDTV's with their FEMA checks.

I hope we learned something from Katrina, as hard as the lesson was. I'm not sure if we did though. There is still way too much politics involved and considering we are talking about New Orleans...probably way too much going on under the table.
I can only hope for the best and pray that we don't have another "Katrina" any time soon.

Snake oil for sale!

*** This was originally posted on MySpace (yes, i do have a MySpace page...i'm a truly a geek and i truly need a life!) and throught it would be fitting to post here also. Enjoy!***

Let me first of all say, that i love when i see this type of stuff on TV...it is at the very least entertaining. At the same time, it does break my heart knowing that people fall for this type of garbage.

This morning i was flipping through the channels and came across "Pastor" Danny Davis (i use the term "pastor" lightly), and he was offering free "No evil oil" that has been prayed over for 17 days, and if you were to agree with him in prayer and rub the oil on the important things in your life (mainly wallet, check book, etc)...God would bring a miracle! Jalapeno, Glory Je to Bejus and Pass the Biscuits!

OK, first of all, this knuckle-head had a mullet. Given, it wasn't the bad Billy Ray Cyrus Achy-Breaky Heart type of mullet...and looked a little more like the one i had in college. But keep in mind that my college mullet was in 1989-1990 when they were "cool". Dude, it's 2006 and didn't they teach you seminary that "business in the front and party in the back" is no way to run your ministry? OH WAIT! This guy has probably never seen the inside of a seminary, a systematic theology book or the vast majority of his Bible either!

Which takes me to my next point...bad theology verses Biblical theology. Not that i'm an expert, but i have been blessed enough to have studied under some of the top names in theology and church history, and i try to glean from their wisdom and knowledge as often as possible when i do ministry. "Prophet" Davis (as one of his adoring fans referred to him) loses any hopes of being theologically accurate as soon as he picks out his first proof text. In fact, i saw him holding a Bible, i saw him saying "This holy book tells us...", but i NEVER saw him actually read a single verse which means it would have NEVER been read in context either!

This nitwit's goal is to make money. Yes, he gives his "No evil oil" away for "free", but i'm sure you don't get off the phone until you "sow a seed of faith" into his ministry. And all he talks about is financial and physical blessings. If he truly was a God ordained and God called and God inspired prophet (who is called to proclaim truth) he would be calling people unto salvation. Did i hear salvation? NO! Do i ever hear salvation from these nitwits? NO!
I don't care if they are giving away no evil oil, green prayer cloths or miracle spring water...they don't care about the salvation of the soul! They are looking out for their pocket books and wanting to pad them a little more.

It will be a sad day for people like this when judgement day comes. I really do feel sorry for them.

And next time you see one of this couyon's on TV...change it to the View, even they make more sense (scary thought, huh?)

Be God's!

Terror surveillance

OK, house is nearly unpacked, my office has been set up, kids are in bed...time to get back to business; which is trying to figure out what is wrong with people in this country without gouging my eyeballs out because it would be less painful!

A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ordered a halt to the wiretap program.

Now as reminder, this NSA terror surveillance program was enacted after 9/11 and has some requirements for it to take place, such as:
* A phone conversation with a known member of Al-Qaida
* A phone conversation with a known supporter of Al-Qaida
* Either of these parties being in known terror hot spots overseas

My point here is that the only people who really need to be worried about losing their "civil rights" are those who have an agenda that includes destruction of the US, Islamization of the world, or death to the infidels.
The average "Joe Blow" American who works 40 hours a week, has 2.5 kids and a 2 car garage at home where his wife has dinner ready every night by 6:00 doesn't need to worry...unless he is involved in any of the previously mentioned scenarios.

But then again, it coming out of a Detroit judge's ruling doesn't surprise me either. Areas in and around Detroit, MI have the highest percentages of Muslims in the US. These are those Muslims, such as those in Dearborn, MI who stood with signs saying "We Stand Hand in Hand with Hezbollah" over the last couple of weeks.
Yes, that is the same Hezbollah that was at war with Israel (the only true democracy in that region by the way), who was responsible for hundreds (if not thousands) of US deaths in terror strikes over the last 20 years, and also has the image of a raised hand holding a AK-47 on their flag.
So, why wouldn't this MI judge rule against something as evil as terror surveillance that has only helped to prevent another 9/11?

Two interesting points to wrap this up:
1. MI does elect judges, so people like this have to take care of their voters.
2. Judge Diggs was appointed by Jimmy Carter...yes, the same Jimmy Carter who recently called Israel's attacks on Hezbollah in defense of their land "unjustified", said that the US needs "fewer secrets" (especially when people are wanting to destroy us, right Jimmy?!?!) and the same Jimmy Carter who signed an executive order on May 23, 1979 that read, the "Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order."

Did you get that?
If not, here is a link to that executive order: http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo12139.htm

Once again, the hypocrisy of the left never ceases to amaze me.
I'm going to take the forks out of my eyes now and try to sleep knowing that Federal Judges with life long appointments care nothing about my personal well being...or yours!