An “Act of God”: Race, Religion, and Policy in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Vaught, Seneca

doi:10.1080/10999940903417276

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…For example, many Indonesian people interpreted the 2004 tsunami as a test of their love for God or a punishment for their sins (Brummitt, 2006). Similarly, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the USA, some called it divine wrath because of immoral acts (particularly same-sex marriages) and some saw it as divine judgement on atrocious human behaviour (Vaught, 2009).…”

Section: Religious Views and Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disasters and Religious Institutions

Cheema¹

2021

Islam and Global Studies

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Disasters and Religious Institutions IntroductionDisasters give rise to a situation where people from different parts of the world, quite unfamiliar with each other, come into contact to save lives, provide necessities such as food and shelter, rebuild homes and enable community recovery. Humanitarian and development organisations have concerns about how to keep neutrality, stay safe, ensure respect for local sensitivities and win the necessary support of communities to carry out their job. In many places, during these hard times, community-based religious institutions such as churches, mosques and temples are still but a practical choice for reaching people living nearby to fulfil their needs (Feener & Fountain, 2018;Ngin et al., 2020). Mostly, run by communities through charity in a decentralised manner, these institutions and organisations enjoy community trust and ownership (A. R. Cheema et al., 2014;Gianisa & Le De, 2018). This chapter presents an overview of religious views and approaches to disasters and why religious institutions remain an important stakeholder during and before disasters. Also, it covers some of the key challenges that hinder an effective engagement between religious institutions and large international and national humanitarian organisations.

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Section: Religious Views and Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disasters and Religious Institutions

Cheema¹

2021

Islam and Global Studies

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“…Seneca Vaught has argued that the racial injustices and economic and social responsibility for Hurricane Katrina have been obscured or covered over by references to the divine. The idea of an “Act of God,” he notes, “was rife with racial consciousness and economic incentive, deemphasizing the human tragedy and hopelessness wrought by the storm” (Vaught, , p. 3).…”

Section: Religious Responses To Extreme Weather In 19th‐ and 20th‐cenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acts of God: Continuities and change in Christian responses to extreme weather events from early modernity to the present

Hardwick

Stephens

2019

WIREs Climate Change

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Scholars, activists and others increasingly acknowledge that religion-whether conceived in terms of ideas, rituals or institutions-can help us cope with climate change and make sense of extreme weather events. Churches provide moral lessons in times of crisis, they spread awareness of climate change and, through community ritual, religious institutions can nurture a sense of collective responsibility. Much has been written on how contemporary faith groups have understood and acted on climate change and extreme weather events.Yet this literature is often not historically rooted and makes only superficial reference to the complex relationships between climate, extreme weather and religion in the past. Without an historical awareness we cannot understand the extent to which present-day religious discourses on the environmentfrom those articulated by "greener faith" advocates to fundamentalist skeptics-connect with how past societies understood climate and, more specifically, extreme weather events. A survey of the literature on Christian responses to extreme weather events, whether these be slow disasters (droughts) or isolated events (storms), suggests that histories that emphasize ruptures in attitudes to the natural world are problematic. Extreme weather events have long been regarded as omens and signs, and as divine judgments on sin. It is still thought that weather disturbances reflect disorders in human society. This literature survey introduces these continuities in Christian responses to extreme weather by ranging broadly across the English-speaking world from early modernity, though special attention is given to current work on Anglophone settler societies.

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The Ungod

Veprinska¹

2020

Empathy in Contemporary Poetry After Crisis

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An “Act of God”: Race, Religion, and Policy in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Disasters and Religious Institutions

Disasters and Religious Institutions

Acts of God: Continuities and change in Christian responses to extreme weather events from early modernity to the present

The Ungod

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