Religion, science and Hurricane Katrina

In his address to the nation from New Orleans last Thursday, Bush repeatedly invoked religion and religious organizations. The maudlin appeals to God went beyond even the president’s stock-and-trade sermonizing.

Speaking of those who had welcomed in evacuees, he emphasized the role of “religious congregations.” He spoke of the “armies of compassion,” a term that has been used with increasing frequency by the administration as a pseudonym for Christian fundamentalist organizations. These armies, Bush said, “give our reconstruction effort its humanity.” He asked people to donate “to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and other good charities and religious congregations,” deliberately putting an organization associated with religious ideology before the secular Red Cross.

Bush declared that the devastated region would be rebuilt because of “a core of strength that survives all hurt, a faith in God no storm can take away...” He concluded with the declaration that the country would rebuild as it did after earlier natural disasters. “These trials have also reminded us that we are often stronger than we know, with the help of grace and one another,” he said. “They remind us of a hope beyond all pain and death, a God who welcomes the lost to a house not made with hands.”

Bush declared Friday to be a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. During much of the day, the television airwaves were saturated with coverage of religious services and vigils. This was followed by Bush’s weekly radio address on Saturday, which was punctuated with references to “God’s grace,” “God’s comfort,” and the “strength of the Almighty.”

Significantly, the official day of prayer came on the same day as a new report in the journal Science documenting the correspondence between an increase in the number of severe hurricanes and global warming.