The Lower Ninth Ward is still wrecked. Houses are uninhabitable. Extremes include houses that floated away from their foundations and a house resting atop an overturned automobile. Stores and schools remained abandoned. The population is absent.

I indicated in the October 2005 issue of The Positive Community that we must distinguish between Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The hurricane was an act of God, whether specifically directed by Him or just part of the earthly weather system that He created. The Katrina Aftermath, however, was manmade. The massive flooding, destruction, suffering, and death resulted from federal, state, and local government neglect and misplaced priorities.

When governments failed Katrina Aftermath victims last year, church congregations and others helped through volunteers and donations. Now, with so little done by earthly governments during the past year, the church should act again, this time to lead and catalyze massive rebuilding and repatriation.

Such church action has already begun. American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York is attempting to recruit delegations to partner with Habitat for Humanity to build seven homes in Katrina-damaged Gautier, Mississippi. But the movement must expand.

Native New Orleans congregations, including those that are still in the city and those that have evacuated, should coalesce for the task. Congregations throughout the U.S. should bolster them with workers and donations.

We must emphasize people more than buildings, concentrating on the poorest and worst-off Katrina Aftermath victims. Jesus said, “…whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Rebuilding the city while ignoring the plight of the poor is unacceptable.

The church coalition should monitor government and private rebuilding plans, insisting on needed modifications and implementation.

Minimally damaged public housing should be rehabilitated for repatriation of former residents and other low-income families. The government should scrap its current plans to redevelop and repositioned projects as “mixed-income” (i.e. replacement population) housing. We must expose and challenge the wrongs of the powerful – those who would exploit the Katrina Aftermath to expel the poor and import folks whom they like better.

Separately, we must pray and work to heal our own oppressed people’s self-destructive pathologies. High crime rates have long been a New Orleans reality, which reportedly caused a crime increase in Houston after New Orleans evacuees arrived there. To help remedy this, churches that can should develop strong ministries to men, with eyes toward re-directing destructive energy into kingdom-building and nation-building.

Concurrently, capable congregations should develop schools that educate genders separately. The historical and continuing success in New Orleans of St. Augustine, a Catholic intermediate and high school for boys, most of whom are black, illustrates the power of educating young men in an all-male environment. “Macho” peer pressure can be channeled into academic accomplishment. When we toured St. Augustine we were impressed by the young men’s discipline. The number of black leaders that have graduated from St. Augustine is impressive. I suspect that all girls’ Christian schools achieve similar results.

Blacks should invest brainpower, skills, sweat, and money into rebuilding New Orleans. We should urge blacks to fulfill Mayor Ray Nagin’s requirement that large businesses seeking tax breaks and other incentives subcontract to 50 per cent local businesses and 35 per cent women- or minority-controlled businesses whenever possible.

We should protect black ownership of homes, land, and businesses. Should eminent domain be invoked for the Ninth Ward, black homeowners, not banks that foreclosed since the Katrina Aftermath, should receive the compensation.
On another front, we must resolve contamination issues healthfully.
We must also overturn corruption wherever it exists and curtail political patronage in appointments to Levee Boards, requiring, instead, technical expertise, sound engineering, and accountability.

Finally, congregations and other groups must organize neighborhoods for evacuation in the event of another hurricane, rather than relying on governments that have already demonstrated disinterest. For Kingdom people, the government is on Christ’s shoulders. The church should be the head and not the tail in rejuvenating New Orleans.

Let not the magnitude of the task scare us into the slave mentality corner of, “They would never let us do that.” Instead, “Be strong and courageous.” God’s arm is still long enough to heal New Orleans. Our success would glorify Him.