Nobody’s There - Really!
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
We’ve just had a small tropical storm run through Key West. Most of us ignored it and stayed home watching the rain and rather enjoying the peace and quiet.
During really bad weather, however, we shutter the house and stay home. Our buildings are on high ground, we have our own generator and water supply so we feel relatively safe. Those who are not safe - the homeless, the elderly and the housebound and who cannot evacuate - normally rely on the social services provided by the churches. But during a hurricane nobody’s there! They close the meals services, shutter up the churches and nearly every pastor runs out of town. It’s left up to people like my partner and I, the local gay bar staff and the drag queens to go around with a first aid kit and hot soup. So it comes as a surprise to me that Gov. Matt Blunt of Missouri wants to organize churches to act as disaster relief centers.
They might have the buildings, they may have the kitchens and they probably want the kudos… … but they run like the chickens!
What puzzles me most though what they pray for. They ask that the hurricane passes over their house/town/area code and that someone else gets it instead of them.
And then? They run.
Year after year I’m sickened by the Christian approach to disaster. When they say they are going to be there for the community - nobody’s there!
