Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Thoughts on the tsunami

I must confess that my initial sadness about the tsunami devastation in the Pacific has been largely replaced with frustration about a number of things. Things like religious opportunists using tragedy as a vehicle for their callous pronouncements of God's judgement or their doomsday-anticipating calls for "wretched urgency." Or pietistic appeals to prayer that neglect to provide any sort of physical relief to those who are suffering. Or quibbling over "how much grief can honestly be shown" to those half a world away. I'm also frustrated by the fact that U.S. media seems to give celebrities affected by the tsunami an amount of coverage comparable to that given to the 100,000+ nameless (at least from the U.S. perspective) dead. Or that the reactions to foreign criticisms of U.S. aid (regardless of whether those criticisms are valid) have often been vengeful statements of "well, how would they like it if we stopped giving altogether!" or "how dare they complain -- don't they know we saved their tails in [insert name of war]!!" The list could go on.

But, following confession, the next step is repentance. So instead of being frustrated, I'm trying to put those energies to better use. I know many out in blogdom have already contributed to any one of the numerous worthwhile charities that are providing disaster relief. But if you haven't, may I commend the following organizations? Each is making efforts to display Christ's love by providing relief to those suffering from the tsunami.
And that's just for starters. So please consider helping out in some way.

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