Crossing the Bridge
I read yesterday that during the chaos after the hurricane, a number of people, hungry, thirsty, and dying at the New Orleans Convention Center, tried to cross the Crescent City Connection (bridge) to the high-and-dry West Bank, where they hoped to find food, water, and, perhaps, help.
They were met by Gretna Police who halted them with bullhorns and gun shots over their heads. It wasn't about race, or cruelty, according to the police. It was about law and order, since there were probably looters among the crowd. It was about Gretna not having the resources to support this huge mass of people. "If you wasn't there," said the police chief from Gretna's neighbor Westwego, "shut your mouth, because you don't know."
A while back, I remember that a West Bank church tried to install a large lighted sign saying "JESUS". The church neglected to check the city ordinances, however. As it turned out, the display was much larger than the allowed sign size. There was some uproar about an un-Christian nation, and First Amendment rights. Bumper stickers were made which said, if I recall correctly, "Jesus is not too big for the West Bank."
Now, the Bible says that when we clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and release the captives, we do so to Christ himself. And when we don't do these things, we deny clothing, food, and freedom to Christ himself.
It seems that Jesus is too big for the West Bank after all.
Not that everyone there feels that way. Not that those who stopped the march to freedom did so because they were cruel, thoughtless, or un-Christian. They were frigtened, and they might have had justification. There might very well have been a few assault rifles mixed in with the hungry, thirsting captives of New Orleans.
In 1965, the year Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans, a group of mostly black people tried to march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. As they tried to cross a bridge out of Selma, they were assaulted by police. It was called "Bloody Sunday." While the confrontation in Gretna was nowhere near as violent (and there weren't TV cameras there), nor as blatantly racist, I cannot get over the fact that yet again, a crowd of mostly black people crossed a bridge for freedom, only to be met with gunfire.
"If you wasn't there," said the Westwego police chief, "shut your mouth."
"Were you there," says the Christian hymn, "when they crucified my Lord?"
They were met by Gretna Police who halted them with bullhorns and gun shots over their heads. It wasn't about race, or cruelty, according to the police. It was about law and order, since there were probably looters among the crowd. It was about Gretna not having the resources to support this huge mass of people. "If you wasn't there," said the police chief from Gretna's neighbor Westwego, "shut your mouth, because you don't know."
A while back, I remember that a West Bank church tried to install a large lighted sign saying "JESUS". The church neglected to check the city ordinances, however. As it turned out, the display was much larger than the allowed sign size. There was some uproar about an un-Christian nation, and First Amendment rights. Bumper stickers were made which said, if I recall correctly, "Jesus is not too big for the West Bank."
Now, the Bible says that when we clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and release the captives, we do so to Christ himself. And when we don't do these things, we deny clothing, food, and freedom to Christ himself.
It seems that Jesus is too big for the West Bank after all.
Not that everyone there feels that way. Not that those who stopped the march to freedom did so because they were cruel, thoughtless, or un-Christian. They were frigtened, and they might have had justification. There might very well have been a few assault rifles mixed in with the hungry, thirsting captives of New Orleans.
In 1965, the year Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans, a group of mostly black people tried to march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. As they tried to cross a bridge out of Selma, they were assaulted by police. It was called "Bloody Sunday." While the confrontation in Gretna was nowhere near as violent (and there weren't TV cameras there), nor as blatantly racist, I cannot get over the fact that yet again, a crowd of mostly black people crossed a bridge for freedom, only to be met with gunfire.
"If you wasn't there," said the Westwego police chief, "shut your mouth."
"Were you there," says the Christian hymn, "when they crucified my Lord?"
Comments