So is God blessing America yet?

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
--Proverbs 16:18

When calamity befalls a wise people, they search their souls and repent; but a wicked and foolish nation exalts itself.
-- ChurchTrek 1:1

Two weeks ago America suffered its worst natural/unnatural disaster. In a few days we'll commemorate the worst terrorist attack to happen (yet) on American soil. Will we get the message Katrina delivered -- or will we totally miss the point, as we have with respect to 9/11?

The 9/11 attacks ought to have been an alarm. And indeed, for a few moments following that day of infamy we awoke halfway, sat up in bed, and rubbed our eyes. But we did not fully awaken.

True, a lot of self-righteous anger was ginned up against some Arabs who, we were told, were the sole culprits. (Not likely.) True, a couple of countries were attacked and occupied. But there was no introspection, no reappraisal of foreign policy or domestic corruption.

Not for one second did the majority of ordinary people -- let alone the political class -- connect sowing with reaping, actions with consequences. Never was repentance urged, only blind vengeance.

Never was humility enjoined; rather, the officially approved emotions of "patriotic" pride and humanistic hubris were stoked to feverish levels.

Never were we directed to the scriptures, which tell us that natural disaster and foreign invasion alike are judgments for national sins.

Instead, we came to worship at the altar of nationalism, believing the flag could cover our transgressions. Secure in the knowledge that none of it was our fault and that our fearless cowboy leader would rustle up the posse, get the bad guys and hang ‘em high, we hit "snooze," turned over and went back to sleep.

But Katrina and the ensuing government-created disaster might, just might, be the wake-up call that 9/11 wasn't. We can't make it go away by bombing some other country. Waving made-in-China plastic American flags won't make us feel better. There’s no bin Laden, no Zarqawi, no Saddam, on which to blame Katrina -- not unless al-CIAda has gotten its paws on some weather manipulation technology. (Such technology exists and is highly developed and very powerful, but remains chiefly in the hands of powerful nations such as Russia and the U.S.)

Since this disaster cannot be blamed on an external "Them," it may yet breach a key psychological levee which heretofore has protected us from a Lake Pontchartrain of unpleasant truths about ourselves. It may yet sweep away the whole conceit that we and our few allies are the one island of "Good" in a sea of "Evil," that all our violence is the work of God while theirs is terrorism. The winds of Katrina may yet blow away our blinders of self-righteousness and allow us to see America as she really is.

* * *

Israel shall call unto me, My God, we know thee.

Israel hath cast off the thing that is good; the enemy shall pursue him ...

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

(Hos. 8:2-3, 7)