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If you haven't already written your check out to the American Red Cross ... consider just what these people awoke to -- here's an email I got that made me think what if this were me:

"I have a girlfriend who worked (noticed I said worked) for a ship builder in New Orleans. The business is gone!!!!!!
Girl, when I talked with her Monday (prior to the levy breaking) we were joking about her getting paid this week. She is a salaried employee, but she was saying that it didn't matter if she had direct deposit if they couldn’t get in to work Monday morning to key in the payroll information. She is like me and lives from paycheck to paycheck.
Anyway, who knew that it would have been as bad as it is.
Folks down there who have a few pennies in the bank can't access because the banks are gone.
When I called this morning, my friend was in search of gas for her car!!!!

"But city officials were seething with anger over what they called a slow federal response to a disaster that may have killed thousands."

What are we as a country not doing right for red-blooded Americans to be living under these conditions?

HOLY SPIRIT BLOWS AGAINST THE WIND, by Frank Moore, Director of Congregational Mission,First Lutheran Church, Greensboro

Watching TV on Tuesday, FLC member Nonnie Booher saw the pain of Hurricane Katrina victims. "I couldn't believe it. They didn't have food or water or anything," she said.

She had an idea - "the Holy Spirit nudged me" - and called Pastor Charlie. "Pastor Charlie," she said, passionately, "how come we're not having a prayer service for those poor people in Louisiana?"

"Holy Trinity, in partnership with Episcopal Relief and Development, is assisting in the relocation of displaced persons from the region of the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The 20th anniversary of the O. Henry Festival comes during the 350th year of Jewish life in this country. The festival's 2005 guest author is writer Eli Evans, whose seminal
work, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, which has been
revised and was reissued this spring (North Carolina University Press) to
coincide with the regional celebration of Southern Jewish history.

Evans will speak at 4 p.m., Sept. 11, at Temple
Emanuel on Jefferson Road. The presentation is free and open to the
public. After the presentation, the traditional fiction awards banquet
will be held after the presentation, at 6:30 pm at the O.Henry Hotel, where Evans is also the guest speaker. The cost is $35. For more information, call Greensboro College 272-7102, ext. 239.

Evans, whose father was the first Jewish mayor of Durham, believes that his
book can teach us a great deal about both American and the South today as
well as the importance of religious pluralism, a bedrock American
value. The O. Henry Festival felt that Evans would be a particularly
important speaker for citizens of the Triad, whose history has been shaped
by so many important Jewish families.

Here's an urgent plea from the Rev. Mark Sills, executive director of FaithAction International House:

"We do not have the luxury of time. Refugees from the New Orleans area are already in our city, and more may be arriving at any moment. We need to mobilize the faith communities of our county to respond in a caring and effective manner. To that end, we will have a planning meeting to discuss how to recruit and train "Care Teams" that will be assigned refugee families to work with over a period of time. The Care Teams will seek to help families that have decided (or have no choice but) to stay in Guilford County for a significant period of time to make a successful adjustment to life in our neighborhoods. They will help with transportation, job contacts, navigating our various systems of services, etc. This will be so very important in helping these traumatized families begin to feel secure, comfortable, and cared for at this crucial time in their lives.
We will start developing a database of religious congregations and

In Massachusetts, a section of the state constitution allows voters to overturn court decisions. So a proposed ballot initiative that would ban gay marriage passed a key hurdle Wednesday when the state attorney general ruled it would be permitted under the state constitution.
Do you think issues such as same-sex marriage should be legislated by the courts or the people?

This week's Five on Faith, which runs on Saturday's Religion page, asked readers about a relative or older person who taught them a lesson or lessons about faith, spirituality or human kindness, through word or deed.
Who was that person in your life?
I got this from Katharine Wilson of Ruffin:

"My Grandmama, Ollie Strader Washburn, long since in the real city of Heaven, did all of the above for me and more.

This just in from the United Way:

Greetings Community Leaders,
The United Ways of Greater Greensboro and Greater High Point have worked this week to devise a Community Resource Guide for Katrina evacuees, not just those who are expected en masse, but also for those who have come to the Piedmont on their own. While this is nowhere near an exhaustive list, it does provide information newcomers might need to know on an immediate basis. We envision that access to additional information will be aided by the Piedmont Neighbors Care Teams. The area United Ways are more than happy to assist as needed in addition to the regional 2-1-1 web and telephone information service.

I don't know that I would have found Westside Fellowship Church, a church of about 200 members, meeting in an elementary school gymnasium/auditorium, had it not been for the work it has done with Hurricane Katrina survivors. It's not a church with a press release for everything it does.

Here's food for thought from pastor Mike Mitchener, whose congregation's work is at the heart of a multi-community effort to help displaced Katrina survivors (Check out Monday's front page for "The Little Church that Could."):

"Jesus said if you give a cold cup of water in my name you will not lose your reward," said Mitchener, a volunteer football coach at Western Alamance High School. "Jesus was saying if you give a cup of cold water in my name it will not go unnoticed. If he's keeping up with the cold water, he's counting cups and mattresses and forks and everything.

"Jesus also said, 'If you see a need and you have the ability to meet that need and you don't meet it, then shame on you -- that's the Mike Mitchener paraphrase," the pastor told me recently.

I haven't seen the movie because I'm a scaredy cat. The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the new Sony picture, was number 1 this weekend -- I'm sure it was popular with the horror crowd.
Were the Catholics right? Could this really happen?

At one time or another he's been named one of the top 10 political newsmakers in the nation by Newsweek magazine, one of the 50 future leaders in the country by Time magazine and one of the 20 most influential leaders of the baby-boom generation by Life magazine.

Yet, you either love him or ... strongly disagree with him. Or, you no longer side with him.

Ralph Reed, political strategist, lobbyist and former executive director of the Christian Coalition, will speak on "The Role of Faith in the Renewal of America," 8 p.m., Sept. 15 at Guilford College.

Today: "As we entered the neighborhood I had not been prepared for what I experienced. The surplus fish from the fish distributors on the coast had been pushed, by the surge, 3 miles inland. This neighborhood, buried beneath countless trees, had thousands of rotting fish."

BACKGROUND: Daniel Stoner of Greensboro was planning to leave for a vacation in Switzerland on Sept. 12. Then came the images from the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. So Stoner scratched his trip and began making plans to do something to help.

The next morning, he was in a Red Cross training class in Winston-Salem, preparing to help in the Katrina disaster area. In the next few days he was in Mobile, where he's rented a small house for the week. He's sharing it with another person from Texas.

"I've contacted the Salvation Army there and I'll be doing various jobs the first two days, then I'll be in Biloxi," Stoner said in the days before he left. "My main goal was and is to not add to the strained relief effort in the region. I'm doing a little up front work and suppling my own lodging, transportation and food. I feel very fortunate and grateful to be able to help.

"I went to the Dollar Store here and purchased crayons and coloring books for the shelter in Mobile. A lady gave me a $20 bill yesterday and asked that 'I put it to good use.'

Read on for daily updates from Stoner's vantage point (you can email Stoner at daniel@crestlandhouse.com):

Our Lady of Grace hosts the "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance
for the Victims of Hurricane Katrina," 12:15 p.m., Sept. 16, 2005.
The church is at 2205 W. Market St.,Greensboro. For more information, call (336)274-6520, extension 10.

"This is our opportunity
to honor the memory of those who lost their lives,
to provide comfort and strength to the families of the victims,
and to help ease the burden of the survivors,
by praying and continuing to perform acts of service." Our Lady of Grace.

So, what should we use instead of "one nation under God?"

Interesting conversation going on at Off the Record, based on columnist George Will's rules for avoiding poverty.
Number 2: "Graduate from high school, don't have a baby until you are married, don't marry while you are a teenager."

What's wrong with that? Comment here or there.

I admit I probably missed the most interesting part of Ralph Reed's visit to Guilford College Thursday, as part of its Year of Spirit and Spirituality. The speech started late and I was going to have to leave early anyway to meet my deadline. Fill me in: I didn't even get to stay for the question and answer session-- and I know hundreds of you were there.

Why did the Day of Prayer for Katrina victims get such a 'ho-hum' response?

"At least there'll be an atheist voice in the mix."

What would we have done without people like Simon Wiesenthal?

If God controls the weather, then how should we interpret, interpret, interpret, interpret hurricanes Katrina and Rita?

As someone said to me, I can't believe that no one will have to answer for this.

I've always respected the men and women who end
up with all the hard work.

She compared Pope John Paul II to a Muslim fundamentalist. Karen Armstrong, whose appearance is part of Guilford College's Year of Spirit and Spirituality, is at War Memorial Auditorium, 8 p.m., Monday. Tickets $10.
If you had a question for her, what would it be?

Would you be concerned?

Some have tagged her the "runaway nun."

She wrote a tell-all book about the seven years she spent in a convent. Excrement showed up in her mailbox.

Karen Armstrong once labeled herself an atheist. She said she developed a relationship with God only after walking away from him.

Would it be so bad for children to hear about a variety of theories on how the Earth came to be?

A leading Jewish organization is condemning the Southern Baptist Convention for using a group of "messianic" Jews — people who have already converted to Christianity — in its evangelism, according to the Associated Press.
Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman said the effort is offensive because the Southern Baptists are using Jews who have converted to Christianity "to go after other Jews."
I'm not saying I agree or disagree -- but isn't this what many Christians view as their mandate?

The Bible in two hours.

This reminds me of Nazi Germany.