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Reviewed by Cedrick D. Bridgeforth, Senior Pastor of Crenshaw United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California, and author of Thoughts On Things That Make You Think and Prayers to Help You Pray About Them. The Sky Is Crying: Race, Class,and Natural Disaster edited by Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan Cheryl Kirk-Dugan and several other theologians, ethicists and religious practitioners have removed the veil that has covered and blurred many perceptions and realities around the world, with particular emphasis being placed on poverty, racism, and classism in times of natural disaster. Although Duggan is not the first to present such an exposé, this is a new approach to applying laws that govern and necessitate poverty and thereby allowing the aftermath of disaster to be exacerbated because of underlying and neglected truths that have existed for generations. Mañana Is Too Late to Love is just one essay that revealed how the clash of race, gender and class came to bear during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The natural effects of a hurricane of Katrina’s magnitude are devastating upon the land and people of any country or region. However, when a Katrina hits communities that are already in economic ruin and sub-par living conditions, the effects are tripled, particularly in areas where racism has prohibited progress and inclusion of the oppressed residents. Mañana calls every participant in government, church and community to love individuals through their oppression. Every participant must work as a liberationist to free theology and all ideologies to embrace the truth and depth of every human being’s worth, regardless of gender, race, or economic status. Every chapter takes a page from our global history and rereads the occurrences, keeping balance between the “Augustinian or free-will argument…and the Irenean argument, where people are born in God’s image and likeness…” with the capacity to reflect the Creator’s essence. Every chapter is steeped in a particular theological or ethical tradition that raises questions about perceptions of the masses versus the reality of those who have little or no voice in the broader cultural discussions. Issues of safety before and after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center are only pages away from the ethical debates about genocide in Darfur. Questions about theodicy are at the heart of the stories of disaster and recovery after the Southeast Asia tsunami, which leads to a variety of ethical questions about human-induced disasters at Hiroshima, Dresden, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl. Although every contributor goes to great length to share a variety of angles on each aspect of whichever natural disaster or case study that served as the centerpiece of his or her essay, each one leaves several questions for discussion in an academic setting, clergy discussion group, or lay study group. However, given the caliber of contributors and the depth of each essay, this book is an academic textbook suitable for any ethics or contemporary theology class and should not be considered in isolation from other world events not covered in this text, nor should it be read by anyone who is not prepared to dialogue with other human beings about its implications and call upon every individual to act justly before and after disaster strikes anywhere in the world.
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