Jeff Box has resigned as pastor of Suburban Baptist Church in New Orleans East to move to a church in Walton County, Georgia in the Atlanta suburbs. He writes, “We have been a part of one of God’s miracles here at Suburban. We leave at a time when the church is physically more beautiful than ever. We leave at a time when the potential for community growth and outreach is as bright as when the church was first planted almost half a century ago. We leave with no enemies and with no animosity. In fact, we can truly say that we love everyone at Suburban and are sure that they love us as well.”

Jeff writes that when he came to this church four years ago, God made it clear that his work would be that of a transitional pastor. The plan now is for Jeff’s co-pastor, Jeffery Friend, to become the sole pastor of the church. Readers may recall that prior to Katrina, Friend pastored Hopeview Church in St. Bernard Parish, which took on great depths of water and oil and whose building is now housing volunteers working in that struggling and sparsely populated parish. Friend moved into New Orleans with the members of his congregation he could locate, and they began worshiping with the mostly-Anglo Suburban Baptist Church. My impression is that in recent months, the congregation has become predominantly African-American as the community was, is, and shall be. Therefore, this is a natural and positive development for Brother Friend to assume the leadership. He’s a fine man and we wish him and Suburban well.

New Orleans needs more psych beds, the mayor says. The lead paragraph in a front-page article reads:”Frustrated with the volume of mental patients being thrust upon local police departments and emergency rooms, Mayor Ray Nagin on Monday sent a letter to the governor demanding that the state restore psychiatric beds that were lost when Charity Hospital closed because of Hurricane Katrina.”

On Monday, 191 students graduated from Warren Easton Senior High School in New Orleans, the first complete year together for this group since Katrina. Sitting in the audience were actress Sandra Bullock and her husband Jesse James. Bullock had donated $100,000 to the school to purchase band uniforms and surprised the students by showing up for their graduation. She told the teens, “You are the miracle that came out of this.”

(A little name-dropping here. I don’t recall meeting Sandra Bullock, but she was at a wedding I performed some years back. Her godmother–Dr. Ann McAllister–was a member of our church in Mississippi, and was marrying John Mitchell, a terrific Methodist gentleman and banker in Starkville. Ann ran a travel agency for years and handled all of Sandra’s travel arrangements. They’re good people.)

We reported here about the full-page ad in Sunday’s paper calling for prayers for Sheriff Harry Lee who is receiving an experimental chemotherapy regimen for leukemia in Palo Alto, California (not in San Diego as I said). Evidently, the article and prayers stirred something up–I’m not sure what. The headline in Tuesday’s paper reads: “Ad full of prayers for Lee is personal.” Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard admits to being one of the two persons behind the ad, the other being Michael O’Brien, a businessman. Aaron says they selected representative leaders from the various religions and called them to ask for brief prayers which they could circulate in some public way. Nothing should be read into the fact that none of the clergymen were African-American, he said. Locals note that Sheriff Lee’s relationship with the Black community is frequently strained.

Mr. Broussard, an active Catholic layman who was mayor of Kenner in 1990 when I arrived in town, and who participated in my installation service, frequently begins his speeches at religious events by announcing, “I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour.” He says of the prayer advertisement and the motivation behind it, “Sometimes the most meaningful things you can do for people are best seen by God alone, not the world. I’d like to leave it at that.” He added, “I love Harry Lee.”

John M. Barry is a local author who wrote the best-selling book “Rising Tide” a few years ago, dealing with the 1927 Mississippi River flood. These days, he’s also secretary of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East–which I think is the entity that resulted from the consolidation of the myriad of levee boards last year. The point being that he knows whereof he speaks. A column he wrote for the Washington Post was reprinted on Tuesday’s op-ed page.

The heading: “Nation exploited our coast; now it’s the nation’s job to fix it.”

Barry says all the debate over the last 20 months about protecting Louisiana from another deadly hurricane has been conducted without any real understanding of the geological context. He wants Congress and the present administration to know 6 facts that explain why it’s in the national interest to protect this state. (My synopsis of his points follows.)

1. The Gulf of Mexico once stretched all the way north to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but sediment from the Mississippi River created 35,000 square miles of land southward to the present mouth of the river. This land stretches from Texas to Mississippi, but several human endeavors that are benefiting other states are endangering Louisiana by undermining this fragile land.

2. In the old days, riverbanks would collapse into the river and provide a main source of sediment. That’s not happening any more since engineers started paving the banks with riprap and even concrete. Consequently, the sediment is not being replenished.

3. To prevent sandbars from clogging the mouth of the river, engineers built jetties (think: man-made waterways) which extend 2 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. This gives cities like Tulsa, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh the ability to build ports with access to the ocean, which helps the nation’s economy. Problem is, the jetties speed the flow of the river’s water far out into the Gulf, keeping it from dropping its sediment along our coasts to rebuild the barrier islands and wetlands. These days, the jetties drop the sediment (which is rich topsoil) off the continental shelf.

4. In the same way, levees that protect our cities from flooding also prevent the river from overflowing and dropping the rich sediment along the farmlands. When we lived in the Mississippi Delta, farmers there spoke of having the richest farmland in the world. It was actually the topsoil of the nation, brought there by the overflowing Mississippi. That process has been shut down, thanks to the levee system. (Yes, I’m aware the river is flooding in Missouri at this moment. Not sure why, whether there are no levees there or the river is overflowing them. That’s tragic for the residents but great for the farmland.)

5. Since 30 percent of the nation’s domestic oil and natural gas production comes from offshore Louisiana–think about that, America!–the industry has created 10,000 miles of canals and pipelines through our wetlands. The next time you fly into New Orleans, look out your window and notice these straight lines drawn through the marsh, criss-crossing each other and extending for miles and miles. These canals connect the saltwater of the Gulf with the fresh inland water, the salt kills the grass which holds the soil in place, and the water erodes the ground. That’s why this coastline is gradually disappearing.

6. Unless something is done, the land loss will continue and we will become more and more vulnerable to storms coming in from the Gulf. The populated areas are at risk, the port system could be destroyed, and energy production could be jeopardized.

Got your attention yet, America?

The point being: this clamor you hear from Louisiana’s political leaders about rebuilding the wetlands down here is not just a state trying to get attention or money. It’s in the national interest.

This was lengthy and only the strong of heart have persevered through it, but we’re counting on you staying informed.

Oh, this is interesting. The Fox network will be filming a police series for the Fall lineup that is based in our city and based on the NOPD. Not just a “Cops” kind of program, but a real story with professional actors. Called “K-Ville”–as in Katrinaville–it will deal with two cops, one a native trying to rebuild his personal life as well as his hometown, and the other a military veteran who joins the police force to help the city. Here’s hoping it will be something positive.

Dr. Jerry Falwell died today. At age 73, he was much too young to exit from us. No one was neutral about him, that’s for sure. Sometimes his mouth got him in trouble, but overall, those who take their Bible seriously are indebted to him for standing up and speaking out for what the Scriptures call “the old paths.” He will leave a large vacancy in the discussion of righteousness for this nation.