The images streaming in from Haiti look like scenes from Dante’s Inferno. The scale of the calamity is unprecedented. In many ways, Haiti has almost ceased to exist. The earthquake that will forever change that nation came as subterranean plates shifted about six miles under the surface of the earth, along a fault line that had threatened trouble for centuries. But no one saw a quake of this magnitude coming. The 7.0 quake came like a...

Erik Reece is writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, teaching environmental journalism, writing, and literature. He published a book last April entitled, An American Gospel: On Family, History, and the Kingdom of God. On May 13, 2009, he did an interview on National Public Radio with Terry Gross on the program Fresh Air about his book. What he said is in large part why I am giving this message the way I am. It...