The dominant religious reactions haven't been Bush-bashing or speculation about divine retribution but prayers for victims and overwhelming responses to the calls for volunteers.

The devastation of hurricanes and their possible higher meaning was part of a heated opening day discussion on God's involvement in daily life at New York's Union Theological Seminary. Speakers considered whether people placing God as the literal cause of the recent natural disasters in the United States is feeding a powerful political storm at home.

Bill Moyers, late of PBS and CBS television and the day's keynote speaker, cited the incredible devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and linked it with the Genesis flood. He noted that millions of conservatives believe the biblical teaching that God brought the deluge to punish human sin and also accept "God-ordered genocide" elsewhere in the Old Testament.

His point: It's dangerous to "read the Bible as literally true" and liberals must resist those holding that belief.

Others also used the Katrina moment to level religious criticism of President Bush's administration, among them the leader of America's National Council of Churches, a bishop in Bush's own United Methodist Church, and a taped statement attributed to al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"The country is not yet a theocracy but the Republican Party is," Moyers charged. "Democracy is in peril." He compared conservative Christian activists with Muslim terrorists who can cite "many verses in the Quran" as grounds "for waging war for God's sake."

America's "homegrown ayatollahs," he stated, are deceitful bullies whose "viral intolerance" undergirds "an unprecedented sectarian crusade for state power" and "political holy war financed by wealthy economic interests."