Georgia Governor Prays for Rain?

I was raised to believe in the Bill of Rights - to live by it and everything for which it stood. One of those tenants being the separation of church and state, that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience. I thought this to be sacred. But this week I have found a glaring example of its hypocrisy in motion. A ceremony that took place, tarnishing the golden words of our founding fathers, and solidified in my mind that there is no longer solid rule in this country, but moreover flaccid interpretation of our of social contract with the state.

On Tuesday morning, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue stepped up to a podium outside the state Capitol and led a solemn crowd of several hundred people in a prayer for rain on his drought-stricken state.

Please note: meteorologists said there was a slight possibility of rain on Tuesday, but less of a chance of precipitation was predicted for the rest of the week.

His prayer began, “We’ve come together here simply for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm.”

To pray up a storm. Wow. A servant of the people wants to pray up a storm. Now given he doesn’t identify what type of storm that would be, God could serve up any type of storm – including another “Desert Storm.” Did Perdue think of that? If you’re going to blur the lines, at least be specific. That’s what The Secret has taught us. Ask for a mansion, or a Porsche, not just “to be happy.” Perdue may have just prayed up the huge storm in Chile!

I’m well aware that Georgia is in the midst of an epic drought. I know that the public water supplies are drying up. Perdue has ordered water restrictions, launched a legal battle against the release of water from federal reservoirs and appealed to President Bush. But to lead the state in a public prayer?

His best line? “It’s time to appeal to Him who can and will make a difference,” Perdue told the crowd after which a choir provided a hymn.

Now I become concerned: if it doesn’t rain in Georgia, does this mean we have no God? Or has God decided that Georgia has already used its portion of water for the year? Or that maybe Georgians need to learn what it is to feel thirsty again, or not have green lawns, or to stop swimming or… this takes us down an endless path that no public servant should cause us to ponder.

Which is exactly why we have separation of church and state: so I don’t have to struggle with unanswerable philosophical life questions if I don’t want to, and in order to keep politicians from invoking God as a scapegoat so they have to handle political problems their own damned selves.