Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
No seriously, he did. A day after Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue led prayers for rain, there were huge storms in Northern Georgia that dumped an inch of rain. Perdue declared:
"We're thankful for the rain and hopefully it's the beginning of more. ... Frankly, it's great affirmation of what we asked for."
Of course, this might be a slight problem:
The rainfall was likely not enough the ease the drought, forecasters said."The ground probably sucked it all up," said Vaughn Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. "The ground is so dry, I seriously doubt if any of the lakes rose any."
So apparently, God is just a tease. This may be an even bigger problem:
In Tennessee's Marion County, the roof of a Baptist church was heavily damaged in the storms, said Jeremy Heidt of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Three children were hurt by flying glass and were taken to hospitals, said Heidt.
Maybe there was a gay person at that church or something.
Comments
They have to get in the fish tank and sing. God is clearly demanding more sacrifices, burnt offerings, and that sort of thing before he'll end the drought.
Posted by: Moopheus | November 16, 2007 9:52 AM
Next is hearsay but the other problem with this is that he scheduled the prayer only after the forecast predicted rain.
Posted by: Who Cares | November 16, 2007 9:52 AM
(splash) And did those feeeeeeeet in ancient tiiiiiiiimes....
Posted by: NJ | November 16, 2007 10:02 AM
. . . . Walk upon Georgia's mountains greeeeeen . . .
Posted by: Greg B | November 16, 2007 10:13 AM
We had a drought here, too. Pretty much killed off most of the corn, soybean and tobacco crops in Ky and Ind. It did finally rain, but too late for the farmers.
Conclusion? God either hates farmers or he wants them to repent of their ways and fish instead.
Seriously, if you wait long enough, it will rain. Promise. Prayers have nothing to do with it. My former gov, Ernie Fletcher, is a dolt, but at least he didn't publicly take credit for his prayer bringing the rains.
Posted by: wheatdogg | November 16, 2007 10:18 AM
When God said it's a sin to take your Saviour's Name in vain
That applied to silly selfishness like public prayers for rain.
If mortal I can see through this, then God can ascertain
The inherent self-aggrandizing political campaign.
When the pastors, priests, and politicians joined in one refrain
Asking God to drop some water on this bit of his domain
(Having checked the weather channel--they're not totally insane--
To determine if their gamble had a decent chance at gain)
Then the Governor emoted--see his face contort and strain,
Till the casual observer might suspect he'd popped a vein
In a deep, important crevice in some structure in his brain;
And then one by one the ministers would join the daisy-chain,
With their practised voices, sonorous, impeccable sustain,
The sort of voice that speaking from a pulpit can attain,
And spoke until each had his turn, and no one did remain
Then waited for Almighty God their pleas to entertain.
Their aim was true, but God's was not--I really should explain--
A quarter inch in Georgia, but there's flooding up in Maine.
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2007/11/rain-in-plains-stays-mainly-away-from.html
Posted by: Cuttlefish | November 16, 2007 10:35 AM
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 6:5-6
Posted by: Skip Evans | November 16, 2007 10:48 AM
Old joke:
A farmer gets lucky and wins the big Lotto jackpot. At his press conference, a reporter asks him "What are you going to do with all your millions?"
Farmer answers "Guess I'll keep farming till it's all gone."
Posted by: T. Bruce McNeely | November 16, 2007 10:50 AM
Posted by: llDayo | November 16, 2007 10:59 AM
Well, God works in mysterious ways, right?
Posted by: Bourgeois_Rage | November 16, 2007 11:16 AM
So, I wonder what they'd do if someone were to claim to be praying for the drought to continue?
Posted by: Dave S. | November 16, 2007 11:24 AM
Of course, the rain was forecast before they prayed. Timing is everything.
Posted by: George | November 16, 2007 11:59 AM
In Tennessee's Marion County, the roof of a Baptist church was heavily damaged in the storms, said Jeremy Heidt of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Three children were hurt by flying glass and were taken to hospitals, said Heidt.
Those kids got off easy. Just wait until they make fun of a bald man.
Posted by: Bruce | November 16, 2007 12:05 PM
"I guess either the Mayans or Aztecs had the right gods and they demanded some human sacrifices for the tinkle they dropped on Georgia."
I, too, was thinking that it might have been Tlaloc that sent the rain and not Yahweh.
Posted by: Elaine | November 16, 2007 12:17 PM
If God's in charge of the weather, nice job he's doing in Bangladesh these days...
Posted by: Doug | November 16, 2007 1:02 PM
God is such a big tease!
Posted by: tacitus | November 16, 2007 1:19 PM
God owes me £40. He droped the temperature here below -2c last night - froze the lead-acid bank in my loft.
Posted by: Suricou Raven | November 16, 2007 1:53 PM
Humans probably weren't the only species praying for rain.
I'd guess God sent rain sufficient to help the beetles.
After all, we know they're his favorite genus.
Posted by: Hank Roberts | November 16, 2007 3:16 PM
WRT Cuttlefish above:
So if those practical Mainers wanted relief from their floods, would they (a) Pray for it to stop raining; (b) Pray for the Georgians to stop praying for rain; (c) both (as a sort of Pascal's Wager)
Also: Did anyone check the weather in the Georgia that used to be part of the USSR? I'll just bet those folks in Atlanta forgot that they're not the Center of the Universe.
Posted by: Poxy Howzes | November 16, 2007 4:17 PM
Maybe this is (their) God's way of saying "There! Happy now?!" Or it could just be well-documented natural weather cycles. Your call.
Posted by: Monty | November 16, 2007 5:24 PM
Oh, it is to laugh!
Where I live in Southern Cal, it's not unusual for us to get precipitation that evaporates before it even reaches the ground. All we get out of 98% of all Spring/Summer weather systems (can't call 'em storms) is slightly higher humidity readings.
Amateurs!
Posted by: twincats | November 16, 2007 7:03 PM
Last night it got very dark. I missed the light, so I prayed to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that the light would return. Lo and behold! When I awoke this morning the world was awash with a lovely subdued but all-encompassing light. Thank you, FSM, for your blessings upon your humble servant!
Posted by: Rob Ryan | November 17, 2007 8:21 AM
You're right about the Beetles but they are an Order not a Genus. They're 250,000 species strong--way more than the number of all other species of all other animals put together.
Posted by: athEIst | November 17, 2007 10:36 PM
So many people mock God about making rain. Maybe we need to realize who we are in the universe to realize that we are dependent on Him! I am in this situation just as much as anyone else with the drought and maybe we need to humble ourselves and seek the Creator.
Posted by: Cheree | November 25, 2007 2:03 PM
I agree with Cheree. Instead of ridicule and complaining about what the Gov. of Georgia did, when he prayed, we should be thankful to God especially during this time of Thanksgiving.
The bumper sticker that said God Bless America should read "America,Bless God." He has already blessed us.
Posted by: Don | November 26, 2007 3:07 PM
Here are a couple of possible explanations for what is going on with God during this time. I found them in the Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28812
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28484
Posted by: soboco | November 26, 2007 3:44 PM