Following up an item from last week, Georgia is in the midst of an awful drought, and state officials are running out of ideas to deal with the area’s water shortage. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) responded by organizing a multi-denominational prayer service, in which state officials and clergy would collectively ask The Man Upstairs to turn on the water works.
Bowing his head outside the Georgia Capitol on Tuesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue cut a newly repentant figure as he publicly prayed for rain to end the region’s historic drought.
“Oh father, we acknowledge our wastefulness,” Perdue said. “But we’re doing better. And I thought it was time to acknowledge that to the creator, the provider of water and land, and to tell him that we will do better.”
Yes, in the 21st century, we have a state’s chief executive bargaining with God for rain. (The governor didn’t say, “If you give us rain, we’ll be good,” but he came close.) Perdue implicitly conceded that the state has been negligent in its conservation efforts — his administration saw this coming, but decided not to pursue more stringent conservation measures — but apparently wants God to give Georgia another chance.
Perdue said after the event that Georgians have not done “all we could do in conservation” and that the drought was an attempt by God to “get our attention.”
It’s an interesting theological perspective, which is quite common among Christian conservatives — when bad things happen to us, it’s a sign of divine punishment. It’s why we saw so many in the religious right blaming events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina on Americans — as they see it, God is supposed to protect us from disaster, so if disaster strikes, it means God wants us to suffer and we must deserve it.
Of course, in the case of the drought in Georgia, the situation is obviously dire, and a state-sponsored prayer service might not cut it. Can animal sacrifice on the state House steps be far behind?
I should note that there were plenty of Georgians who didn’t exactly have faith in the efficacy of yesterday’s prayer service.
More than a few people who attended seemed skeptical that prayer would end the drought.
Lance Warner, 22, a history student at Georgia State University, smirked as members of the crowd stretched their arms to the heavens and cried “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”
“You couldn’t make this up,” he said. “You can’t make up for years of water mismanagement with a prayer session. It’s lunacy!”
About a block way, more than 20 protesters — some carrying placards saying “All hail Sonny Perdue” and “Is it raining yet?” — joined a rally organized by the Atlanta Freethought Society. The vigil, they said, violated the principle of separation of church and state. “The governor is exceeding his constitutional authority,” said Ed Buckner, an atheist and treasurer of the group. “He has no right to set up prayer services on behalf of the people of Georgia, particularly not on the grounds of the state Capitol.” […]
[A] significant number of Georgians appear to be uncomfortable with such prayers. Throughout the day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s blog filled with recriminations from readers who said Perdue should plan, rather than pray.
“God is not an ATM machine you can go to and get whatever you need whenever you ask for it,” said one reader. “Stop developing, seed the clouds, think of some other useful solution.” Another said: “I’m praying for a new GOVERNOR!!!!!”
On a more serious note, Gil Rogers, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, noted that relying on divine intervention, instead of concrete policy steps, makes matters worse. Water conservation efforts need immediate attention from state officials, and they require a long-term approach.
“We shouldn’t look at it as ‘Once the rains come we’ll be fine,’ ” he said. “We’d all like to see rain, but this doesn’t get us any closer to sustaining water management in Georgia.”