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"Putting Faith In Call For Rain" The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When you pray for rain, says Rockefeller "Rocky" Twyman, be specific.

Earlier this month, the former Atlantan flew south from his Rockville, Md., home to help organize a prayer vigil and gospel concert for drought relief at the Berean Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Atlanta.

Hundreds showed up. And their prayers were answered. After the service was over, heavy showers came down — on the green fields of Rockville, Md., that is.

"I guess we prayed for rain and it came up here," Twyman said from his home up north. "It was raining when our plane touched down."

Nonetheless, said the public relations executive and musician, "I think the governor is on the right track."

That would be Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has asked Georgians to pray for rain today, and at lunchtime will convene with various religious and political leaders on the steps of the state Capitol to seek divine intervention in the state's months-long drought.

Desperate times, it's said, call for desperate measures. And with Lake Lanier growing grass instead of bass, we're definitely in desperate times.

Randy Mickler, senior minister at Mount Bethel United Methodist Church in east Cobb, approves of the governor's plan.

"I do not think we have to come together to convince God of anything, but like any parent, God wants to hear from his children," said Mickler. "We pray for rain every Sunday."

Like endorsing motherhood and apple pie, endorsing prayer seems a pretty safe bet across party lines.

But not 100 percent safe.

"This is a ridiculous, illogical exercise even for people who are deeply religious," said Ed Buckner, treasurer for the Atlanta Freethought Society. "I would think they'd be offended."

Buckner, an atheist, is helping plan a "polite and peaceful protest" on the Capitol grounds today, and expects members of both the Council on Secular Humanism and Freedom From Religion Foundation to attend. He objects to the governor, in his official capacity as an elected representative, endorsing a belief system.

He also thinks God, if there is one, already knows we want rain.

"Does the God that Sonny Perdue believes in have to be informed about the drought?" Buckner asked. "Doesn't he know? Or have the important people not appealed to him yet?"

Perdue has invited representatives from a variety of faiths — Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu — to participate in today's vigil.

Rabbi Steven Lebow, of Temple Kol Emeth in east Cobb, approves of this ecumenical approach, because no single ceremony could embrace the multitude of beliefs represented in the state.

Kol Emeth's preschool students will do their part in today's supplication by assembling outside their own school at lunchtime to pray for precipitation.

Lebow points out that Judaism, like Christianity and Islam, is a faith born in the Middle Eastern desert, and prayers for rain are built right into the Jewish calendar, in the month of Heshvan (that would be now, late October to late November.)

There are, to be sure, subtle questions, even among believing Christians, about the purposes and efficacies of prayer.

Jean Pierre de Caussade, an 18th-century Jesuit, wrote of "abandonment" to God's will, saying that sanctity lies in accepting life as it is.

De Caussade's rationale, says Atlanta theologian Ben Johnson, could be summed up with the question: "If God was going to set out a meal, why we would we say 'No thank you'?"

Yet the Bible urges Christians to ask for what they want, added Johnson, retired professor of spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary and author of a shelf of books on prayer.

"Ask," said Johnson, "and it shall be given."

But if we pray and it doesn't rain, does that mean the answer is no? Not necessarily, said a handful of Atlanta thinkers.

"The answer is at some point it will happen," said Lebow. "Maybe we're just not ready for it yet."

It certainly doesn't improve the odds of success if the prayer takes place on the Capitol steps, said Lucian Lamar Sneed, chairman of the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee and a Methodist.

"God's not impressed by rain dances," Sneed said. "He is impressed by the sincerity of the prayer."

No prayer, it seems, could be more sincere than that of Brian Thornton, an "amateur reformational theologian" from Stockbridge who wrestles with questions of sin, drought and prayer on his Web site, Voice of the Sheep.

Thornton also happens to run a business called Yard Party Events, which rents inflatable play structures — moonwalks and such — for birthday parties and outdoor festivals. If Thornton is overly successful with his prayers for rain, he could drive himself out of business.

But that's God's prerogative, he said.

"If he doesn't want me to do it anymore, I won't do it anymore."

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Originally posted by botankus
Adam, how much time per day do you spend looking for news stories?

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Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
A better question would be, "How much time do you spend per day looking for stories that portray Christianity in a negative light?"

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Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
A better question would be, "How much time do you spend per day looking for stories that portray Christianity in a negative light?"

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Originally posted by Adam_PoE
I don't find these stories, they find me.

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Originally posted by Adam_PoE
I don't find these stories, they find me.

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Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
That's probably true. It's not hard to find anti-theist blogs.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
That's probably true. It's not hard to find anti-theist blogs.

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Originally posted by Devil King
do you pray for rain?

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Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
That's probably true. It's not hard to find anti-theist blogs.

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Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
No, we get enough precipitation here.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Zeal Ex Nihilo
A better question would be, "How much time do you spend per day looking for stories that portray Christianity in a negative light?"

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Originally posted by Devil King
Would you pray for rain?

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Originally posted by Bardock42
To be fair, Christians all over your country seem bent on behaving in the most ridiculous manners though.