Anybody else mildly offended that #ATXCouncil starts with a prayer invocation that blames the drought on sin and insufficient prayer?
— Dan Keshet (@DanKeshet) May 15, 2014
I’m completely baffled, and offended by this. Anyone who has jumped aboard the knowledge train about water in Texas, and doesn’t see why this is a bad thing, just hasn’t thought it through. If you believe in God, I can’t see how you can pray for rain. The amount of rain needed to make a real difference would be gargantuan.
A major news item in the last 24-hours has been the announcement by the TCEQ that “Dozens of Texas communities have less than 90 days of water“. The report was carried far and wide, and included a video segment, see the Shreeveport Times version here.
Then there was last weeks’ HBO Vice. It carried a 15-minute segment called Deliver Us From Drought, on the drought in Texas. Unsurprisingly for a show with Bill Maher as Executive Producer, it included a focus on the religious types Praying for rain.
We should already have a permanent ban on watering lawns, even with reclaimed water. There are plenty of reasons why that reclaimed water could be used elsewhere. However, how anyone who is a Christian can pray for rain is beyond me. For it to rain enough to make a difference, we are going to need to a major hurricane. How can anyone pray for something that would cause misery and possibly death to thousands of people?
Perpetuating the myth that God can solve this problem, just means that the people, religious or otherwise are being denied real information.