trump's AG Nominee is Second Cabinet Pick to Have Publicly Prayed for Rain
BY JESSICA WAPNER ON 1/19/17 AT 2:47 PM
In November 2007, Sonny Perdue, then Governor of Georgia, made headlines when he stood on the steps of the state Capitol in Atlanta to lead a prayer for rain. Georgia was in a severe drought, and Atlanta’s main water supply, Lake Lanier, was at record low levels. “Our Father, we acknowledge our wastefulness,” he said in front of a crowd of hundreds. “We have come together, very simply, for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm.”
His plea was praised by many desperate Georgians whose land and livelihoods were suffering. But it was also criticized for blurring the lines between church and state. “The governor can pray when he wants to,” said Ed Buckner, then-treasurer of the Atlanta Freethought Society, a nonprofit atheist organization. “What he can’t do is lead prayers in the name of the people of Georgia.”
That occasion made news again yesterday with President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nomination of Perdue as agriculture secretary, Trump’s final cabinet pick. Perdue is not the first cabinet nominee to have publicly prayed for rain. As governor of Texas in 2010, Rick Perry—Trump’s nominee for energy secretary—called for a three-day prayer during a severe drought. “I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers...for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life,” Perry wrote in what he called a “days of prayer” proclamation.
A plea to the heavens wasn’t the only measure Perdue took in 2007. He declared an emergency, restricted water use and tried to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from using reservoirs in the state. When the Corps refused, continuing to pump water out of Georgia to Florida and Alabama, Perdue threatened to sue. He also pushed a water conservation bill through the Georgia Legislature in 2010. Water wars among the three states continue, exacerbated most recently by the worsening drought in northern Georgia.
http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-ag-nominee-second-cabinet-pick-have-publicly-prayed-rain-544829
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