Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Miami turns to prayer group to 'dissipate' severe weather, OKLAHOMA, not Florida



http://image-photo.weather.com/C1/ED/full/C1EDEAF6-9221-492F-BC11-96ADDC1B5D13.jpg
photo from Weather.com

Tulsa World newspaper
http://tinyurl.com/288otav

Miami turns to prayer group to 'dissipate' severe weather

They called on the city's Emergency 911 prayer group for divine intervention.

That group was activated at 8:35 a.m., when city officials learned that the town faced a good chance of being hit by a severe thunderstorm -- and possibly worse -- Monday night.

''We don't pray for it to hit anybody else," said Glenna Longan, Miami's emergency management coordinator. "We just want it to dissipate so nobody is hurt."


From the blog of Americans United for Separation of Chruch and State:
http://tinyurl.com/24ktdvd

It’s unclear from the World story if any tax money is being spent on Miami’s prayer group. I certainly hope not. I also hope the town has an actual plan for storm readiness that goes beyond lining up local churches to pray away storms.


I’m not terribly fond of the idea of government at any level forming prayer groups for any reason. Church leaders and congregants are quite capable of determining what to pray for, how to pray and when to pray. They don’t need direction, guidance or help from the government.

Miami officials should rethink their plan of sponsoring or promoting prayer. If they don’t, the next thing to rain down on them might be a church-state lawsuit.

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