Via Americans United we get this great story from the Tulsa World about a prayer group organized in Miami, Oklahoma for the sole purpose of mobilizing at the threat of bad weather and praying it away:
On Monday, when it appeared that Mother Nature would unleash nasty weather, city officials in Miami turned to a heavenly ally.
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.”
Longan came up with the idea after Miami was repeatedly battered by severe weather in recent years. There have been near-record floods, and crippling ice, snow and wind storms.
It was enough to make even the most hardhearted get religion.
The idea was embraced by Huey Long, who became Miami’s city manager two years ago. His view was that it couldn’t hurt and might actually help, though some have questioned whether the city might be challenged on the issue of church-state separation.
Longan said: “You need to always be prepared in both the secular and spiritual sense. You don’t know what will happen. The people in this group think God’s got to do something because he’s on the line now.”
Longan said nine churches in Miami and one in Afton are participating in the prayer group. Several denominations are represented.
She said the prayer group’s efforts appear to be working in that Miami has not been hit by a severe storm since the group’s inception.
