Texas dispatch — If there were a god to pray to about rain

As I'm sure every good liberal or skeptical/secularist friend of mine knows, as does everybody in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has declared three days of prayer (where's the accompanying fasting, Rick?) in response to massive wildfires in an extremely dry state.

If I saw reason to believe such a deity existed, here's the humble words of intercession I would offer instead of Perry's:

Dear God:

Please grant Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the great bulk of Republican members of the Texas Legislature, and Texas' Republican Members of the U.S. House and Senate — along with neighbors in Oklahoma, in similar dire weather straits and of like-minded Republican leaders — the use of their brains.

Specifically, open their minds to the reality of the scientific study of climate change and global warming. While I do not tie all of the current weather problems to anthropogenic climate change myself, I recognize it as a factor and recognize that in the years to come, due to it, more Texas springs will be as hot and dry as the one we have now.

Along with that, dear god, grant Gov. Perry and all these other Republican leaders the humility to recognize and accept that the United States has no special divine blessing, no special divine protection from self-inflicted problems and no "exceptionalism." Grant them the further humility to recognize that the Republican Party is not always right, that Texas doesn't have magic answers on economics

Grant Gov. Perry and these others a spirit of penitence as well. Bring them to mind of the sins committed for greed, rapaciousness against the earth that they believe you created and more. And, with this spirit of penitence, bring their penitence into action — actions of changing their evil ways.

If that not be enough, oh god, you can more forcibly change human wills at times.

Or, as you are portrayed in what Christians call the "Old Testament," you can harden human wills as the last act before visiting your divine vengeance upon the unrepentant.

If that needs be your action, so be it, but, remember the innocent progressives, as Abraham asked you before you visited Sodom and Gomorrah.

Amen.