The Et Cetera Post

Focus on the Family Prays for Rain During the Democratic Party Convention

Before the Democratic National Convention, the conservative evangelical christian organization “Focus on the Family” came out with a video which put forward the idea of praying for rain (I would link to the video but it looks like Focus on the Family had YouTube remove it). The thinking was that if God were to send a torrent, it would make it impossible for Barack Obama to deliver his speech before 75,000 people at the open air stadium. As it turned out, the convention was not rained-out. The weather was actually ideal and more people saw Obama’s speech on television than watched the finale of American Idol. But does this mean that God didn’t answer the prayers for rain?

As it turns out, it is the Republican convention that will be delayed, truncated, or canceled due to weather. With Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, McCain and his people are reconsidering their plans. After all it would not look too good if the Republicans were all bashing Obama while Gustav bashes Louisiana. Not to mention that all this is happening on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina–a major symbol of the incompetence of the Republican-led federal government.

I don’t want to make light of what could be a very serious disaster. It looks as though Gustav could be worse than Katrina in terms of the intensity of the storm. That said, what are we to make of the prayers for rain? Does God answer politically-motivated prayers? Do the Focus on the Family people think this is the case? If so, what do they have to say about the apparent back-firing of their request? After all it is the Republican convention that is being affected by the weather, not the Democratic one. I just wonder what it is that they may say about the sadly ironic turn of events. I’m guessing not much since they have attempted to remove all evidence of the video from the internet.