Exactly. Show God some respect. He's a very busy deity. Specifics please, people!
He needs color coded charts, graphs, maps of pin-pointed areas, and nominations for people to blame for the mess in the first place. That is the only way he can do exactly what you are asking.
The Muslim community claimed their prayers brought the rain. A small portion of the burning area get ma small amount of rain that although good to see won't really do anything to change the situation. Great how everyone takes credit for the hits and ignores the misses. If the Church was serious about helping maybe they could dig into the fund that Australian members contributed to and do something useful.
Beg to differ about Ca. educational system. Prop13 has more to do with our schools than hedonism. Meanwhile, two more storms barreling in for more rain and snow.
The group narcissism of cults never ceases to amaze me. Oh yes, one little period of self-imposed abstention from the abundance of the standard American diet is such a potent sacrifice. An offering of one's growling tum and hangry mood... that's soooo moving. So much more worthy of godly attention than, say, the 3.1 million children under the age of five (WHO statistic) who have gone so long without adequate nutrition in the year that they die of it.
If you eat so well that going without for a day feels like such a big deal that God owes you a favor, I don't know what to say except perhaps they should see what they can get from God by going on a real hunger strike.
Call me skeptical, but what you want to bet the area presidency looked very closely at meteorological and weather forecasts prior to their "fast for rain" invite?
"Fast" really is the key word here. The rain didn't come fast and strong to quench the fires. Nothing to see here Mormons....move along now and pay your tithing to the billion dollar pot in sunny Salt Lake.
(sarcasm on) I am sure the benevolent brethren will be spending some of those billions to help the saints and gentiles in Aussie land. It's coming folks...the help from the Mormon church is coming soon.
Two things cause fires like this. The underbrush was not cleared due to lack of controlled burns in the winter season and arson. You don't get that many fires caused by lightning alone. Something or someone is lighting them. dry brush can be ignited from sparks from dragging trailer chains or hot exhaust systems on vehicles and of course people being careless with fire or lighting a fire for fun or revenge.
Australia used to have controlled burns during the winter season to prevent massive fires like this. They stopped doing it for all sorts of reasons. If they still did controlled burns the fires wouldn't be this bad.
I used to live in a subdivision that was surrounded by thick forests. The local forrest service people warned us that our subdivision could be in danger if the under brush in the forrest wasn't cleared. We had a home owners association meeting about hiring or organizing volunteers to clear the brush. It was decided to do nothing because the liability insurance was too high.
A few years later I was driving home from work and I noticed a bunch of people were clearing the brush out. They had a wood chipper. It turns out it was the power company. High tension lines ran next to our subdivision and they were clearing the fire danger to protect their power lines from fire.
So there's the problem. In the modern western world we can't get anything done because of regulations and fear of liability. I'm sure Australia deals with the same problems. The result. Huge fires.
So the mormons are claiming that their fasting and praying last Sunday resulted in rain falling in Australia? That is nothing but a load of mouldy old fly-blown bovine excreta!!!
The reality is that our BOM (Bureau of Meteorology, not the book of mormon), predicted that we would get cooler conditions and light rain on the 5th and 6th of January and TSCC latched onto a pretty sure thing.
I'll bet my bottom dollar that if the BOM had predicted rain for the 13th, their fast would have been a "special" one on the 12th.
Maybe if this apology for a Christian denomination wanted to convince the world that they really were the one true church on earth, then Rusty, Wendy, the famous lighted pen and the mormon god (they don't deserve capital letters), would come up with some real predictions and some practical help.