Atheists say ‘prayer doesn’t work’ in mocking Cabinet official who prays for rain

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday “that he was praying to the Almighty to make it rain” during comments he delivered “at a White House briefing about drought conditions across the country,” Politico’s Byron Tau wrote.

“I get on my knees every day," Vilsack said. "And I’m saying an extra prayer now. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.”

Vilsack’s faith-affirming statement didn’t sit well with atheists.

“One day after Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters he gets on his knees every day and prays for rain, the Council for Secular Humanism — a leading atheist group — accused the Obama administration of sending the wrong message to farmers caught in one of the worst droughts in decades,” USA Today’s Aamer Madhani reported.

Per BuzzFeed, Council for Secular Humanism executive director Tom Flynn said via press release, “For a Cabinet official to recommend prayer as a solution or call attention to his own devotions may violate the Constitution's prohibition against establishment of religion. Most important, though, is that prayer doesn't work. But if you want to test the power of prayer yourself, consider this. Apparently Secretary Vilsack's been praying for rain every day; how's that working out?”