Their efforts might pay off. The National Weather Service says there is a 40 to 50 percent chance for rain across much of north Georgia tomorrow.

While such public prayer vigils may turn heads in other parts of the nation, they're mostly shrugged off in the South. Turning to the heavens for help is not only common but sometimes even politically expedient.

Perdue won't be the first governor to hold a call for public prayer during the drought gripping the Southeast. Alabama Governor Bob Riley issued a proclamation declaring a week in July as ``Days of Prayer for Rain'' to ``humbly ask for His blessings and to hold us steady in times of difficulty.''

And Perdue's move certainly hasn't provoked much opposition. The loudest critic has been the Atlanta Freethought Society. The group had a few dozen protestors at the vigil.

`Christianity has more of a place in the culture here than in some other region,'' said Ray Van Neste, a professor of Christian studies at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. ``And it's only natural, in a way, for the public to pray for rain.''

``The governor can pray when he wants to,'' said Ed Buckner, who is organizing the protest. ``What he can't do is lead prayers in the name of the people of Georgia.''

Political heavyweights outside the U.S. are known to occasionally plead to the heavens for rain. In May, Australian Prime Minister John Howard asked churchgoers to pray for rain in hopes of snapping a drought that has devastated crops and bankrupted farmers Down Under.

In the U.S., public expressions of faith are often discouraged as a breach of the separation of church and state.

Thomas Jefferson, for one, resisted calls for a federal day of prayer. But he was an exception. From George Washington, who declared ``a day of prayer and thanksgiving,'' to Harry Truman, who established a National Day of Prayer, American politicians have not been shy about associating themselves with petitions to the Almighty.

With rivers and reservoirs dropping to dangerously low levels across the region, a prayer rally at a high school football stadium in the Georgia town of Watkinsville drew more than 100 worshippers last week, and a gospel concert dedicated to rain attracted hundreds more two weeks ago at an Atlanta church.

``We need to try a different approach,'' said Rocky Twyman, who organized the concert. ``We need to call on God, because what we're doing isn't working. We think that instead of all this fussing and fighting, Gov. Perdue and all these others would come together and pray.''

A Baptist, Perdue has several times mentioned the need for prayer along with water conservation as the crisis has worsened. Over the summer, he participated in a day of prayer for agriculture at a gathering of the Georgia Farm Bureau.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)