But what if God turns out to be a tax-and-spend liberal?

Anybody wondering how the Georgia General Assembly plans to deal with the steep decline in state tax revenues in the ongoing economic downturn -- a decline that has already forced furloughs of state employees and could soon force dramatic cuts in government services -- could have learned a couple of Sundays ago that divine intervention isn't off the table.

Newly minted Republican state Sen. Buddy Carter -- a former state representative who won a special election last month to fill former state Sen. Eric Johnson's Savannah-area seat (Johnson resigned to run for governor) -- said during his Nov. 22 swearing-in ceremony in Savannah's Wesley Monumental Methodist Church that in these tough times, "we (presumably including his legislative colleagues) should turn to God for strength and wisdom." He reprised the sentiment later in his speech, saying "let us look to God for strength and guidance."