{"id":2594,"date":"2011-08-27T11:02:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T17:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2594"},"modified":"2011-08-27T11:02:31","modified_gmt":"2011-08-27T17:02:31","slug":"demanding-clergy-be-included-in-911-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2594","title":{"rendered":"Demanding Clergy Be Included in 9\/11 Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Should clergy intentionally be excluded from participating in the NYC ceremony marking the 10th\u00a0Anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks on our nation?\u00a0 That, I would submit, is the wrong question to ask.\u00a0 However,\u00a0after reading news reports that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that no clergy will participate in this year’s ceremony, one could reasonably conclude that the Mayor has lost his mind (at least politically speaking).\u00a0 Now granted, there is much evidence without the 9\/11 clergy kerfuffle to conclude that Mayor Bloomberg is a petty politician who wants to impose a nanny state mentality on New Yorkers (the obsessive regulation of salt comes to mind), but I digress.\u00a0 I love New York\u00a0City<\/a>, but I’m glad that I don’t live there — at least while Bloomberg is Mayor.<\/p>\n

When I first heard about the so-called “clergy exclusion,” I wasn’t really outraged.\u00a0 I’ve come to expect this kind of thing, particularly from someone like Mayor Bloomberg.\u00a0 I just saw the Mayor’s actions as part of a continuing assault on faith within our nation.\u00a0 Nothing really new to see here.\u00a0 Let’s move along.<\/p>\n

However, some conservative Christian organizations are not moving on quite so fast.\u00a0 In fact, several have been quite vocal about this “out-of-the-blue” exclusion of clergy from the 9\/11 ceremony this year (full article here<\/a>).\u00a0 Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, said of the Mayor’s decision:<\/p>\n

“At a Ground Zero commemoration for the families of victims, Mayor Bloomberg is\u00a0 allowing the presence of politicians and presidents, but no pastors or prayer.\u00a0 The mayor of course will be there, but politicians weren’t then — and are not\u00a0 now — nearly enough.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania Senator and current Republican Presidential candidate (who I like, but who has absolutely no chance), also called out Mayor Bloomberg for his egregious decision:<\/p>\n

“I urge Mayor Bloomberg to reconsider his unfortunate decision. It is important\u00a0 to allow clergy to attend and take part in the memorial intended to bind the\u00a0 wounds of a still healing nation,” Santorum said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To listen to both of these men,\u00a0some\u00a0might think that Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to exclude clergy on the 10th\u00a0Anniversary of 9\/11 somehow\u00a0reversed\u00a0a long-standing tradition of having clergy included in the 9\/11 ceremony each year in NYC.\u00a0 That was my thinking.\u00a0 Perhaps that was your thinking as well.\u00a0 Turns out, that thinking is not entirely correct.\u00a0 According to Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna, “none of the other nine services included clergy.”\u00a0 <\/em>Say what?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Whether one agrees or disagrees\u00a0with the exclusion of clergy\u00a0from the\u00a0previous nine ceremonies, to now argue that not having clergy in the 10th Anniversary ceremony is the\u00a0equivalent of “excluding clergy” is non-sensical.\u00a0 It makes about as much sense as\u00a0politicians who scream that reducing the future\u00a0rate of growth in a particular government program is the same as actually cutting funding for that program.\u00a0 Neither of these arguments are reasonable ones to make, but make them people do.<\/p>\n

I can understand why Tony Perkins, who heads a multi-million\u00a0dollar “non-profit” would want to gin up controversy.\u00a0 It might help with fundraising.\u00a0 Perfectly understandable why a third-tier candidate like Rick Santorum would want to stir the pot.\u00a0 Maybe it will get him noticed before it’s too late (which I think it is).<\/p>\n

If clergy had been included in the previous nine ceremonies and were now excluded in the 10th Anniversary ceremony, then a strong argument could be made that Mayor Bloomberg and others\u00a0are\u00a0exhibiting\u00a0an anti-faith animus.\u00a0 And, while that may indeed be true, using\u00a0the continuing exclusion of clergy will not be very persuasive in making the case.<\/p>\n

Now, if Mayor Bloomberg told participants that they could not talk about their faith or mention how God may have comforted them and their families in the aftermath of this horrific attack, then we indeed would have something to rumble about in the Big Apple.\u00a0 But, as far as I know, no such constraints have been placed on individuals who will be participating in this year’s 9\/11 ceremony.<\/p>\n

Tony Perkins, Rick Santorum and others can demand that Mayor Bloomberg reverse course and include clergy for the first time in this year’s 10th Anniversary ceremony.\u00a0 That is certainly their right.\u00a0 Should clergy have been included in previous ceremonies?\u00a0 Personally, I think so.\u00a0 Should the government be required<\/strong> to include clergy in this year’s\u00a09\/11 ceremony on September 11, 2011?\u00a0 Personally, I think not.\u00a0 What say you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should clergy intentionally be excluded from participating in the NYC ceremony marking the 10th\u00a0Anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks on our nation?\u00a0 That, I would submit, is the wrong question to ask.\u00a0 However,\u00a0after reading news reports that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that no clergy will participate in this year’s ceremony, one could reasonably conclude…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,22,34,35],"tags":[1331,1333,1329,1339,3370,1335,1334,369,1337,462,1338,1330,717,1332,3392,1336,891,992],"class_list":["post-2594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom-of-religion","category-government","category-politics","category-religion","tag-10th-anniversary-of-911","tag-911-attacks","tag-911-ceremony","tag-big-apple","tag-christianity","tag-clergy","tag-clergy-excluded-from-911-ceremony","tag-faith","tag-family-research-council","tag-ground-zero","tag-marc-lavorgna","tag-mayor-michael-bloomberg","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-religion","tag-rick-santorum","tag-september-11","tag-tony-perkins"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-FQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2594"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2604,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}