9/11 memorial service to be secular, Bloomberg announces

August 25, 2011 | Filed under: Action Alerts,Anti-Secularism,Islam,Islamic,Liberal + Islamist,Phillips, Judson | Posted by: Mike Daniels

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that the 10th anniversary memorial ceremony of the 9/11 terror attacks on the Twin Towers will include no clergy. Christian Dominionists are predictably horrified and outraged.

Rudy Washington, once a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, complained to the Wall Street Journal:

This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me. I feel like America has lost its way.

Back in 2001, Washington organized an interfaith memorial service at Yankee Stadium including clergy representing Roman Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, Protestants, Jews, Sikhs, and Greek Orthodox.

A Bloomsberg spokesperson stressed that, as in years past, the focus of the service at Ground Zero will be on the families of the fallen. As in all previous years since Bloomberg was elected, clergy will not be a part of the lineup.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik participated in Washington’s 2001 ceremony. He pointed out the difficulties in bringing in the clergy:

Who’s going to agree as to who the representatives of the faith will be? We have all the different groupings. If we have four denominations, what about the fifth denomination? . . . I don’t know how to make it possible for everyone to have a place at the table.

Common-sense thinking — recognizing that the deceased included members of nearly all faiths, as well as those with no faith — appears to be among Rabbi Potasnik’s, and Mayor Bloomberg’s, virtues. Bringing in a parade of Christian clergy would offend all non-Christians; bringing in Muslim clergy would be equally offensive to many Christians, some of whom equate all Muslims with the Saudi Arabian terrorists who murdered American civilians ten years ago.

Mayor Bloomberg has made a wise choice in keeping this government-sponsored event secular. A time of healing is not enhanced by introducing division.

Take Action: If you’d like to send Michael Bloomberg a note thanking him for respecting the Constitution and the sensibilities of ALL 9/11 victims and their families, you can use his contact page HERE.

What about the Christian Dominionists?

Common sense is not a problem for people like Christian Dominionist ideologue Judson Phillips, head of the monolithic 43,788-member Tea Party Nation website.*

Rather than exercise some common sense, Phillips would prefer to exercise his throwing arm . . . flinging feces as usual:

We are three weeks away from the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Now, you will not believe what has happened. It is Orwellian. The good guys are the bad guys now and the bad guys are perfectly welcome.

What is going on?

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decreed there will be no clergy at the 9/11 memorial.

The good guys are the bad guys? The bad guys are welcome?

So . . . Did Bloomberg say that clergy were bad? Or is Phillips insisting that the families of the deceased are the bad guys, since they are the ones who are “perfectly welcome”?

It’s a safe bet that Phillips read the very same Wall Street Journal article everyone else read. So he knows that there haven’t been clergy in the lineup at any 9/11 memorial service at Ground Zero under Bloomberg. This isn’t new, it’s a continuation of a multi-year policy of focusing the memorial on the families, not on providing a soapbox for clergy to pontificate. They each already have a place where they can do that.

But Phillips wants them front and center, in a government-sponsored event.

Phillips, we know, would of course want only Christian and maybe Jewish clergy. His words are predictable, insisting that the 9/11 attacks were religiously rather than politically motivated, and were in the very nature of Islam:

Islamists attacked America on 9/11 based on their religious hatred of America. All types of Americans died on that day. Many were religious people.

…

George Bush used to say that Islam had been hijacked. No, what we saw on 9/11 was pretty consistent with Islam since its creation.

Let’s not forget that Muslims, in the Christian Dominionist worldview, aren’t real Americans. Phillips drives this point home:

Our government refuses to identify our enemies as our enemies, treats our citizens as enemies and refuses to take meaningful steps to protect us or protect liberty. 9/11 falls on a Sunday this year. Let’s go to our churches on 9/11 (or synagogues on 9/10) and let real Americans remember the attacks.

Phillips even goes for bonus points, spouting off about the imaginary Liberal-Islamist Conspiracy — a favorite TPN subject:

Bloomberg is simply nuts. At the same time he is saying no clergy at the 9/11 memorial service, he is also saying that he has no problem with the 9/11 victory mosque being built two blocks away.

Bloomberg’s upholding the right of a landowner to build what he likes if it is consistent with current zoning means that Bloomberg is “nuts”? I think it means he recognizes the First and Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit staring him in the face if he attempts to bar the project!

Darn that Constitution!

Ah, but Tea Party Nation’s Christian Dominionists have an answer to this as well. Kevin Lehman insists that Islam is not protected under the First Amendment! (TPN has removed the article. Mr. Lehmann was thoughtful enough to cross-post it to his own blog.)

Shrieks Lehmann:

Lawmakers tell us Muslims have a First Amendment “Right” to build mosques, proselytize, and implement Sharia here. But that’s not what the First Amendment says.

It says . . .

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Now consider the verbiage very carefully. A lot of lawmakers and most Americans make the exegetical error that the First Amendment grants us rights. The First Amendment doesn’t grant any rights to anybody. All it does is prohibit Congress from making laws about religion, speech, the press, or assembly.

Therefore, Muslims do not have a First Amendment “Right” to build mosques, proselytize, and implement Sharia in our country.

What American lawmaker has said that Muslims may practice Sharia law in the US? Seriously, names, quotes?

Lehmann and those who share his Christian Dominionist worldview either ignore or have apparently never heard of the Fourteenth Amendment, whose Due Process clause effectively applies the Bill of Rights to all state and local governments. Like Lehmann, they are also happy to equate building a mosque and praying to whomever they choose with “practicing Sharia”. Instituting a separate set of laws based upon religion is not protected under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment; having a mosque and praying to Allah, Ba’al, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Yep, protected whether Mr. Lehmann likes it or not.

Are these people really a threat?

You may point out that Tea Party Nation has fewer than 45,000 members. You’d be correct! That’s not many.

But at present, even after the debt ceiling debacle (thanks for the Tea Party Downgrade, Tea Partiers!), 31% of Americans view the Tea Party movement favorably. That’s a substantial chunk.

And as you’ve read recently and last year, the Tea Party so beloved by nearly 1/3 of Americans is all about Christian Dominionism.

Let’s not forget that the anti-American vitriol spouted by the TPN trolls is virtually identical to that broadcast daily by Bryan Fischer, on his radio program on behalf of the two-million-member American Family Association.

This isn’t a tiny fringe group of wackos. It’s a really, really large fringe group of wackos who have the backing of some serious money and the ability to influence elections. They want to destroy America and turn it into a Christian theocracy, populated only by Christians — you know, “real” Americans.

That’s why they can’t bear to see a memorial service without their religion plastered all over it . . . regardless of the feelings of the victims’ families.

* – Did you know Tea Party Nation has nearly three times as many members as the Freedom From Religion Foundation? And that you can join the FFRF and support religious freedom by CLICKING HERE? Or that you can join Americans United for Separation of Church and State by CLICKING HERE? I’m just saying.

21 Responses to 9/11 memorial service to be secular, Bloomberg announces

ruth August 25, 2011 - 7:45 am

What a bunch of morons ruling America today…Idiots.. The clergy would not come to a mermorial service to proseltlyize but to comfort….No wonder God has brought America into judgment…we are too stupid and evil for Him to do otherwise…

- Ed September 8, 2011 - 2:10 am
  
  And yet, we keep electing them.
  
ed-words August 25, 2011 - 12:20 pm

The clergy can still attend and comfort those of their flock who want it. They just won't be a part of the ceremony.

- Nancy August 26, 2011 - 8:36 am
  
  ed-words they can always have services at their taxfree religious institutions.
  
Flashoftruth August 26, 2011 - 8:34 am

@ruth, which "god" and if it is yhwh, when does it get judged? his atrocities and logic and far more "stupid and evil" than Bloomberg's decision to do what is RIGHT for all involved. it saddens me that christians are more concerned with their religion and their own feelings than the victims and their memory. shame on your for your selfishness…but what else is new?

- Teahouse September 11, 2011 - 7:53 pm
  
  Flashoftruth. Not selfish. The clerics wanted to attend, yet Bloomberg's party insisted that they didn't. I'd be bothered too if I was invited years previous and was suddenly "uninvited". In my mind the memorial appeared more like a press release centered on politicians, rather than trying to provide comfort to the people. Contrary to your assertion, it's the atheists who threaten when anything religious in character is mentioned; turning a national tragedy into a political controversy. I'm certain Bloomberg would allow public prayer if were not for anti-religious interest groups creating an environment of political eggshells. Religious speakers console the afflicted and provide spiritual healing – what is grieving if not spiritual and contemplative? It should not be a time to make political statements. The Atheist League has continually misused 9/11 for political ends. This is exemplified by the leader of the Atheist League of N.Y., publicly boycotting the new memorial because it contains a Christian "cross" and relic from Ground Zero. Also, this article is terribly biased. This is all from a Canadian perspective..
  
  - Mike Daniels September 11, 2011 - 8:06 pm
    
    Flashoftruth. Not selfish. The clerics wanted to attend, yet Bloomberg's party insisted that they didn't. I'd be bothered too if I was invited years previous and was suddenly "uninvited".
    
    Teahouse: As noted above, in the article you didn't bother to read,
    
    A Bloomsberg spokesperson stressed that, as in years past, the focus of the service at Ground Zero will be on the families of the fallen. As in all previous years since Bloomberg was elected, clergy will not be a part of the lineup.
    
    Nobody was "suddenly uninvited". Clergy were not told they could not attend. They were told that they would not be among the featured speakers, just as politicians were told they would not be among the featured speakers. (The politicians were equally annoyed at not having another opportunity to address a captive audience.)
    
Nancy August 26, 2011 - 8:34 am

ruth your god does not and cannot judge. The faithful who have invented and maintain this god of fiction are the ones who judge and make life miserable for others. Look at the words you have used today and tell me if they come from your fictitious god or from you?

Nancy August 26, 2011 - 8:38 am

Mayor Bloomberg, Kudos to you!!!!!

Eric August 26, 2011 - 2:51 pm

This is beautiful. No proselytizing! No more marketing, inculcating, and forcing your religious stamp on everything! Your religions are the cause of these tragedies. Too many christians think the world belongs to them and they are as lost in that fairy tale as they are in their others. This is a perfect lesson for them. If clergy want to attend, they can, obviously, and take their seats where they belong with all real Americans on a day like this: in the rows commemorating and honoring the victims. It's about time we deflate the false "holier than thou" egos of religious hypocrisy. Mr. Bloomberg, you are a true hero!

Fabienne September 3, 2011 - 3:55 am

I thought I was looking for a non-biased article, but see I have found a antiChristian agenda website. You ought to consider changing the name of your website.

- Mike Daniels September 6, 2011 - 5:53 pm
  
  It's true, I'm against the Christian Dominionist agenda, which wants to establish a Christian theocracy in the United States. You would expect something different on a pro-secularist site?
  
  - GuyGuy September 13, 2011 - 11:09 pm
    
    I think Fabienne is simply looking for a "Fair and Balanced" site, without any agenda. You know- a source of unbiased news that can appeal to ALL white christian conservative Americans, regardless of creed and color.
    
    - Mike Daniels September 14, 2011 - 4:04 pm
      
      Maybe Fabienne should create and fund his own, then.
      
ed-words September 3, 2011 - 8:09 am

Any suggestions,Fabienne? How about "Theocratic News Daily"?

Mack September 6, 2011 - 5:30 pm

Liberals have turned bitter and angry. Their new mantra is : Tollerance for all ( except white christians). Let's call it what it is…religious bigotry.

- Mike Daniels September 6, 2011 - 5:52 pm
  
  How is it religious bigotry to have no clergy at a memorial service focused on the families of the deceased?
  
- ed-words September 6, 2011 - 7:30 pm
  
  Poor persecuted Christians. Their churches' perks are under attack.
  
- Nancy September 7, 2011 - 11:18 am
  
  No Mack this is not religious bigotry this is seperation of church and state and the fact that more and more people do not believe in the christian religious truths and do not want to have to listen to prayers and sermons at public gatherings. Mostly we do not want our children to be exposed to religious truths at a time when they are trusting and should not be brainwashed with other peoples delusions.
  
Jim September 10, 2011 - 7:03 am

Appeal to belief is out of place and not asked for at a memorial of an event where people of many faiths, as well as those not of any faith, were killed by those encouraged by their faith. Much better to have a memorial where we are brought together solely on our own solidarity and empathy and shared sadness. To retreat into the niche of your faith is to disconnect yourself from others who might share your pain.

ed-words September 12, 2011 - 7:28 pm

Dan Barker's Sept. 12 blog excerpt (FFRF.ORG) "And with what authority does the President of a secular nation, at a nonreligious event, presume to administer a biblical edict from a god of just some of the citizens?"