Now this, from WSJ via Fox Nation:
Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.Contrast Bloomberg's intransigence with regard to allowing clergy to attend the 10-year memorial ceremony for 9/11 with his intransigence relative to 70% of Americans who do not want the Ground Zero mosque built in the shadow of where the twin towers once stood. Bloomberg continues to support the right of the Islamist-connected Cordoba Initiative and imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, to build the Ground Zero mosque.
Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration, said he's outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," said Mr. Washington, who has suffered severe medical problems connected to the time he spent at Ground Zero. "I feel like America has lost its way."
City Hall officials, who are coordinating the ceremony, confirmed that spiritual leaders will not participate this year—just as has been the case during past events marking the anniversary. The mayor has said he wants the upcoming event to strike a similar tone as previous ceremonies.
City Council Member Fernando Cabrera, a pastor at New Life Outreach International, a Bronx church, said he is "utterly disappointed" and "shocked" by the event's absence of clergy. When the terrorist attacks occurred, people in the city and nationwide turned to spiritual leaders for guidance, he said.
"This is one of the pillars that carried us through," he said, referring to religious leaders. "They were the spiritual and emotional backbone, and when you have a situation where people are trying to find meaning, where something is bigger than them, when you have a crisis of this level, they often look to the clergy."
Mr. Cabrera described the religious leaders' exclusion as "wiping out the recognition of the importance that spirituality plays on that day."
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis and one of the participants in the September 2001 interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium, said it would be difficult to include all faiths in the ceremony.
"I understand the feelings," he said. "[But] I don't know how we make it possible for everyone to have a place at the table."
Bloomberg is a turncoat. The only question that is left to be answered is why?
h/t GWP
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