Wednesday, August 24, 2011

NY Mayor Bloomburg to exclude clergy from 9/11 event

New York Major Michael Bloomburg is excluding clergy from participation in the 10th anniversary commemoration of 9/11. Wouldn't it make more sense to exclude politicians?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If he had invited Christians and Jews he would have been obligated to invite Muslums and many others, representing a multitude of faiths of the ictims. Would Martin complain if Bloomburg had invited an iman?

Singring said...

First of all, there has been no clergy at previous memorials either:

'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. '

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/08/25/911-memorial-service-to-be-secular-bloomberg-announces/

Secondly, remember the whole spectacle the Washington State Capitol nativity display caused?

Here's a reminder (and don't worry, its from Fox, so its 'fair and balanced'):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZoUY1HTAA

So Martin would rather have a memorial with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Pastafarians, Scientologists, Pagans, Satanists, Hindus, Buddhists, Voodoo practitioners and any other religion that wants to be part of the event to huddle up on stage at the memorial, each ululating to their favourite deity, and he would consider that a dignified event.

Here's what a Rabbi had to say about this:

'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."'