Convincing the famously stubborn Mayor Michael Bloomberg to change his mind could require a minor miracle, but critics hope enough pressure will convince Bloomberg to allow clergy to speak Sunday at ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Citing previous practice, Bloomberg has said the focus of the Ground Zero ceremonies will be on victims and their families, and religious representatives will not have an official role.

“The ceremony was designed in coordination with 9/11 families with a mixture of readings that are spiritual, historical and personal in nature,” Evelyn Erskine, a City Hall spokeswoman, told CNN.

“It has been widely supported for the past 10 years and rather than have disagreements over which religious leaders participate, we would like to keep the focus of our commemoration ceremony on the family members of those who died.”

As soon as the clergy ban was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, protests came in fast and hot — mostly from religious conservatives who saw the issue as a classic
case of liberal overreach.

Bloomberg’s decision “demonstrates the mindless secularist prejudice of the political establishment on our nation’s Eastern Seaboard,” said Richard Land, the Southern Baptists’ public policy director. Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said the mayor is “ignoring most Americans and most New Yorkers by pretending religion is unimportant, even when remembering mass slaughter and heroic sacrifice.”

Michael Angley at the blog Big Government went the furthest, accusing Bloomberg of launching a “de facto jihad” on religion.

Read More