I do not agree with Mayor Bloomsburg that there should have been no prayers at the official 9/11 remembrance time.
Ken Klulowski wrote: “Bloomberg’s sad exclusion of all prayer and clergy from the 9/11 ceremony is also illustrative of something much broader: political correctness increasingly means intolerance and exclusion of Christians from public life in our society. We see this in bans on prayer at veterans’ funerals in Houston, as well as in criticism of Governor Rick Perry’s day of prayer event.” (from <http://www.frc.org/op-eds/excluding-prayer-from-911-memorial-compounds-the-tragedy-of-that-day>)
I personally believe that exclusion of Christian clergy from public events such as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is a violation of the rights
of the vast majority of Americans who are Christians to freely practice their religion. To artificially restrict what
would naturally happen; that is to have the religious leaders of the majority express prayers on behalf of the majority, is to truncate the rights of the
majority to express their faith. The truth is that we cannot get away from choosing a faith. What we are doing in America is enshrining a
faith called atheism in our public events. The public exercise of a particular faith does not of itself persecute a minority. The public exercise of a faith in a natural way does not of itself establish a religion, it simply expresses it. This is what the First Amendment protects.