A banner weekend for civil religion
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is planning ceremonies for the 9/11 anniversary without the participation of clergy. Jay Sekulow et al. think this is an attack on religion. Jim Wallis et al. are criticizing both sides of this debate and also calling for less criticism of others, or something like that.
Variations on this headline are all over: "Bloomberg bans clergy from 9/11 ceremony but Ground Zero mosque OK." A lot of observers see this as an ironic or hypocritical inconsistency on the mayor's part. It isn't: religious freedom and a secular civil arena are two sides of the same coin. Thanks largely to this principle, Americans enjoy what's arguably the most robustly and diversely religious landscape in the world--at least when we're not too busy screaming about how we don't like the way this shakes out in a particular instance.
Meanwhile in Washington, the main 9/11 anniversary event planned for the National Cathedral has been moved to the Kennedy Center following damage to the cathedral by the earthquake and a subsequent crane collapse. Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III said that while safety concerns require the move, "at the same time we will not let obstacles put in our way stop us from fulfilling our mission as the spiritual home for the nation."
