Mayor Bloomberg and the Ban on 9/11 Prayers

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has refused to allow clergy to participate in the official 9/11 commemoration, much to the (appropriate) consternation of many. Some have suggested that Bloomberg does not want to contend with the problems of involving Muslims in the ceremony. But at root, his decision speaks to a fundamental discomfort that many American elites, especially of the east and west-coast variety, have with the public role of religion in American life.

There are three main reasons that prayers offered by clergy of major religious groups (including Muslims) should be allowed. First, and the most paltry reason, is that it would do Americans good (including the Muslim community) once again to have an imam publicly grieve with the victims’ families and agree with them that 9/11 was an abominable evil.

Second, these prayers would be consistent with the best of the American historic tradition. As Jordan Sekulow recently noted, we have always marked such tragedies and commemorations with prayers for the nation, from President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, to President Obama’s January address in Tucson commemorating the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the related death of six others.

Third, tragedies such as 9/11 beg for reference to God’s transcendent purposes and ultimate sovereignty. Refusing to address these themes deprives the grieving of their most important frame of reference. A commemoration without prayer—or at least without recourse to theistic principles-- can’t say much that is meaningful about 9/11, other than “We’re sorry this happened. We’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Those sentiments are nice, but the evil exposed on 9/11 requires more; we need--we want--to agree as a community that there is an ultimate source of comfort in suffering, and that He has plans and purposes beyond what we can know in this life. He will set things right in the end.

On a cautionary note, however, Christian believers should remember that New York City was never going to have an exclusively Christian service to observe 9/11. The relatively generic prayers of such public events normally do not address the fundamental solution to human evil and the problem of suffering. That solution, Christians believe, is to be found in the cross of Christ. Mayor Bloomberg may ban faith from New York’s remembrance service, but nothing will stop churches from lifting up Christ, the "man of sorrows," this September 11.