Michael Bloomberg on religious freedom

This week New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke in favor of building a Mosque in New York. It’s a powerful and moving speech. It reflected a great deal of insight into the history of the struggles of religious groups in New York. It was also refreshing to see a politician stand up for religious groups, even to the point of showing personal emotion

I was bothered after the speech though when Christine Quinn began her speech by calling people who resisted the building of the mosque as “Unamerican.” If we want to exhort the freedom of our nation we must recognize that freedom extends to those who are dissenters as well.

If we take seriously Bloomberg’s call that this Mosque should be a place that brings unity we must stop the negative rhetoric and attempts to put folks ‘in their place.’

This sort of thing does not change minds, but rather, it hardens hearts.

All in all I hope the message of religious liberty does find fertile soil in the hearts of New Yorkers.

Take a look at the video below.