{"id":730,"date":"2010-08-05T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2010\/08\/michael-bloomberg-on-religious-freedom.html"},"modified":"2013-12-12T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T19:18:48","slug":"michael-bloomberg-on-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billykangas\/2010\/08\/michael-bloomberg-on-religious-freedom.html","title":{"rendered":"Michael Bloomberg on religious freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Bloomberg$ <\/a> $\"\"$ This week New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg $\"\"$ spoke in favor of building a Mosque in New York. It\u2019s a powerful and moving speech. It reflected a great deal of insight into the history of the struggles of religious groups in New York<\/a> $\"\"$ . It was also refreshing to see a\u00a0politici $\"\"$ an\u00a0stand up for religious groups, even to the point of showing personal emotion<\/p>\n

I was bothered after the speech though when Christine Quinn began her speech by calling people who resisted the building of the mosque as \u201cUnamerican.\u201d If we want to exhort the freedom of our nation we must recognize that freedom extends to those who are dissenters as well.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0we\u00a0take\u00a0seriously\u00a0Bloomberg\u2019s call that\u00a0this Mosque should be a place that brings unity\u00a0we must stop the negative rhetoric and attempts to put folks \u2018in their place.\u2019<\/p>\n

This sort of thing does not change minds, but rather, it hardens hearts.<\/p>\n

All in all I hope the message of religious liberty does find fertile soil in the hearts of New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

Take a look at the video below.<\/p>\n