Mayor Bloomberg's staff has personally disinvited Bishop Johnson (both pictured right), after 9 years of inviting Johnson to participate and pray at the annual 9/11 ceremony, because this year Bloomberg arbitrarily and illegally banned clergy for religious reasons.
"Originally I was invited to attend this year's 9/11 ceremony as a first responder, just like I was every year since 2001," Bishop Johnson told me on the phone today. "But then I heard Mayor Bloomberg banned clergy, so it took five phone calls to his office before [a Bloomberg's senior staffer] asked me if I was going to wear my clerical collar. I said I planned to dress just like I did the previous 9 years, so she replied 'they' prefer you not attend. And that was it. I was disinvited."
