New York City Mayor Eric Adams blamed the presence of guns in schools on the lack of prayers and said there should be no separation of church and state.
Adams, who identifies as Christian, made the comments on Tuesday during an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library’s central branch in Manhattan, according to Politico.
“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” Adams said, dismissing the 1962 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned prayer in public schools.
Adams comments came after he was introduced at the event by his chief adviser and Christian chaplain, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who said Adams’ administration “does not believe” it must “separate church from state.”
“Ingrid was so right. Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body, church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies. I can’t separate my beliefs because I’m an elected official,” Adams said, according to New York Daily News. “When I walk, I walk with God, when I talk, I talk with God. When I put policies in place, I put them in with a God-like approach to them — that’s who I am.”
Adams spokesman Fabien Levy later said the mayor “personally believes all of our faiths would ensure we are humane to one another”and blames reporters for “hijacking the narrative in an effort to misrepresent the mayor’s comments.”
But, even some religious leaders who were at the event say they were uncomfortable with Adams’ message.
“There was a lot of people who were like, ‘No, no, no, no, what is happening? What is he talking about?’” Rabbi Abby Stein said. “At least half of the room was not with him when he talked about separation of church and state.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union also slammed the speeches in a statement to Politico.
“We are a nation and a city of many faiths and no faith,” the NYCLU said. “In order for our government to truly represent us, it must not favor any belief over another, including non-belief,” she said.
[Image: Getty]
