{"id":17016,"date":"2023-03-10T17:22:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T22:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=17016"},"modified":"2023-03-10T17:22:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T22:22:40","slug":"nyc-mayor-earns-criticism-for-blasting-separation-of-church-and-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/03\/nyc-mayor-earns-criticism-for-blasting-separation-of-church-and-state","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Earns Criticism For Blasting \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_17031\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17031\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/03\/Eric-Adams_credit-Public-Domain-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17031\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/03\/Eric-Adams_credit-Public-Domain-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) faced criticism after he hosted an interfaith prayer breakfast at a New York Public Library where he blasted the \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d as the cause of societal problems. After <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/office-of-the-mayor\/news\/139-23\/transcript-mayor-adams-hosts-delivers-remarks-interfaith-breakfast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">acknowledging<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0members of his team and other members of the audience, Adams called on members of various religious backgrounds, including Sikhs and Muslims, to attend their places of worship, \u201cgyms,\u201d as referred to by Adams, in order to enter the fight for New York City. \u201cBecause the fight is in the Bronx, where gun violence is moving to a level that is frightening for all of us. The fight is in Brooklyn\u2026 The fight is in our senior centers where our elders are dealing with the issues of loneliness\u2026 The fight is in our shelters where if you grow up in the shelter, you are less likely to graduate from high school\u2026 That is the fight\u2026 And I know so well about what it\u2019s like to take your practice in the gym to actually implement it in your life,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">After warning that the youth are under attack, Adams went on to share the controversial statements that have earned him the ire of organizations like the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nyclu.org\/en\/publications\/mayor-adams-dont-mess-separation-church-and-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">New York Civil Liberties Union<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0(NYCLU). \u201cAnd it means instilling in them some level of faith and belief,\u201d said Adams, adding, \u201cDon\u2019t tell me about no separation of church and state. The state is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies.\u201d Adams furthered his commitment to faith, saying, \u201cI can\u2019t separate my belief because I\u2019m an elected official. 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\u2019s who I am. And I was that when I was that third-grader, and I\u2019m going to be that when I leave government. I am still a child of God and will always be a child of God, and I won\u2019t apologize about being a child of God. It is not going to happen.\u201d Later in his speech, Adams appeared to criticize prayer being removed from schools, saying, \u201cWhen we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.\u201d After outlining the ways God can help the city face challenges like rising crime and homelessness, Adams ended his speech saying, \u201cthe mayor of New York is a servant of God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Adams\u2019s denouncement of \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d was met with quick condemnation, with the NYCLU stating, \u201cMayor Eric Adams\u2019s outlandish comments during an interfaith breakfast Tuesday criticizing the nation\u2019s constitutionally mandated separation of church and state were playing with fire.\u201d The group\u2019s statement reminded Adams of his Constitutional duty to represent all New Yorkers, even those with no faith. \u201cOn matters of faith, Mayor Adams is entitled to his own beliefs. On the Constitution, he must uphold his oath,\u201d the statement ended. Adams pushed back against criticism during a Sunday interview,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/politics\/new-york-elections-government\/ny-eric-adams-reverses-himself-separation-church-state-20230305-a6u3mdypkneo3p2ixvaevqlsdq-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">saying<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, \u201cWhat I believe is you cannot separate your faith \u2014 government should not interfere with religion, and religion should not interfere with government. But I believe my faith pushes me forward on how I govern.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Although he proclaimed faith in God, it is unclear what his specific religious beliefs are. In his speech, he referred to God as \u201cshe\u201d and appeared to adhere to a pluralistic understanding of multiple faiths leading to Heaven. A\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/06\/nyregion\/the-mayor-talks-religion-and-makes-waves.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">New York Times<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">article noted that he had previously said he attended a storefront church through his youth but does not subscribe to a particular branch of Christianity. The article also noted that \u201cHe talks about how New York City rests on rock formations, and he wears a bracelet of stone. He says he has collected Buddha statues, and he meditates in the morning.\u201d Mayor Adams also warned that the recent election loss of Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot should be a warning sign to Democrats about the way Americans feel about rising crime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) faced criticism after he hosted an interfaith prayer breakfast at a New York Public Library where he blasted the \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d as the cause of societal problems. After acknowledging\u00a0members of his team and other members of the audience, Adams called on members of various religious backgrounds, including&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":17031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NYC Mayor Earns Criticism For Blasting \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NYC Mayor Eric Adams is facing backlash after he blasted the separation of church and state a the cause of societal problems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta 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