“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” said NYC Democrat Mayor Eric Adams said.
QUICK FACTS:
- Siding with a position usually held by conservatives, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated at a Manhattan interfaith prayer breakfast that his administration “does not believe” it should “separate church from state.”
- Adams described the importance of faith in leadership, saying, “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.”
- The Democratic mayor also attributed faith to the positive development of children. In order to create a better world for the next generation, “It means instilling in them some level of faith and belief,” he said.
- “When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” Adams argued.
- “Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state,” he said. “State is the body, church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies. I can’t separate my belief because I’m an elected official.”
CRITICISM OF MAYOR ADAMS’ REMARKS:
- New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) Donna Lieberman said, “It is odd that Mayor Adams would need a refresher on the First Amendment…The very opening passage of the Bill of Rights makes clear that church and state must be separate.”
- President and chief executive of Americans United for Separation of Church and State Rachel Laser said, “It’s especially disheartening to hear the mayor of New York City promoting rightwing, Christian Nationalist talking points about prayer solving gun violence.”
- “Not only is it simply untrue that prayer alone will end school shootings, but his words ignore the fact that students are free to voluntarily pray in public schools because of the separation of church and state,” Laser added.
- The Constitution does not indicate any separation of church and state. Rather, the concept comes from an 1802 letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists Association of Connecticut.
- The “Danbury Baptist Letter” promises that the American government will not infringe upon religious rights, not the other way around.
BACKGROUND:
- Tucker Carlson believes the left usually feels threatened by faith, claiming “God is a rival to their power.”
- “God, family, country? That’s not radical. It’s hard to imagine a more wholesome message or more pro-human platform,” the Fox News host said.
- “If you want absolute obedience, you have to sever family ties,” Carlson went on to say. “That’s why state schools brainwash your children with values that you despise & then instruct your children to turn you in as a thought criminal if you object.”
