On February 28th, New York City Mayor Eric Adams made shocking comments that alarmingly blurred the line between church and state during an interfaith breakfast event in Manhattan: “Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state”, he stated. “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. 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.”
Earlier in the same speech, Adams claimed that, “[W]hen we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.” He later concluded his remarks by stating, “And so today we proclaim that this city, New York City, is a place where the mayor of New York is a servant of God.”
Following last week’s comments that seemed to indicate he did not believe in the separation of church and state, Mayor Adams further explained his remarks in a CNN appearance over the weekend. The American Humanist Association acknowledges the mayor’s clarification, though we remain very concerned that Mayor Adams doesn’t fully support this constitutional principle.
We must stay vigilant in the need to call out elected officials who refuse to keep religion out of public life. Mayor Adams’ seemingly reluctant acknowledgement of the separation of church and state during his CNN appearance remains concerning. Now, Mayor Adams must back up his words with actions. American democracy is at an inflection point, and our elected leaders must commit to keeping undue religious influence out of public policy. Though Mayor Adams has made it clear that he “cannot separate [his] faith,” he must lead his city with an impartiality that respects the religious‒and nonreligious‒diversity of his constituents.
