New York City, where the mayor is a servant of God, & largely applauded

NYC Mayor Eric Adams raised some hopes and ruffled some feathers when he told an Interfaith Prayber Breakfast that “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 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.”

“Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. I can’t separate my belief because I’m an elected official. When I walk, I walk with God.”

Mayor Eric Adams, NYC, February 28, 2023

In her introduction to the Mayor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who is his closest aide and is also a chaplain, talked about how this administration does not believe in the separation of church and state. Getting up, he responded, “Ingrid is so right.” (The New York Times paraphrased, “Ingrid’s totally right, I totally agree,” perhaps revealing their shock.)

Most attendees praised Adams’s theological explanation of his life and politics. The statement was extensive, much like Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s August 3, 2010 declaration, “Political controversies come and go, but our values and our traditions endure – and there is no neighborhood in this City that is off limits to God’s love and mercy…” A spokesman for Bloomberg Stu Loeser said that the mayor “doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve, but he believes strongly that your values and how they influence you to make the world a better place are the key parts of Judaism and every other religion.” 

The daily newspaper coverage of Adams’ speech was focused on generating controversy over the relationship of church and state. Most of the quotes that local papers published were from critics “(dangerous,”), and none went into the rich texture of Adams’ reasoning. Nor did they put them into the context of previous mayors’ comments like those by Bloomberg. Consequently, this media reporting may have biased the 1104 responses to our Journey Poll.

About half favored Adams’ statement, about one-third disapproved and 16% were not sure or did not know enough about Adams’ position. The New York Civil Liberties Union called them “outlandish comments.” One retired Protestant minister anonymously called the remarks something “no serious clergy” would embrace, and it was reported that liberal Jewish Reform leaders were taken aback,

Later Adams clarified, “We can’t have government go into churches and dictate churches. And we can’t have churches, mosques or synagogues go into government and dictate. But we should use our faith when we make policies. My humane policy on homelessness is based on my faith,” However, he added that taking prayer out of public schools had been a mistake, though he wouldn’t prescribe any prayers because that is against the law. To CNN, he said, “Government should never be in religion, religion should never be in government. And I hope I’m very clear on that.”

“We can’t have government go into churches and dictate churches. And we can’t have churches, mosques or synagogues go into government and dictate. But we should use our faith when we make policies.

Mayor Eric Adams, NYC, February 28, 2023

“Our children are leaving home, stopping at the local cannabis store, taking gummy bears that are laced with drugs and sitting in the classrooms. We have young girls now going through how to get liposuction,” said the mayor, before calling on children to embrace religion.

“We have everything in schools that we’re talking about but we don’t want to talk about the faith of our children, that wholistic approach,” he added. A Journey through NYC religions has advocated and advised schools for years on how to introduce a representative sample of the religions around the school building as a key element of instruction on American and New York culture and religion. The New York state test on American and city history has been an example of woefully inadequate scholarship, mainly mentioning religion as a negative, conflictual force.

Adams himself is eclectic in his beliefs, though there is a substratum of the religious foundation that he received growing up in a church.

Adams’ spiritual narrative and pastorly advice

In his speech at the interfaith event held at the New York City Public Library, he mentioned the importance of the Christian church in which he grew up. “I tell a story all the time growing up in our small storefront church. We used to call it the Cheers church. Everyone knew your name and everyone was glad you came. Wasn’t big, it wasn’t elaborate. Two services, Reverend Daughtry, we went at day. Take a break, come back at night.” Although Adams had several stumbles in life, he says God was always present to him:

“When I walk, I walk with God, Adams said. “I am still a child of God and will always be a child of God and I won’t apologize about being a child of God.” He remembers the time when the church ladies delivered food to his family, it was obvious that the elders and church ladies had sacrificed half of the food that they had.”

Adams said that there was too much negativity in the world and that we soak it up like a sponge. But what we need is to squeeze out the sponge.

His pastoral advice was, “Some of our souls are so saturated with despair and harm and pain. Today I’m saying to you, “Wring it out, wring it out.” You can’t receive with these imams, with these pastors, what these rabbis, what they’re giving you. If you’re so saturated with so much despair. Wring it out. Take a moment to start your day breathing. Start your day meditating. Start your day with self-affirmation. Leave signs on your mirrors and on your windows of how beautiful you are and how God is not finished with you yet and how you are going to overcome. That’s how you start the process of wringing out all of that negativity that you receive throughout today. Before you go to sleep, wring it out. Say a prayer, read a scripture. Listen to a positive quote. Do something kind for yourselves. Then when you wake up in the morning and start your day, start your day wringing it out.”

At the Catholic-supported Sheen Center, Adams said, he believes God made him for this particular moment in time and for the particular role that he now occupies. He’s fond of paraphrasing a line in Esther 4:14, which says, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”