The mayor of New York City has blamed the lack of prayer in public schools for a flood of guns being found in them.
“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” Democrat Eric Adams said at an interfaith breakfast Tuesday, Politico reported.
"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."
His message seemed to directly oppose the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling of 1962 that banned prayer in public schools.
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His comments come nearly a year after Adams held a press conference highlighting the scourge of guns in his city's schools. In the first five months of 2022, 20 firearms had been found – an increase of 300% on the year before.
Adams, who has identified himself as a Christian, was introduced by his chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a chaplain.
“We know in government, many times, it is said that one has to separate church from state, but we have an administration that doesn’t believe in that,” she said. “We have a mayor ... who is definitely one of the chosen."
His apparent support for bringing religion back into schools was immediately criticized.
New York Civil Liberties Union spokesperson Donna Lieberman said, “In order for our government to truly represent us, it must not favor any belief over another, including non-belief," Politico reported.
A mayoral spokesperson told reporters Adams, "personally believes all of our faiths would ensure we are humane to one another.”
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