NYC Mayor Eric Adams says when America ‘took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday morning that when the U.S. took prayers out of schools, guns replaced them. 

“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” he said to applause from religious leaders at the annual Interfaith Breakfast in Manhattan. 

The mayor was discussing the role that religious people could play in reducing societal problems. 

“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,” Adams said. 

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 Mayor Eric Adams speaks in commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Feb. 26, 1993, Trade Center Attack at the World Trade Center.  (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“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,” he continued.

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Mayor Eric Adams takes questions after a news conference on Feb.14, 2023, in Bronx, New York.  (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the mayor said after the event that Adams “personally believes all of our faiths would ensure we are humane to one another,” according to Politico. The outlet reported that they accused reporters of asking whether Adams did not support the separation of church and state of attempting to “hijack the narrative in an effort to misrepresent the mayor’s comments.”

Adams identifies as Christian. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and dozens people attend midnight Christmas midnight mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, New York, on Dec. 25, 2022.  (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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A 1962 Supreme Court ruling, Engel v. Vitale, banned school-sponsored prayer.