It seems New York City Mayor Eric Adams doesn’t like the governmental separation of church and state.

On Feb. 28, Adams called out the separation of church and state while also praising prayer in schools at an annual breakfast of faith-based leaders in Manhattan.

The Bill of Rights guarantees the separation of church and state, and mandatory prayer in public schools was outlawed in 1962.

“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 in a 25-minute speech at the New York Public Library’s main branch. “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, “I strongly believe in all my heart, God said, ‘I’m going to take the most broken person and I’m going to elevate him to the place of being the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe. He could have made me the mayor of Topeka, Kansas.”

Adams, who was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City Police Department for more than 20 years, blamed the rise in school violence on the lack of prayer in school.

“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” Hizzoner said.

His comments caused concern among civil libertarians.

“In order for our government to truly represent us, it must not favor any belief over another, including non-belief,” the New York Civil Liberties Union tweeted along with a press statement.

“On matters of faith, the Mayor is entitled to his own beliefs. On the Constitution, he must uphold his oath.”

NYCLU President Donna Lieberman added in the statement, “It is odd that Mayor Adams would need a refresher course on the First Amendment,” The New York Post reported.

Many others spoke out.

Adams’ dismissal of separation of church and state is “shocking and dangerous,” said Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and Church, in s statement, Patch reported.

“It’s especially disheartening to hear the mayor of New York City promoting right-wing, Christian Nationalist talking points about prayer solving gun violence,” she said. “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.”

Representatives for the mayor said Adams was merely saying that his faith guides his decisions.

“The mayor personally believes all of our faiths would ensure we are humane to one another,” Fabien Levy, press secretary, office of the mayor, said in a statement. “While everyone in the room immediately understood what the mayor meant, it’s unfortunate that some have attempted to hijack the narrative in an effort to misrepresent the mayor’s comments.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks before mourners place flowers over the names of the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing during a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial, Feb. 26, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)