Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

Pointing and laughing at religious lunacy for more than half-a-century

NY Mayor Eric Adams ‘can’t separate his Christian beliefs from his government duties.’

Image via YouTube

ADAMS—hosting a recent “interfaith prayer breakfast”— appeared to trash America’s long-established policy of separation between church and state in what sounded more of a sermon than a speech.

The Democrat and former police officer who claimed last year that he was “chosen by God” to become the Big Apple’s Mayor, said:

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 beliefs because I’m an elected official.

Unsurprisingly, uproar ensued, culminating last Friday in a protest outside the Adams Manhattan office. It was attended by local religious leaders and community activists.

Stung by the hostile reaction to that remark, coupled with his assertion that that “when we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools”, Adams felt compelled to clarify his remarks in CNN interview below.

Yahoo! reported that the protesters insisted that Adams “was way off base with his remarks dismissing the notion of a clear line of demarcation laid out by the nation’s Founding Fathers”.

Said Rabbi Emily Cohen.

He said that he was a servant of God, and I wanted to assert that Mayor Adams was a servant of those who elected him.

Rev. Amanda Hambrick Aschraft of the Middle Church in Manhattan added:

I was appalled to hear the Adams administration say they oppose the separation of church and state. Separation of church and state actually allows and protects religious freedoms. To have church and state meshed together is wildly dangerous.

Alicia Nascimento, Director for New York Community for Change, said Adams said

We’re here to push back against the mayor’s comment about the separation of church and state, and the mayor’s ungodly budget cuts. I’m not sure what god he’s praying to, but it should stay out of our government.

Community activist James Innis weighed in with:

His comments about church and state alarmed a lot of people,. This isn’t something flying under the radar that the media is making up. I’ve heard this rhetoric before and I’ve seen the road it leads us down. And that’s what alarmed me the most.

But at least one Yahoo! reader rushed to “support” the beleaguered faith-head. “Zyrdeus” commented:

This mayor is absolutely right. Just look at history: Religion run political structures have always worked out so well in the past. Instead of reason and justice, we had religious courts and Inquistions.

Instead of facts and evidence, we had crazy superstitious gobbledegook and unsubstantiated claims. We had confessions pulled out of the accused by using the most horrific torture devices ever devised by sick minds. And the accusations themselves were often empty claims conjured out of runaway superstitious imaginations of crazed believers.

Yes, by all means, let us return to a religion run governmental model. It has worked so well in the past.

Please help me keep The Angry Atheist going with a $5 monthly subscription. Simply click on this panel.

You can also support my work via a one-off donation via PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee or GofundMe.

If you spot any typos in this post please alert me via email: freethinkered@aol.com

Latest posts

UK High Court judge rules that a ‘strictly secular’ London school was justified in maintaining a prayer ban

Please click this link to help me keep The Angry Atheist active with an donation. Michaela Community School in Wembly today (Tuesday) won a legal challenge mounted by an “extremely rude and defiant” Muslim pupil who demanded the right to pray, despite the school’s “no prayer” policy. Delivering his ruling Mr Justice Linden said the…

by Barry Duke

Barry Duke

,
, , ,

2 responses to “NY Mayor Eric Adams ‘can’t separate his Christian beliefs from his government duties.’”

  1. Broga Avatar
    Broga

    He says he can’t separate his beliefs from his government duties. Really! He has to separate his beliefs from his duties as he does his life and does so every day. If he followed the teachings of the bible i.e. God’s word, biblical truth he would be arrested.

    In the modern world Christian “truth” must be selective as there is so much in the bible that, if followed, would destroy families and inflict cruelties. And then there is the problem on deciding what is “true” as there are so many contradictions. This prating about following Christian beliefs only persists because what it really means at source i.e. the bible usually remains unquestioned.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  2. barriejohn Avatar
    barriejohn

    I’ve experienced all this from the other side, and it’s not the case that they CAN’T separate their religious beliefs from their secular duties; they WON’T.

    Here is an apposite quote for you, plucked from the internet, referencing their favourite verse on the subject:

    “In Proverbs 14:34, we read, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.’ In this simple verse, we see established a rule, or standard, composed of two alternatives. There is no middle ground.”

    They categorically believe this, and also believe that they have a sacred duty to act as “salt” in society, guiding it along the path that God would have it take. Of course, this path (as with the definition of what, precisely, constitutes “sin”), is dependent upon their own interpretation of the often conflicting exhortations of the Bible, or other religious book, or even spiritual leader, and we all know that this can change as time goes by. It’s a recipe for disaster, and “Zyrdeus” hits the nail on the head!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment