New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) isn’t backing down from recent comments expressing his inability to separate his faith from public service. However, at least one outlet said he appeared to reverse himself on related statements about the separation of church and state.
Adams appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, telling anchor Dana Bash his faith prompts him to action and pointedly responding to concerns over his views on the separation of church and state.
He responded, “No,” when asked, “Do you fundamentally believe in the separation of church and state from a governing standpoint?” But he added some caveats.
“What I believe is that you cannot separate your faith,” he said, seemingly speaking of elected officials’ personal beliefs about the Lord. “Government should not interfere with religion, and religion should not interfere with government.”
Adams continued, “But I believe my faith pushes me forward on how I govern and the things that I do.”
At the start of the segment, when Bash noted some people were “alarmed” by the comments Adams made last week at an interfaith prayer breakfast, the mayor broke down historical ties between politicians and faith.
“Let’s be clear on something: the last words I said after I was sworn in was, ‘So help me God.’ On our dollar bill we have, ‘In God we trust,'” Adams said. “Every president touched a religious book when they were sworn in, except for three. Faith is who I am.”
Adams said, though, that anyone taking his words to mean he will “compel people” to follow his faith is not correctly understanding what he was saying.
“I’m not going to compel people,” he said, later adding, “My faith is how I carry out the practices that I do and the policies such as helping people who are homeless.”
For the rest of this article, visit our content partners at faithwire.com.
Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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