- Questions about his beliefs, and how they related to duty as an elected office, arose during an interfaith breakfast Tuesday, when an adviser introduced the mayor by saying his administration “does not believe” it must “separate church from state.”
- Adams then said his speech: “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. … 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.”
- On Sunday, after a part of the speech was played in his CNN interview, host Dana Bash said: “You also said that you implement policies, with a ‘god-like approach’ and said ‘when we took prayer out of schools, guns came into schools.’ You know that those comments alarmed some people. Even some religious leaders who were in the room, a rabbi who was there called it dangerous.”
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Adams replied: “Let’s be clear on something. The last words I said after I was sworn in is ‘so help me God.’ On our dollar bill have ‘In God We Trust.’ Every president touched a religious book when they were sworn in, except for three. Faith is who I am. And anyone who takes those words as stated that I’m going to try to compel people to follow my religion, no. I’m a child of God. I believe that wholly. I’m going to follow the law. I’m not going to compel people who believe in whatever faith it could be.”
