Friend:

This week’s reminder of the urgent need for a national recommitment to church-state separation came from an unexpected source – New York City Mayor Eric Adams. In a speech to an interfaith gathering Tuesday, Adams demanded, “Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state … When I put policies in place, I put them in with a God-like approach to them.” And he later proclaimed, “New York City is a place where the Mayor of New York is a servant of God.”

His comments were shocking and dangerous. Our democracy, equality and rights all rely on America’s commitment to separate church and state. Adams also seemed to buy into the notion that separation is anti-religion, but we know that in reality, it’s pro-religion – it’s the shield that protects religious freedom for everyone. 

And if that wasn’t enough, Adams also took a page right out of Christian Nationalists’ book and blamed school shootings on taking prayer out of schools. As you know well, it is simply false that prayer alone will prevent gun violence. And, students are free to voluntarily pray in public schools – and that’s because of the separation of church and state.

Appalled, I issued a statement immediately reminding Adams that the Mayor of New York – the largest and most religiously diverse city in the U.S. with a quarter of residents not identifying as religious at all – must be a mayor to all New Yorkers. The separation of church and state protects Adams’ right to his personal religious beliefs. But it also protects everyone’s right to live as themselves and believe as they choose – and to be secure in the knowledge that their elected leaders won’t enact laws and policies that enshrine specific religious beliefs.

Thanks to Adams’ speech, New Yorkers don’t have that security in their leadership right now. AU is reaching out to the mayor’s office to offer our advice and expertise on how he can balance being true to his personal faith while respecting his oath of office to uphold the Constitution.

If there’s a silver lining to Adams’ remarks, it’s that they got a lot of media coverage and led to people speaking up in defense of church-state separation. Even faith leaders who were in the room with him objected: Rabbi Abby Stein told the New York Daily News, “At least half of the room was not with him when he talked about separation of church and state.” She added, “When elected leaders start calling their beliefs more important than serving the people, that’s very dangerous. I’ve personally seen what happens when people use God, or their conception of God, to control people.” Right on, Rabbi Abby!

With your support, we’ll continue to make the case for protecting church-state separation around the country – from New York City to Tennessee (where we argued in court yesterday on behalf of a Jewish couple rejected because of their faith by a state-funded foster care agency) to Indiana (where we filed a brief in support of abortion rights on Wednesday). We won’t back down in our quest for a country that ensures freedom without favor and equality without exception.

With hope and determination,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO