NY city: In a series of bizarre comments made to an Interfaith Prayer Breakfast at the New York Public Library on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams drew criticism from New Yorkers for claiming to be anointed by God, discrediting the separation of church and state, and attributing student shootings to a lack of prayer in schools.

Adams chastised the audience, saying, "State is the body. Don't tell me about no separation of church and state. The heart is the church. When the body's heart is removed, the body expires.

The mayor continued, "When we removed prayers from schools, guns entered schools. He assured that homelessness and domestic violence would be eradicated from the city "if we were bringing our best fight in the ring," describing his implementation of policies as taking a "godlike approach."

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Adams joked that "He could have made me mayor of Topeka, Kansas," but insisted that he "strongly believe[d] in all [his] heart" that "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'."

Adams' remarks didn't seem improvised, and his assistant Ingrid Lewis-Martin did the same when she introduced him to the gathered religious leaders. Adams, a mayor whose government "doesn't believe" in separating church and state, was "definitely one of the chosen," according to her.

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Many of the guests reportedly expressed outrage. Following the mayor's "unhinged and dangerous" remarks, Rabbi Abby Stein told the New York Times on Tuesday that she and "several people sharing her table" had reacted with immediate horror, repeating "no, no, no, no." as the words swept over them.

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Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union Donna Lieberman described herself as "speechless" after hearing Adams rail against a fundamental idea of the country. She emphasised that as mayor, he had a responsibility to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees the separation of church and state.

The former NYPD officer merely meant "the policies we make as an administration are rooted in the mayor's belief in the creator," according to Adams' spokesman Fabien Levy, who insisted the mayor's comments had been misunderstood.