Mayor Eric Adams’ recent remarks at an interfaith breakfast garnered a lot of bad-faith criticism.
“We need to find a way to introduce some form of spirituality in our children, because they’re not fighting against the seen, they’re fighting against the unseen,” the mayor pleaded in followup remarks. “These poor children are growing up in an environment that is — it is just so painful to them.”
Critics had focused on his breakfast complaint that “when we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” with tweets griping of an “insane rant” and saying, “People of New York, you must do better.”
New York Civil Liberties Union honcho Donna Lieberman sniffed, “It is odd that Mayor Adams would need a refresher on the First Amendment.”
Actually, Lieberman needs that refresher. As Adams noted, “There are clear rules about prayers in school,” and, “I don’t have the power to change that. I just gave you my belief.”
Adams’ full remarks show she utterly missed the point. “If we are bringing our best fight in the ring,” he said, “we would not have homeless in this city. We would not have a crisis of domestic violence.” Teaching children to be better (so we have better adults!) “means instilling in them some level of faith and belief.”
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That’s no call to turn public schools into religious ones, only a reminder that spirituality provides the strength and serenity to fight the worthiest battles, even and especially to the young.
You might disagree, but plenty of evidence supports the idea.
Religious people are, data suggests, much more generous with time and money for charity than the irreligious. They’re less likely to have kids out of wedlock — and children raised by both their parents face far better odds of succeeding in life.
Other evidence suggests that the actively religious are less involved in crime, too.
Too many young people today are hurting and lonely. Those who insist it’s somehow bad to argue that they could benefit from the solace and guidance of faith are merely exposing their own bigotry.
