NEW YORK (NewsNation) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is getting a lot of attention after remarks he made suggesting there shouldn’t be a separation of church and state — the rousing speech sounding more like a sermon.

The mayor has always been one to talk about his faith, but some feel Adams may have gone too far in his latest remarks, calling himself a “servant of God.”

Adams spoke for nearly 30 minutes at an interfaith breakfast Tuesday which 300 people attended. He told the group he walks and talks with God on a regular basis and when he puts policies in place, he does so with a God-like approach.

He said when the decision was made to take prayer out of schools, guns came in. Adams also said that a lack of faith contributes to homelessness.

“I am still a child of God and I will always be a child of God and I won’t apologize about being a child of God. It’s not going to happen,” Adams said.

But the mayor’s speech turned controversial when he started talking about the separation of church and state — some people had an issue with his personal point of view.

“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 belief because I’m an elected official,” Adams said.

The executive director of New York’s Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman, said in a statement, “It is odd that Mayor Adams would need a refresher on the first amendment. After all, he has sworn to uphold the constitution more than once: first as a police officer, later as a state representative and then last year upon becoming mayor.”

Adams’ press secretary Fabien Levy responded, saying, “The mayor personally believes all of our faiths would ensure we are humane to one another. While everyone in the room immediately understood what the mayor meant, it’s unfortunate that some have attempted to hijack the narrative in an effort to misrepresent the mayor’s comments.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State said Adams is entitled to have personal religious beliefs, but as an elected official must be a mayor for all New Yorkers.

Even some of the mayor’s fellow Democrats have criticized his comments at the breakfast, saying he is pushing right-wing conservative talking points — which would not be the first time he’s been accused of doing that.

Adams is a more moderate Democrat, so at times, he is at odds with members of his own party, but he said he will always do what’s best for the city first and use his personal and spiritual principles as guidance.