A Brooklyn pastor raised a few eyebrows when he compared New York City to a southern-style slave "plantation" while asking for God's help in ending inequality during Bill de Blasio's mayoral inauguration on Wednesday.

Rev. Fred Lucas, Jr., the Sanitation Department's chaplain, was one of four people selected to deliver an invocation during the ceremony, where he asked God to, "Free us from the shackles of partisan politics, political correctness and personal egos and agendas. Let the plantation called New York City be the city of God, a city set upon the hill, a light shining in darkness."

The Brooklyn Community Church pastor continued his prayer, saying "End the civil wars and usher in a new Reconstruction era that builds upon the many successes and achievements of yesterday while proclaiming the beginning of a new beginning," reports CBS New York.

Lucas' prayer and "planation" reference unleashed a fiery storm of tweets online, from both supporters and critics.

NYC Councilman Brad Lander applauded the speech, calling it a "powerful and fearless call for justice" on Twitter.

However, Keith Urbahn, a former aide to defense head Donald Rumsfeld, pointed out that he was shocked that the Sanitation Department even had a chaplain. He tweeted, "What stuns me isn't that a chaplain called NYC a 'plantation,' but that the NYC Dept of Sanitation has a chaplain."

The new mayor was elected two months ago by a record margin after running on a campaign platform that promised to make a sharp break from the Bloomberg Administration. During his 12-year tenure, Michael Bloomberg reshaped New York as one of the nation's safest and most prosperous big cities, however, the city has become increasingly stratified between the wealthy and the working class.

De Blasio was sworn in as New York City's 109th mayor during the ceremony by former President Bill Clinton who used a bible once owned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Watch a video clip of Rev. Lucas' prayer below.