Eric Adams walks in faith: What that means for NYC and his reelection bid

The last time New York City Mayor Eric Adams was baptized, it was on Rikers Island.

Commemorating Good Friday, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Herbert Daughtry performed the religious rite for the mayor and 11 incarcerated men at the embattled jails complex in March. While the ceremony was closed to the press, photos showed the two veteran civil rights leaders baptizing Adams and washing his feet.

“I recommitted myself to my faith, to our city, and to our shared efforts to give all New Yorkers a chance to succeed. You know my journey. I went from being arrested to being elected mayor,” Adams wrote on X. “I used that story to remind these young men that where they are is not who they are.”

For Daughtry, who has known Adams since the mayor was on the cusp between adolescence and adulthood, it was a moving experience. To see this young Black man who he mentored while organizing Brooklyn communities with the National Black United Front reach such prominent status – and to be asked to baptize him – was “an unspeakable joy,” Daughtry said. The mayor’s decision to delve into religion in such an eye-catching way didn’t come as a surprise to the 93-year-old reverend – nor has the long line of occasions in which Adams has publicly professed what he believes.

Adams takes a lot of pride in his faith. The House of the Lord Churches, which Daughtry pastored, and the National Black United Front were deeply intertwined. When Adams got involved, going from a boycott line in Downtown Brooklyn to church for a prayer meeting was commonplace. Daughtry said he would have been surprised if the mayor pursued a political career that wasn’t heavily influenced by his religion.

“I don’t remember a mayor or maybe even any elected official talk so openly about his or her personal faith. Politicians, they talk in a general sense because they know most people that are religious in some sense talk in general terms, but Eric talks in personal terms – his personal relationship,” Daughtry said, adding that the mayor makes a “gallant effort” to include all religions in how he governs.

Declarations of faith, spirituality and religion have been a key part of Adams’ messaging – as has connecting with the city’s many faith-based communities. And he will need their support during his 2025 reelection campaign. Poor polling, at least a trio of competitive challengers and the ongoing federal probe into Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign has clouded what has historically been an easy path to a second term for an incumbent mayor. David Dinkins, New York City’s first Black mayor, was the last one-term mayor, losing to Rudy Giuliani in 1993.

Adams’ multifaceted beliefs and personality make it difficult to characterize the city’s second Black mayor. He goes to nightclubs, he hangs out with celebrities, he’s a frequent late-night presence at swanky establishments and he maintains friendships with people with troubled paths. He is also uniquely open about his faith. Leaders of faith-based organizations complimented the mayor for his thoughtful engagement – including with those who haven’t historically had much political power in the city. He has embraced ethnic groups, hoisted flags and hosted cultural celebrations. Many of the city’s faith and ethnic communities helped propel Adams to City Hall in 2021. He’ll need them to show up again to avoid the same fate that befell Dinkins.

Casting a wide net 

Pay the unearned stereotype of “godless Gotham” no mind. Only a quarter of the city identifies as “unaffiliated,” which is just a couple percentage points higher than the nation as a whole. From Islamic mosques to Black Methodist churches to Hindu temples to LGBTQ-affirming synagogues, a sweeping kaleidoscope of global faiths can be found across the five boroughs.

The city’s faith communities wield political power to varying extents. The Hasidic Jewish community, for one, has become a powerful force in New York City politics, often voting as a unified bloc under the guidance of local leaders. Black churches – including Baptist, Methodist, Catholic and Pentecostal denominations – have long maintained significant political power. As various ethnic groups grow, other faith communities are steadily building influence. A long line of New York City mayors have recognized faith communities’ place in the political ecosystem. Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are frequent stops for elected officials.

Adams breaks from the mold of his recent predecessors, however. While New York City mayors have long tried to build bridges with faith communities, Adams has leaned heavily into his religious background, frequently invoking his own beliefs on and off the campaign trail. Be it delivering impassioned sermons about God from church pulpits or sharing nuggets about his less conventional spiritual practices like meditation and drawing power from crystals, Adams is comfortable talking about what he believes in ways other mayors were not.

Yes, former Mayor Bill de Blasio frequently helped religious factions, even as a self-described unaffiliated “spiritual” person. He relaxed health regulations governing a circumcision ritual favored by some ultra-Orthodox Jews, allowed pre-kindergarten classes to take a midday break for students to pray and added two Muslim holy days to the school holiday calendar.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a secular Jew, was largely seen as detached from religion during his tenure – so much so, he at times frustrated faith communities. He was, however, largely viewed as a champion for religious freedom, particularly in his defense of a controversial proposal to build a mosque and cultural center a few blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Maybe other mayors were not as bold and outspoken in terms of their identification with their faith as Mayor Adams, but we applaud that, we appreciate that, we respect that,” said the Rev. A.R. Bernard, founding pastor of the Christian Cultural Center. “It’s more than just photo op or window dressing.”

The time Adams has put into working with faith communities during the past two and half years is clear. One month into his tenure, he signed an executive order creating the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnership under the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, describing it as a conduit between city government, faith-based communities and nonprofit organizations.

In June 2023, Adams created the city’s first Jewish Advisory Council. Flanked by Muslim leaders at a press conference a few months later, the mayor announced that mosques will no longer need a special permit to publicly broadcast the Islamic call to prayer. A key facet of his City of Yes housing plan is a set of zoning changes that would allow faith-based organizations to add new housing on their property. Facing dwindling beds as asylum-seekers poured into the city, Adams launched a program to allow houses of worship to shelter asylum-seekers to limited success. He has hosted religious celebrations at Gracie Mansion, enlisted clergy to prevent gun violence, brought Jewish, Muslim and other faith leaders together amid a spike in hate crimes, organized over 1,000 meals with groups of New Yorkers in an attempt foster understanding, and launched a “Five-Borough Multi Faith Tour” this spring. The list goes on.

The time and focus make sense – as does the wide net he has cast. Adams’ path to victory in 2021 was driven in large part by voters outside of Manhattan, in communities that tend to be more religious. Political consultants noted that this base was largely comprised of Black New Yorkers who attend church or grew up in one, Orthodox Jews and Hispanic New Yorkers – many of whom are Catholic, evangelical or Pentecostal.

“The truth is that New York is much more diverse than it has been,” Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said. “It has tremendous numbers of newcomers bringing all kinds of religion and cultures with them, and the mayor has made a point of trying to work with each of those cultures and religious communities as best as he can to try to create a constituency that's unbreakable.”

The political calculus can perhaps be compared to ceremonies Adams holds that raise other countries’ flags. He has attended more than 80 over the course of his tenure. Honoring as many ethnic groups as possible is one way he has looked to court voters ahead of his 2025 reelection bid.

Democratic political strategist Trip Yang said that of all the 2021 mayoral candidates Adams was the most talented at understanding the city on a granular level. He recalled how on one day, Adams would attend a Hindu temple, then seamlessly go campaign with the Russian community. The next day he’d fundraise with the Chinese community. Another, he’d visit Islamic centers in the Turkish community. He’d spend time at various mosques and at Hispanic churches – all while building greater support with his base.

“Eric – and I mean this as a compliment – has a long-standing reputation as an old-school Brooklyn ethnic politician,” Yang said. “He understands that type of retail game, that old-school stitching together the ethnic fabric of New York City – he understands that better than almost anyone.”

Perfectly imperfect

Adams is a person of many facets, some contradicting, some unorthodox. The idea that people struggle to put him into a box is something he has embraced, frequently describing himself as “perfectly imperfect.” Like the city he represents, Adams’ spiritual and religious beliefs are similarly multifaceted.

While he has talked about attending a storefront Church of God in Christ congregation – a predominantly Black and Pentecostal denomination – while growing up in Southeast Queens, he doesn’t subscribe to a specific brand of Christianity today. In a 2023 interview with the Daily News, Adams said to him, God is “rooted in this universal idea that there’s something larger than us that we lean into and have faith in.” He doesn’t see any single image or any individual characteristic – rather the idea there’s something bigger and there are underlying principles like kindness universal to all faiths and beliefs. Right before he took office, Adams embarked on a weeklong journey to Ghana to reconnect with ancestors where he participated in a spiritual cleansing. He has said he wants New York City to be a city of God and repeatedly suggested he sees his trajectory to mayor as divinely ordained. “God said … I’m going to take this imperfect person and I’m going to make him the mayor of the most important city on the globe,” Adams said during a February 2023 event. Some of his other spiritual beliefs fall outside Christianity. He has said he collects Buddhist statues and that he believes a “special energy” emanates from New York City because it sits on a bed of unique gems and stones.

Eli Valentin, a political analyst and ordained minister, described Adams as a “theological chameleon” in that he says certain things with one group and something else with another. He explained that while much of Adams’ rhetoric has that “Pentecostal flavor and influence,” his collection of Buddhist statues, for example, would be considered unusual and even idolatrous to many Pentecostals. While speaking at a Haitian heritage event at Gracie Mansion on Aug. 13, Adams reflected on how the city’s Haitian community “did that little thing” in the 2021 mayoral election that made his victory possible. “I want you to go back and do that little magic, do that little thing that you know how to do,” the mayor said. If there was a spiritual or religious connotation to that, he was speaking of a non-Christian practice, Valentin said, adding that while there’s a level of syncretism in Adams’ personal practices that isn’t uncommon generally, but it is “definitely uncommon” for people with his religious background.

“I don’t know how much of it is genuine, especially when he speaks about his Christian sensibilities or how much of it is political expediency or a ploy even to appease the groups he’s speaking to,” Valentin said.

Pastor Gil Monrose, Adams’ faith adviser and the executive director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnership, pushed back on any notions that the mayor is playing up his beliefs.

“The religious base has been with the mayor before he was the mayor – while he was the borough president, while he served in the police department, with always being in tune with the religious communities. He grew up in a church structure,” Monrose said. The two also worked together when Adams was borough president. “It’s a life journey and when you have authentic faith it carries with you. It doesn’t change because you have a new title.”

Adams has also occasionally come under fire for appearing to dismiss the separation between church and state. “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 at an interfaith breakfast in February 2023. New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said Adams has repeatedly played “fast and loose” with the mandate of separation of church and state. “You can’t have freedom of religion if you don’t have the freedom not to believe. The Adams administration has never voiced respect for that,” Lieberman said.

Some, like Sheinkopf, think Adams has faced an unfair double standard on how he talks about his faith that borders on racist. “For many people, Adams’ behavior is a sign of respect. His opponents are making it into something else,” he said. “They didn’t do it before with any other mayor. Why is Adams being singled out?”

Black churches have long had a driving role in American politics. Issues of justice, equity, fairness are at the center of Black churches theology – and as such, it’s not unusual for Black elected officials to connect their advocacy with faith in the same ways as Adams. The difference perhaps is that Adams has gotten himself into trouble at times by articulating himself the wrong way, Valentin suggested.

Political strategist Basil Smikle said that while he doesn’t think Adams has crossed a line, the criticism is a product of the current political climate.

“There’s a fear that the way he talks about faith is mirroring too closely a wave of Christian nationalism across the country that’s tied to the far right and Trumpism,” Smikle said. “I don’t think he is actually doing that, but there is a tremendous sensitivity right now to the role of faith in society and in politics.”

Seat at the table

Leaders from the city’s faith communities largely praised Adams in interviews with City & State for thoughtfully working with and listening to them. Many said they’ve known the mayor going back to his time as a state senator over a decade ago. It’s not like Adams came parachuting in for support only once he ran for mayor, they said.

“He has increased the visibility of faith leaders at the table. We’re not just ceremonial,” said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a conservative rabbi and member of the city’s Jewish Advisory Council. “We know our opinions matter and the mayor is going to be listening. We listen to him and he listens to us.”

David Greenfield, Met Council CEO and a member of the Jewish Advisory Council, said Adams fought hate crimes and antisemitism “well before it was popular to do so.” He also credited Adams for appointing a diverse range of Jewish leaders to top positions in his administration. (The mayor did garner criticism over the makeup of the council. Of the 37 members, at least 23 were Orthodox and only nine were women, as of July 2023.)

Greenfield and Potasnik both underscored the mayor’s decision to form the council. “What also matters is that the mayor has expressed that antisemitism is not just a Jewish issue. When it comes to antisemitism or hatred of the other, we’ll sit with faith leaders of all different denominations and state that this is our problem, not your problem,” Potasnik said.

Adams’ has been criticized by some leaders and advocates for not offering Muslims enough support amid the Israel-Hamas war. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called Adams “hypocritical” in March for hosting an Iftar event but not calling for a ceasefire. Still, Adams has made an effort to bolster relationships, including hosting a mayoral reception celebrating Arab heritage, expanding the legality of the Islamic call to prayer and hosting virtual meetings with Muslim leaders to discuss security measures around mosques.

Sheikh Musa Drammeh, founder of Muslim Media Corp., lauded Adams for being a champion for the city’s ethnic and community-based media outlets – many of which he said serve religious communities. After 9/11, Drammeh added, Adams was a friend to the Muslim community in a way that many other city leaders were not: “This guy has a background of walking his talk and practicing what he preaches.”

The Rev. Charles Galbreath, senior pastor of Alliance Tabernacle in Brooklyn, credited the mayor and the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnership for being consistent about outreach. He noted that historically, during times of crisis, elected officials have only then come knocking at faith leaders’ doors.

“What’s unique about this administration is a proactively cultivated relationship so that before the crisis took place, we already have that relationship,” Galbreath said. “They still come to us when there’s a need, but because there’s an established relationship it’s not starting off in a contentious way – rather in a meaningful, community-focused way.”

The Rev. Doyeon Park, president of the Buddhist Council of New York and the Buddhist religious life adviser for the Columbia University Buddhist Association, said the mayor’s office initiated a gathering with Buddhist teachers and leaders in 2022 that served as a venue to introduce various communities to Adams.

The improved access hasn’t necessarily led to a swell of tangible, policy-centered outcomes, but faith leaders pointed to benefits on a more granular level, like help with violations or getting bus stops in front of houses of worship. Several praised the Adams administration for working with faith communities while crafting the City of Yes housing plan and other housing policies. A new working group centered on faith-based affordable housing has helped guide this process. Faith leaders have largely rallied around the plan’s proposal to lift zoning requirements so faith-based organizations can convert properties into housing as long as the new development includes affordable housing.

“The faith community has always been vibrant. In our administration, they do have a big seat at the table,” Monrose said. “Of course we can always do more, but I can tell you we did build a solid foundation.”

Sheinkopf believes Adams’ work will translate to votes. “What that does is create a chorus around election time that will be mobilizing worshipers for him,” he said. “There are some who won’t like that. The left won’t like it. Whatever the (Brad) Lander coalition or constituency is won’t like it, but they are going to have to live with it. Adams starts out with an advantage organizing in places that he needs badly.”

Challengers emerge

Adams’ primary opponents are entering the race with their own plans to harness the city’s faith-based communities. While New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer aren’t likely to have the same broad appeal with faith-based communities, they could carve away at the base that helped Adams win in 2021.

Myrie remembers his mom waking him up “incredibly early” to attend the Christian Cultural Center when he was a boy. Today, he attends the Lenox Road Baptist Church in his Brooklyn district. Myrie is no stranger to partnering with faith leaders either, most recently having successfully fought against the proposed closure of SUNY Downstate Medical Center. “My faith teaches me that those of us who are in a position to help are not slightly encouraged to help, we are commanded to help,” Myrie said.

The Israel-Hamas war could end up having notable sway in the mayoral race. Lander, a prominent Jewish citywide elected official and a self-proclaimed “progressive Zionist,” has called for a ceasefire and sympathized with both Israeli hostages and the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed since Oct. 7. Lander’s support for a ceasefire and ties to the Democratic Socialists of America has caused some Jewish leaders to accuse him of playing both sides, even questioning his Jewish faith.

Lander has scoffed at the notion. He said he grew up in a deeply Jewish household and has been a “proud New York Jew” and seen the world through the lens of Jewish values his entire life. “The idea that were all created in God’s image – and that means fully equal, profoundly equal, but also with the spark of the divine in every person,” Lander said. “It’s your job to see and find it. That’s not always easy, but it always makes us better.”

Stringer, who did not respond to a request for comment, is also Jewish. The potential entry of Muslim Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America member from Queens, could shake up the race and give the Israel-Hamas war greater prominence.

Regardless of how his reelection race is going against these challengers, faith will remain a central part of the mayor’s identity. Reflecting on the 35 years they’ve known each other, Sharpton said the mayor leans on his faith in good times and bad. In wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Adams stood with Sharpton and other faith leaders and called for unity. 

“The mayor leaned on the scripture that day in making it clear that the sins of our past do not preclude us from making a better future for ourselves,” Sharpton said of the baptism in a written statement. “I think he brings that same idea, at a larger scale, to his work at City Hall.”