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Mayor Adams Says He Was Given a

Divine Message: ‘Talk About God’
New York City’s mayor doubled down on his melding of politics
and the pulpit, saying that God has spoken to him on occasions.

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Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed May 4 as the New York City Day of Prayer, coinciding with the National Day of Prayer. Hiroko
Masuike/The New York Times

By Dana Rubinstein

May 4, 2023 Updated 7:38 p.m. ET

When Mayor Eric Adams began to talk frequently about God a few
months back — how God elevated him to lead New York City, how
Mr. Adams implemented policy with a “godlike” approach, how the
separation of church and state was misguided — his timing was no
accident.

He was, he says, responding to the same divine voice he heard

decades ago, the one that he says prophesied that he would
become mayor on Jan. 1, 2022.

“The same voice I heard 32 years ago spoke to me a few months

ago and said, ‘Talk about God, Eric,’” Mr. Adams said on Thursday
at the Christian Cultural Center, a Brooklyn megachurch that has
become a favored political pulpit for many. “‘Talk about God.’”

Mr. Adams made his comments on the National Day of Prayer, a

day of observance created by President Harry S. Truman, a
Democrat, in 1952. But few New York City mayors have chosen to
formally commemorate the day or to speak so fervently about
religion — especially not in the way Mr. Adams has.

In February, for example, when he expressed disdain for the

separation of church and state, Mr. Adams asserted that “when we
took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.”

On Thursday, the mayor proclaimed the day to be the “New York

City Day of Prayer,” delivering a proclamation to that effect to the
Rev. A.R. Bernard, the political power broker who founded the
congregation in 1978.

“He wanted to show us all a perfectly imperfect person can rise to

the highest political power in a city in the most powerful country,”
Mr. Adams said, referring to God.

Mayor Adams, speaking at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, exalted the rise
of Black political power in New York. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

There is little doubt that Mr. Adams believes he is speaking to his

base, and in the delivery of his speech on Thursday Mr. Adams
seemed at ease.

He lamented homelessness and despair in a city filled with the

faithful, and he urged worshipers to tend to the needy. He exalted
the rise of Black political power in New York City.

“I hear people outside saying, fight the power,” he said. “Negro, we

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are the power. Now what are we going to do with the power?
Because if we took the power that prayer produced just to attack How to
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Jennifer Skeete, a 59-year-old parishioner, liked what she heard. Truck Across the
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“It shows you that it doesn’t matter where you came from or what Way Too Much
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you went through, God can use you,” she said. “As a Black person
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In a recent Quinnipiac University poll , Mr. Adams’s job approval

rating exceeded 50 percent with only Black New Yorkers. Among
all New York City voters, Mr. Adams scored best among New
Yorkers 65 years of age and older.

A Siena College Research Institute poll from 2022 showed Mr.

Adams with comparatively strong support among Black and older
New Yorkers. In the 2021 Democratic primary for mayor, Mr.
Adams won handily in the East New York neighborhood of
Brooklyn where he spoke on Thursday.

Jennifer Skeete, a worshiper at the Brooklyn church, said

she understood Mr. Adams’s message and said that his
references to God resonated with her. Hiroko Masuike/The
New York Times

Growing up in Southeast Queens, Mr. Adams attended what he

described in a recent interview as a nondenominational church of
the Church of Christ, and he retains an affiliation to that church, his
spokesman said on Thursday.

A website for the New York City Church of Christ includes a

mission statement that includes a phrase that would seem natural
for Mr. Adams to embrace: “We are imperfect people who believe
in a perfect God who loves us and expects us to pay that love
forward.”

The New York City public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who also
has roots in the Black church, spoke at the Christian Cultural
Center on Thursday, too. He was the lone speaker to bring up the
recent chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a Black man suffering
from mental illness, on the New York City subway.

In a subsequent interview, Mr. Williams suggested that Mr. Adams,

among others, “should all be on the same page that what happened
to Jordan Neely is not what’s supposed to happen in a city and
state where people are saying that faith guides us.”

Jumaane Williams, the New York City public advocate, was

the lone speaker at the Christian Cultural Center on
Thursday to bring up the recent chokehold death of Jordan
Neely on a subway train. Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

In response to a question about Mr. Adams’s Messianic tone, Mr.

Williams noted that “God allowed Donald Trump to be president.
So in what context is he speaking? I often think I wish the mayor
would take some time to rearrange how he communicates things.”

Mr. Adams did not seem ready to heed Mr. Williams’s advice.

“I remember the day like it was yesterday when God said, ‘Jan. 1,
2022, you’re going to be the mayor,’” Mr. Adams said on Thursday.
“I said, ‘What?’”

Emma Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.

Dana Rubinstein is a reporter on the Metro desk covering New York City politics. Before
joining The Times in 2020, she spent nine years at the publication now known as Politico
New York. @ danarubinstein

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