It was hot as hell outside in the Bronx, but cool and intimate as a church picnic inside the Lovinger Theater. As pastors, city officials, and law enforcement officers puffed down the steep stairs of Lehman College’s Lovinger Theater, Eric Adams leaned forward to reflect on the role of faith in political leadership and the role of faith-groups in building a better city.

The Wednesday afternoon event on July 30^th,  “Faith And The City: A Conversation with Mayor Eric Adams”, was organized by the Mayor’s Office of Faith Based & Community Partnerships. Adams faces several opponents in his bid for re-election on November 4. At present he is running behind in the polls, which favor progressive newcomer Zohran Mamdani. Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa, and Jim Walden are also running for the office.

Adams reaffirmed the mayor’s public identity as a man of faith as well as his commitment to working with faith-based groups to enact mayoral initiatives if he wins a second term in office.

Adams told A Journey through NYC religion about his early Wednesday morning routine to get  him through the day. He began by thanking God “for being in my life and allowing me to be a servant.”

The newly born newspaper “magnate” went to a Methodist revival meeting in Brooklyn and found that he himself was the object of the Spirit. “In a Methodist revival—it was in the Old 18^th Street Church—I had fallen under the spell of the preacher’s fiery eloquence. Brother Simmons was of the old circuit-riders’ stock…and he brought me to the altar quickly…”

There was an impulse among some religionists of the time that faith and the world does not mix. Riis recalled, “In fact with the heat of the convert, I decided on the spot to throw up my editorial work and take up preaching.” At the same time many churches were railing against Sunday papers as a sacrilege.

Fortunately, the pastor believed Riis should follow his vocational calling as a journalist. Riis says that Rev. Ichabod Simmons told him, “’No, No Jacob… not that. We have preachers enough. What the world needs is consecrated pens.’”