Mayor Adams — unfazed by critics — shares his thoughts on God, prayer and the future of faith in NYC

Mayor Adams believes in God — as many in New York City must know by now — but his vision of a higher power isn’t necessarily what one might expect.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily News, the mayor elaborated on how he perceives the almighty and explained that, to him, God is “rooted in this universal idea that there’s something larger than us that we lean into and have faith in.”

“People have defined it as Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, so many other Gods throughout the generations, but still the underlying principles are really altruism, compassion, treat your neighbors with kindness, help those who need help — the underlying principles are the same. They don’t change,” he said.

“So when I think about it, I don’t see any image. I don’t see an individual characteristic. I see this universal idea that there’s something bigger than us, and that there’s some underlying principles that are universal in all our faith and beliefs.”

As a child, Adams says he learned to love God from his mother, some ministers and through the kindness of others — and it’s those lessons that inform much of what he’s had to say about religion in recent weeks.

And the mayor has said a mouthful.

He has called into question the separation of church and state, said that “when we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools” and expressed his hope that the Big Apple will become “a place of God.”

Earlier this year, he signaled that his administration would introduce breathing and mindfulness exercises into city schools, a move some say is grounded by the underpinnings of Eastern religion.

Adams was raised in the Church of God in Christ, and in his interview with The News, he described that upbringing as a positive one — while also acknowledging others have had much different experiences when it comes to religion.

“I have so many wonderful experiences in church. The Salvation Army coming into our home feeding us from time to time, the women of the church delivering food to us, giving us Christmas gifts, the church members on the block coming out and helping us,” he said. “A negative experience can impact your belief on a good principle. What I mean is that there are many people who demonize those who are Muslim because of the exploitation of the Muslim belief when the actions of those who were abusive had nothing to do with the belief.

“When you look at my life — just the devastation of it — I’m supposed to be sitting in Rikers right now,” he added. “And it was only because in the darkest moments, people were praying, and that prayer gave me this sense of hope.”

With the city facing serious fiscal headwinds, a migrant crisis and rising homelessness, hope, he says, is what he’s now trying to instill in New Yorkers. Relying more heavily on the city’s faith leaders is part of that plan.

“They fill the gap where government has missed. If we don’t have these religious institutions, we’d be in a lot of trouble. Go look at where all the food pantries are,” he said. “I want to get the faith-based leaders more involved than what we have been doing because I think they’re a powerful force, and for the most part, they do it for free.”

Adams speaks often about his personal story — he was arrested as a teen, he and his brother were both beaten by cops in a Queens police precinct, and he was targeted by fellow NYPD officers when he spoke out against the department he eventually worked for and where he rose to the rank of captain. Much of that story, he says, touches his spiritual journey.

“Minister Nixon is the one that sticks out in my head so much. He was just a larger than life figure. I remember when we were arrested, we thought we were going to come to church that Sunday and everyone was going to sort of ostracize us, but it was just the opposite,” he said. “They talked about praying for us, being with us.”

At a press conference a few weeks ago, Adams told reporters he doesn’t believe in imposing prayer in schools, but he clearly does believe in its benefits, as well as those offered by meditation and other practices.

“Mindfulness, yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, walks, sitting by the park — none of these things have to do with religion. They all have to do with going inward, and what I’ve learned going through my own health journeys , it’s so amazing to me that although all the data is there — how all of these ways of going inward are extremely helpful — for some reason we have become ashamed of them, and we have treated them I think incorrectly,” he told The News. “Prayer is another way of going inward.”

Not surprisingly, not everyone is convinced his rhetoric is adding value to the city’s political discourse.

David Orenstein, an anthropology professor at Medgar Evers College and former head of the Secular Humanist Society of New York, views Adams’ words on prayer as a “slippery slope” and believes they could eventually lead to some legal issues for the city if he isn’t careful.

“The closer we get to the line of sanctioning — whether we want to call it prayer, whether we want to call it meditation — you’re getting closer and closer to the line where you’re going to essentially get to the point where you’ve worn down the law,” he said. “It’s deeply concerning for the mayor of a very important American city, which prides itself on its diversity and its secularism, to come out and say he’s making his political choices and his policy decisions based primarily on his faith”

Adams appears unfazed by such admonishments.

“I’m not going to govern with the signature of the bishop, of the pope, of the imam, of the rabbi,” he said. “But I’m going to take those faithful spiritual beliefs that I have to make the right humane decisions. And you’re seeing them.”