None of this is a good look. As City Councilman Chris Hilbert said: “I’m assuming as the senior pastor, the mayor would have had some influence on who does construction work at his church.”

We’re not talking about some abstract concept. If the mayor plays a role in doling out high-level, high-paying positions to members of his flock, he and his church stand to gain.

We have separation of church and state in our nation. But in Richmond, the mayor’s historic church and City Hall appear to be joined at the hip.

“I wonder what it looks like when you go down in the ranks?” said Julian Maxwell Hayter, a historian and an assistant professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond. But he cautioned against portraying Jones as an anomaly.

“Unfortunately, we’re living in a particularly cynical political age,” he said. “This sort of cronyism is part and parcel of American politics. It happens everywhere.”

What hasn’t traditionally happened in Richmond is the clergyman as political leader. I can’t say I’m disappointed. Politics can be a dirty, morally compromising business that would debase any clergyman or clergywoman with constant exposure.