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Harris’ Faith Background
A faithful member of the Third Street Baptist Church in San Francisco, Kamala Harris grew up attending the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland. While a deeply committed and faithful Christian, Vice President Harris has great respect for other faith traditions. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan and relatives in India took her to Hindu temples. She joins her husband, Doug Emhoff, in Jewish traditions and celebrations.
“I was raised to live my faith,” she said at the National Baptist Convention meeting in 2022. “Marching for civil rights, my parents pushed me in a stroller. That was faith in action.”
“Ever since I was a girl, church has not only been a place where I draw strength, it’s been a place for reflection, a place to study the teachings of the Lord and to feel grounded in a complex world,” she said in a Religion News Service interview in 2020. “Church still plays that role for me. And I also draw something else from it as well: a sense of community and belonging where we can build lasting relationships and be there for one another in times of need.”
Kamala Harris’ Faith Guides Her Path
One of Harris’ first actions after finding out she would lead the Democratic ticket in 2024 was to call her pastor, Rev. Amos Brown of the Third Street Baptist Church in San Francisco, who has known her family for more than two decades.
“I congratulated her because she’ll be a great president, and we had prayer. She was so gracious and thankful that I took the time,” said Brown.
“She is an encourager; she encourages all people regardless of their social station in life,” said Brown. “She is a role model for womanhood, and just human decency and dignity at its best.
Kamala Harris has personally spoken of her deep faith many times.
“I can trace my belief in the importance of public service back to learning the parable of the good Samaritan and other biblical teachings about looking out for our neighbors,” she said in the RNS interview.
Regarding the Hindu and Jewish influences in her life (her husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish), Harris said, “From all of these traditions and teachings, I’ve learned that faith is not only something we express in church and prayerful reflection, but also in the way we live our lives, do our work and pursue our respective callings.”
Additionally, Harris has said that her time worshiping at the 23rd Avenue Church of God is “where [she] formed some of [her] earliest memories of the Bible’s teachings.”
“It’s where I learned that ‘faith’ is a verb,” said Harris. “And that we must live it, and show it, in action.”
Does Harris’ Faith Influence Her Leadership Roles?
“The God I have always believed in is a loving God,” said Harris. “A God who asks us to serve others and speak up for others, especially those who are not wealthy or powerful and cannot speak up for themselves.”
“Over the course of my career, I’ve always tried to be an advocate for the voiceless and vulnerable, whether it was survivors of sexual assault or California homeowners defrauded by big banks,” Harris has said of her time as a prosecutor in California.
Harris has also been a strong advocate of “religious freedom and tolerance,” saying that she will “uphold and protect them — while protecting believers of all faiths.”
Her Favorite Bible Verse
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
“It’s a reminder that God will see us through to the other side of whatever challenge we’re facing so long as we do the work and hold onto our faith,” Harris said. “Like many people of faith, I have private conversations with God where I usually ask for the strength and protection to make good decisions and do the right thing.”
What do Faith Leaders Say about Kamala Harris?
Rev. Lauren Jones Mayfield, Associate Pastor at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, was invited to the White House in 2021 to participate in a roundtable discussion on reproductive health care with Harris.
“Harris honored my religious voice as I intended for her to hear it, a deep valuing of American religious liberty and reproductive freedoms,” said Jones Mayfield. “The vice president made clear her own support for reproductive health for all Americans alongside her ongoing commitments to religious liberty. [....] Harris honored our collective, clerical voice that celebrates the American right for a patient to choose their best course of medical treatment with their doctor, family and faith leader if it’s so desired.”