Kamala Harris leans on faith traditions to reach voters for Democrats
Kamala Harris (middle) poses with Civil Rights leader and Baptist pastor Jesse Jackson (left) and Rev. Amos Brown, Civil Rights veteran and pastor of Third Street Baptist Church in San Francisco in 2007. Photo courtesy of Third Street Baptist Church.
When it comes to spirituality, Kamala Harris has been molded and shaped by several faith traditions: Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism. This week she will take the main stage at the virtual Democratic National Convention in events streamed online, kicked off by an interfaith service on Aug. 16.
As a child Harris sang in the choir at Oakland’s 23rd Avenue Church of God. During a political speech, she once said “faith combined with determination will always see us through difficult times.”
As a teenager she and her sister went to a Hindu Temple with their mother, from India, and as a young prosecutor, Harris joined the Third Street Baptist Church in San Francisco, led by Civil Rights veteran Rev. Amos Brown, a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King. Brown, 79, has pastored the church for 45 years.
When Harris married lawyer Douglas Emhoff six years ago, their wedding, because he is Jewish, included the tradition of breaking glass, and her new stepchildren began calling her “Momala,” which comes from a Yiddish term “mamaleh” and happens to rhyme with her name.
“In her selection, Kamala becomes an example of what Martin Luther King called the ‘beloved community,’” said Brown, a veteran political activist and former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “She is a member of our church and I knew her mother.”
On Sunday, the Democratic National Convention hosted a special interfaith service called “Uniting America, ” which featured various religious leaders.
“This week the Democrats will celebrate the rich and diverse traditions of faith that are very much a part of American society,” said Rev. Derrick Harkins, Director of Interfaith Outreach for the DNC. “It’s not just dropping in on the fourth Sunday and asking for votes. It’s about relationships.”
The virtual interfaith service Sunday began with prayers from Native American leaders that included Rex Lee Jim, former Vice President of the Navajo Nation from Rock Point, Arizona and Marin Webster Denning, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.
“On behalf of the Interfaith Conference of Milwaukee we are honored to offer this interfaith prayer of gratitude, hope and healing,” Pardeep Kaleka, Executive Director of Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee. “May we be ever more committed to building a just compassionate world that honors those who have been rendered voiceless.”
The service also featured music from gospel artist William Murphy whose hit song matches the hopes of the Biden and Harris. ”This is your season for grace and favor, ” said actress and singer Tamela Mann, who also performed.
Bishop Samuel Green of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said “America may not be perfect but it can be better,” and Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, spiritual leader of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York closed out the event with a prayer.
Born on Oct. 20, 1964 to an African-American father who taught at Stanford University and an Indian mother who was a cancer researcher, Harris grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, which is often considered the epicenter of radicalism, progressive thought and unique modern faith, housed in store fronts and warehouses in the 1960’s.
“On Sundays, our mother would send us off to the 23rd Avenue Church of God, piled with the other kids in the back of Mrs. Shelton’s station wagon,” Harris wrote in her book “The Truths We Hold,” released last year. “My earliest memories of the teachings of the Bible were of a loving God, a God who asked us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and to defend the rights of the poor and needy. This is where I learned that ‘faith’ is a verb; I believe we must live our faith and show faith in action.”
In 1968, Edwin Hawkins released his Grammy award-winning hit “Oh Happy Day,” and the Northern California State Youth Choir was one of the hottest groups in the country. Going to church and rocking to contemporary gospel was a cool thing for young people.
In her 2019 book, Harris talked about how her mother was a singer who loved to hear Edwin, Walter and Tremain Hawkins, whose church in Oakland was called The Love Center.
”As a child music filled our home,” Harris wrote. “My mother loved to sing along to gospel—from Aretha Franklin’s early work to the Edwin Hawkins Singers. She had won an award in India for her singing, and I loved hearing that voice.”
Harris went on to write that her sister Maya and her sang in the children’s choir, and her favorite hymn was “Fill My Cup, Lord.”
“I remember one Mother’s Day, we recited an ode to moms,” Harris wrote. “Each of us posed as one of the letters in the word ‘mother.’ I was cast as the letter T, and I stood there proudly, arms stretched out to both sides. “T is for the time she cares for me and loves me in every way.”
In the weeks to come, the Democrats will be reaching out to faith communities, and political observers say this is where Harris gives the Democrats a boost, particularly in the African American community.
“We respect the importance of the Black church as an anchor within the Black community,” Harkins told Religion Unplugged, “and we know that educating, organizing and mobilizing around the critical issues of our day has always been part of the fabric of the Black church.”
But all is not well in the faith community and the Democratic Party. While most faith leaders have no desire to consider voting for President Donald Trump, some privately expressed concerns about the party’s and Harris’s positions in favor on same-sex marriage, abortion criminal justice reform.
“The African American faith community continues to be the Democratic Party’s victory over racism, sexism and other divisions in the country,” said Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner, Co-Chair of the National Black Clergy Network and a former member of President Obama’s faith-based task force. “The challenge for the party today is to truly become a big tent party that represents the diversity of views in the Black church in terms of issues of marriage, the sanctity of life as well social justice. That is the challenge that the party has yet to meet.”
Senior contributor Hamil Harris is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland College Park and has been a lecturer at Morgan State University. Harris is minister at the Glenarden Church of Christ and a police chaplain. A longtime reporter at The Washington Post, Harris was on the team of Post reporters that published the series “Being a Black Man.” He also was the reporter on the video project that accompanied the series that won two Emmy Awards, the Casey Medal and the Peabody Award. In addition to writing for ReligionUnplugged, Harris contributes to outlets such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Christian Chronicle and the Washington Informer.