Kamala Harris Faith: Kamala Harris Said About Her Faith. Harris grew up visiting both Christian churches and Hindu temples.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris stands during music worship on Sunday.
Kelsey is an assistant managing editor for the Deseret News. She covers religion, sports and the Supreme Court.
Kamala Harris comes to her 2024 campaign for president with much more exposure to the worldтАЩs religions than typical American politicians.
The vice president was introduced to both Hinduism and Christianity as a child and has since become part of a Jewish family.
Calling Harris a Baptist or a Christian is accurate, but it doesnтАЩt capture the nuance of her religious background, experts say.
тАЬShe has a unique and interesting religious identity. тАж SheтАЩs been part of both mainline American Baptist churches and Hindu fellowships, and sheтАЩs married to a Jewish man,тАЭ said Nathan Finn, senior fellow on religious liberty with the Southern Baptist ConventionтАЩs Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
He added, тАЬI donтАЩt know that weтАЩve had another president who is this religiously diverse and who has had that kind of experience.тАЭ
What would a Kamala Harris presidency mean for religious freedom?
As Finn noted, Harris did not have the purely Christian upbringing thatтАЩs been the norm for presidential candidates in the United States.
Through her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, she was connected to Hinduism, learning about Hindu leaders and attending Hindu ceremonies in the U.S. and India.
Even her name, тАЬKamala,тАЭ is significant in Hinduism and other South Asian religions, according to The Conversation.
тАЬMost significantly, the kamala, or lotus, is closely associated with Sri-Lakshmi: the goddess of sovereignty, auspiciousness, fecundity, wealth and good fortune, who is worshiped by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains,тАЭ the article said.
Harris has said in the past that her connection to India and to Hinduism fueled her commitment to social justice, according to Religion News Service.
Kamala Harris meets people before a Corinthian Baptist Church service, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019, in Des Moines, Iowa. Harris attended services at both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple growing up.
Kamala Harris is Baptist. Throughout her political career, Harris has also drawn strength and inspiration from the Baptist tradition, which is one of the many Christian denominations that comprise Protestant Christianity.
She was introduced to the Baptist Church by her father, Donald Harris, and still identifies as a Baptist today, as the Deseret News previously reported.
In her memoir, Harris cited her early experiences in Christian churches to explain some of her work in politics.
My тАЬearliest memories of the teachings of the Bible were of a loving God, a God who asked us to тАШspeak up for those who cannot speak for themselvesтАЩ and to тАШdefend the rights of the poor and needy,тАЩтАЭ she wrote, per Sojourners.
HarrisтАЩ home church is Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, which is led by the Rev. Amos C. Brown.
The Rev. Brown took a class from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a college student and was active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
He remains known as a civil rights activist, as well as for building bridges with leaders from other faith groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
тАЬYou are the quintessential embodiment of the best leadership in the faith community of the United States of America anywhere to be found south of heaven, north of hell,тАЭ the Rev.
Brown said about President Russell M. Nelson in June 2021, as the Deseret News reported at the time.
The Rev. Brown recently told Sojourners that the vice president was drawn to Third Baptist due to its work on civil rights.
тАЬShe came to this church because she knew our ways, she knew our history,тАЭ he said. тАЬThis church has always had a balanced spirituality: social justice and personal fulfillment and salvation.тАЭ
Harris also has extended exposure to Judaism, since her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and stepkids are Jewish.
Since Harris was elected vice president, Emhoff has worked to combat antisemitism and other forms of religious violence, as the Deseret News previously reported.
In an interview for that story, the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, highlighted HarrisтАЩ ties to Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity, noting that her religiously diverse background makes her stand out.
тАЬI donтАЩt think weтАЩve ever before had a candidate who has navigated various religious spaces and celebrated those various spaces in such an intimate way as the vice president,тАЭ he said.
SheтАЩs coming from a background where one parent is from the Hindu tradition and one parent is Christian from the Caribbean.
She chose to go to Howard, which has been associated with the Black American Christian tradition, and then married a Jewish man and helped raise his children, who are Jewish.тАЭ
