With prayer being a part of Inauguration Day and being sworn in with two (2) bibles you’re not the only one wondering about Harris’ religion and faith. Is she Catholic, like President Joe Biden, or something different? Here’s 10 quick facts you need to know about the new Vice President’s religion.
10 quick facts about Vice President Kamala Harris’ Religion And Faith:
- Kamala Harris is a Baptist Christ
- Kamala Harris grew up in an interfaith household.
- Kamala Harris was sworn into the Senate on her family Bible.
- Kamala Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish.
- Kamala Harris allegedly goes to church regularly.
- Kamala Harris base church is the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco
- Kamala Harris said the church has been a place where she “draws strength” and reflects.
- Kamala Harris shares “Jewish traditions and celebrations” with Emhoff at home.
- Harris’ mother was Hindu, and her father was Christian. She grew up attending services at a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple,
- Kamala Harris supports abortion, LGBT, gender transition and equality act just like president Biden.
Kamala Harris is Baptist.
The VP said in an October interview with Interfaith Youth Core that her “faith journey” started when she was young. “On Sundays, my mother would dress my sister, Maya, and me in our Sunday best and send us off to the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, where Maya and I sang in the children’s choir,” Harris told the publication. “That’s where I formed some of my earliest memories of the Bible’s teachings. It’s where I learned that ‘faith’ is a verb and that we must live it, and show it, in action.”
She grew up in an interfaith household.
Harris’ mother was Hindu, and her father was Christian. She grew up attending services at a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple, USA Today reports.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was from Chennai, India; her father, Donald Harris, from Jamaica. The two met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. Her name, Kamala, means “lotus” in Sanskrit and is another name for the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. She visited India multiple times as a girl and got to know her relatives there. But because her parents divorced when she was 7, she also grew up in Oakland and Berkeley attending predominantly Black churches. Her downstairs neighbour, Regina Shelton, often took Kamala and her sister, Maya, to Oakland’s 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland. Harris now considers herself a Black Baptist.
Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish.
The couple tied the knot in 2014. According to America Magazine, the couple smashed glass as part of the traditional Jewish custom at their wedding. Harris told Interfaith Youth Core that she shares “Jewish traditions and celebrations” with Emhoff at home. “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,” she said.
She was sworn into the Senate on her family Bible.
There were rumours circulating that Harris refused to be sworn into the Senate on a Bible, but that’s inaccurate. She used a family Bible for the occasion, noting that it was “well-worn,” per USA Today. “All right, that’s a good way to do it,” then-Vice President Biden said.
She tapped into her faith on the campaign trail.
In August 2019, Harris used parallels between what she hoped to achieve in politics and her faith. “Jesus tells us how we should define neighbour,” she said during a speech. “Jesus tells us, your neighbour is not just the person who lives next door, who drives the kind of car you drive, the person shares your zip code. Jesus tells us your neighbour is that man by the side of the road who you walk by, who has faced hardship.”This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Harris goes to church regularly.
Her base church is the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, although that’s expected to change for the next four years or so. The church’s pastor, Rev. Amos Brown, told the Associated Press that Harris is a “spiritual person” and “quintessential scholar.”
Harris told Interfaith Youth Core that church has been a place where she “draws strength” and reflects. “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,” she said
She was criticized for not proactively assisting in civil cases against Catholic clergy sex abuse during the years she served as a prosecutor. Survivors of sex abuse at the hands of priests say she resisted informal requests to help them with their cases and refused to release church records on abusive priests that had been gathered by her predecessor, Terence Hallinan.
