WASHINGTON — Black clergy who know Vice President Kamala Harris, now the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, marvel at the fusion of traditions and teachings that have molded her religious faith and social justice values.
A Baptist married to a Jewish man, she’s inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s native India as well as the Black Church.
“She’s had the best of two worlds,” said her longtime pastor, the Rev. Amos Brown, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco.
In interviews, religious leaders and theologians told The Associated Press that Harris’ candidacy has special symbolic significance following President Joe Biden’s departure from election campaign. Not only because she would be the nation’s first female president, but she’s a Black American with South Asian roots and her two cultures are intrinsically linked.
The clergy and scholars noted that the concept of nonviolent resistance, a critical strategy in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, gained influence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi in India, who was an inspiration for many decades to America’s Black preachers and civil rights leaders.
“It may be through the Negroes that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to the world,” Gandhi said in 1935 to a visiting delegation led by prominent Black U.S. theologian Howard Thurman.
Those shared cultural links can be found in Harris’ family history, too. Her maternal grandmother was a community organizer, and her grandfather P.V. Gopalan, was a civil servant who joined the resistance to win India’s independence from Britain.
Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, even met King as a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, where she participated in civil rights demonstrations.
“She was conscious of history, conscious of struggle, conscious of inequities. She was born with a sense of justice imprinted on her soul,” Harris wrote of her mother in her 2019 book “The Truths We Hold.”
The Black Church tradition also influenced Harris.
“The vice president has a strong Christian faith that she’s talked about a lot,” said Jamal Simmons, a pastor’s son and Harris’ former communications director. As a strategist, he has helped candidates make inroads with faith communities.
“She was raised in a Christian church, and attended Christian churches throughout her life, and I think that still influences her, her worldview and her ethical commitments,” he said.
The Rev. Freddie D. Haynes III, a pastor in Dallas, first met Harris at Third Baptist in San Francisco, sparking their more than 30-year friendship.
Haynes — whose family has close ties to Third Baptist — was guest preaching at the time while visiting his mother. Harris, then the Alameda County district attorney, had just joined the congregation.
“She has always understood that Jesus and justice go together. So, it’s not hard to see why she chose a church that has that kind of justice DNA,” said Haynes, whose grandfather shaped Third Baptist’s social justice identity as its pastor. Then his father carried it on during his short time in the pulpit.
Through the years, Haynes and Harris connected over their shared faith. Haynes said she admired his ability to blend Black Christian theology in the pulpit with the cadence and rhythm of hip-hop. It was Harris’ commitment to serving the most vulnerable that impressed him.
“Her spirituality has been informed by a sense of justice for those who are othered, disadvantaged, and treated as second-class citizens,” said Haynes, who leads Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas.
As a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Harris was immersed in a cultural environment influenced by deep faith. The fellowship and service she learned at her alma mater is key to understanding the spirituality driving her sense of purpose, said Matthew Watley, pastor of nearby Kingdom Fellowship AME, one of the fastest growing churches in America.
Watley said Howard’s commitment to service through religious passion and academic prowess never leaves its students. Several of Harris’ friends, including a line sister in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., worship at Kingdom Fellowship.
Joshua DuBois, former head of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said because of the influence of Eastern and Western cultural and religious traditions, Harris exudes a kind of ecumenism that makes her candidacy appealing to an array of religious voters.
“I think that presidents are grounded in their faith and inspired by their faith in numerous ways. It’s the wellspring that they draw from,” said DuBois, who worked under former President Barack Obama’s administration. “When you know the world is going mad how do you connect to something larger than yourself?”
