Donald Trump brandishes a performative rendition of the Christian faith as a political prop to advance authoritarian theocracy, while Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden has endorsed to take his place as the Democratic nominee, practices the Christian faith she was raised in, while embracing her interfaith family.
Although he has reportedly mocked his conservative Christian leaders behind their backs, was not active in church before running for president and says he’s never asked God for forgiveness, Trump has manufactured mass far-right devotion among his base through moves like overturning Roe v. Wade. Surviving an assassination attempt will only heighten MAGA zealotry, as we saw with the surge of Christian nationalist narrative claiming Trump survived only by the will of God.
Harris grew up attending 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland. “I was raised to live my faith,” she said at the National Baptist Convention, USA, Annual Meeting in 2022. “Marching for civil rights, my parents pushed me in a stroller. That was faith in action.”
Harris roots her personal Christian faith in the prophetic tradition of the Black Church. “Just think, after slavery was outlawed in our country, the founders of this very convention came together to protect the freedom of worship,” she said at the National Baptist Convention. “As Black people in our nation battled racist laws and ideologies, men and women of the cloth were the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in America. And they, then, following the teachings of Christ, built coalitions of people of all faiths and races and walks of life, because they understood and knew the importance of the collective.”
“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 a Religion News Service interview in 2020.
Best in Moderation
Article URL : https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/kamala-harris-christian-faith-religious-freedom-rcna163011