Kamala Harris’ Baptist faith is rooted in Martin Luther King and Gandhi

WASHINGTON (AP) — Black clergy who know Vice President Kamala Harris, now the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, are thrilled by the mix of traditions and teachings which have shaped her religious faith and social justice values.

She is a Baptist, married to a Jew. She is inspired by the work of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., in addition to the religious traditions of her native India, where her mother comes from, and the Black Church.

“She had the best of both worlds,” says 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 carries special symbolic significance after President Joe Biden’s exit from the campaign trail. Not only because she could be the country’s first female president, but she is a Black American with South Asian roots, and her two cultures are inextricably linked.

Clerics and scholars have noted that the concept of nonviolent resistance, a key strategy in the American civil rights movement, gained influence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi in India, who inspired American black preachers and civil rights leaders for a long time. Gandhi was a Hindu who preached Hindu-Muslim unity.

“Perhaps through the Negroes the unadulterated message of pacifism will be conveyed to the world,” Gandhi told a delegation led by the eminent black theologian from the United States, Howard Thurman, in 1935.

These shared cultural connections can be found in Harris’ family history. Her maternal grandmother was a community organizer, and her grandfather, PV Gopalan, was a civil servant who joined the resistance to India’s independence from Britain.

Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, met King while she was a student on the University of California, Berkeley, where she participated in civil rights demonstrations.

“She was aware of history, aware of struggle, aware of inequality. She was born with a sense of justice etched into her soul,” Harris wrote of her mother in her 2019 book “The Truths We Hold.”

Harris was also influenced by the Black Church tradition.

“The vice president has a strong Christian faith, which she’s talked about a lot,” said Jamal Simmons, a pastor’s son and Harris’ former communications director, who has helped candidates construct influence in faith communities as a Democratic strategist.

“She was raised in a Christian church and attended Christian churches all her life. I think that still has an influence on her, her worldview and her ethical commitments,” he said.

Dallas pastor Freddie D. Haynes III met Harris at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, starting a friendship that has lasted greater than 30 years.

Haynes — whose family has close ties to Third Baptist — was a guest preacher visiting his mother on the time. Harris, then the Alameda County district attorney, had just joined the congregation.

“She always understood that Jesus and justice go hand in hand. So it’s not hard to see why she chose a church that had that DNA of justice,” said Haynes, whose grandfather shaped Third Baptist’s social justice identity as pastor, a practice his father continued during his temporary time in the pulpit.

Over the years, Haynes and Harris bonded over their shared faith. Haynes said she admired his ability to mix black Christian theology in the pulpit with the rhythm and cadence of hip-hop. It was Harris’ commitment to serving essentially the most vulnerable that impressed him.

“Her spirituality is based on a sense of justice for those who are different, 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 her deep faith. The friendships and service she learned at her alma mater are key to understanding the spirituality that fuels her sense of purpose, said Matthew Watley, pastor of nearby Kingdom Fellowship AME, one among the fastest-growing churches in America.

Watley said Howard’s commitment to service through religious passion and academic achievement never leaves his students. Several of Harris’ friends, including a line sister in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., worship at Kingdom Fellowship, where Harris has attended twice in recent years.

Joshua DuBois, former head of the White House Office of Religious and Neighborhood Partnerships, said Harris, influenced by cultural and religious traditions from each the East and the West, exudes a form of ecumenism that makes her candidacy appealing to a broad range of spiritual voters.

“I think presidents are grounded in their faith and inspired by their faith in many ways. It’s a wellspring from which they draw,” said DuBois, who served under former President Barack Obama. “When you know the world has gone crazy, how do you connect to something bigger than yourself?”

“I also think faith can help you set priorities,” he added. “Often as a president, you can focus on just one thing, and you’re faced with the question: Who needs you the most? I think that’s what Jesus did. That’s what Gandhi did.”

Black women, including clergy and activists who haven’t stopped organizing and praying because the COVID-19 pandemic, are quick to endorse Harris.

Pastor Traci Blackmon, who recently joined 4,000 black clergy on a conference call supporting Harris, said the outpouring of support for her comes amid the anticipated ugliness and backlash she is going to face in a fight with former President Donald Trump.

“She should be president because she is equipped, she is prepared and she is the best candidate for the job,” said Blackmon, a pastor of the United Church of Christ in St. Louis who spoke to the AP as Harris was rallying delegates.

The conversation was organized by Black Church PAC, co-founded by the Rev. Michael McBride, a longtime Harris supporter and pastor of The Way Christian Center in Berkeley. McBride told the AP that he was still speaking from the pulpit Sunday when Biden withdrew his candidacy. After the blessing, McBride said, one among the church moms stood up, shared the news and asked, in essence, “What do we do now?”

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McBride and many other black pastors who’ve called for an end to Israel’s war with Hamas will look to Harris for leadership that can bring peace. Brown, her own pastor, was amongst black clergy who’ve visited the White House in recent months to appeal to the Biden administration.

“For me, it’s an issue of peace and justice,” Brown said.

On Sunday, after Biden endorsed Harris, she called Brown in the evening, about an hour before the AP reached him at his San Francisco home.

“I’m calling my pastor,” Harris said in her typical greeting, referring to the person her office staff is required to satisfy during their first week on the job.

She wanted her pastor to hope — and Brown prayed, too — that Harris “would be the perfect instrument to bring healing, hope and wholeness” to the United States of America.