in World News New Age Slogans And Social Justice Activism Sum Up Kamala Harris’ Religious Beliefs
Casey Chalk
Harris’ religious beliefs embody a syncretistic pluralism that appeals to the left’s perversely manipulative obsessions with identitarianism.
What does Kamala Harris believe, and why does she believe it? It’s a harder question to answer than one might think for someone who has been in national-level politics for almost a decade, and state politics for almost fifteen years before that. A survey of Harris’ historic comments on her religious beliefs — and what her supporters say about them — suggests that what matters is less the substance of her faith but its symbolism (and, perhaps more cynically, its alignment with the Democrat Party platform).
What Does Harris Believe?
Harris comes from a religiously diverse family background: her mother, a native of Tamil Nadu in southern India, was a Hindu until she met her future husband, Jamaican American Donald J. Harris, after which she converted to his Christianity. Nevertheless, Religion News Service (RNS) tells us, Harris’ mother “instilled in her two daughters a reverence for Hindu temples.” Moreover, as corporate media never tire of reminding us, the name Kamala means “lotus” in Sanskrit and has special significance in Hinduism, as it is “closely associated with Sri-Lakshmi: the goddess of sovereignty, auspiciousness, fecundity, wealth and good fortune.”
Raised in a Baptist church, Harris once wrote that her “earliest memories of the teachings of the Bible were of a loving God, a God who asked us to ‘speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves’ and to ‘defend the rights of the poor and needy.’” She elsewhere told RNS, “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 added:
Ever since I was a girl, church has not only been a place where I draw strength, it’s been a place for reflection, a place to study the teachings of the Lord and to feel grounded in a complex world. … Church still plays that role for me. And 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.
Today Harris is a member of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, a predominantly black church, whose pastor Rev. Amos C. Brown declared that Harris “came to this church because she knew our ways, she knew our history … This church has always had a balanced spirituality: social justice and personal fulfillment and salvation.”
That religious commitment to social justice is also reportedly what inclines Harris toward Hinduism. RNS reports, “Part of what she has drawn from her Hindu side is her commitment to social justice,” noting that Harris has identified Hinduism with her maternal grandfather’s “dedication to the freedom struggle against the British during the Partition of India in the 1940s.”