Sen. Kamala Harris, who is Black and Indian American, will become the first woman of color on a major-party presidential ticket when she and former Vice President Joe Biden are formally nominated at the Democratic convention this week. Her multi-faith spiritual background is also being discussed as a shift in the political paradigm: Harris identifies as a Black Baptist, her mother was Hindu, and her husband is Jewish.
"She symbolizes the changing religious landscape, she is the embodiment of religious pluralism," said Rev. Irene Monroe on Boston Public Radio Monday. "I think it's really wonderful, and the interesting thing about it is, they cannot say she's not a person of faith."
Monroe noted that the American Methodist Episcopal Church issued a statement highlighting a throughline between Harris and the achievements of Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to run for president, and a woman of color.
However, the announcement of Harris as Biden's running mate was also met with some criticism. Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, the highest ranking Catholic Church official in Rhode Island, disparaged Biden's faith, tweeting that this will be the "first time in awhile that the Democratic ticket hasn't had a Catholic on it."
Biden is Catholic, but The Boston Globe reported that Tobin's remark was because of Biden's support for women's reproductive rights.
Emmett G. Price said he thought the criticism over candidates' views on abortion is merely a "smoke screen" to distract from the broader belief systems at play during this election.
"I think this is really about dividing the nation based on belief systems that are not necessarily religious," Price said. "This is about who is right and who claims the authority and ownership of the truth. ... I think people are going to stand on religious milk crates to make it about religion, but this is about who can you trust, who do you feel comfortable with, and as the activist Angela Davis said, who really would you rather fight with."
Reverend Irene Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist, the Boston voice for Detour's African American Heritage Trail, and a Visiting Researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology.
Emmett G. Price III is Professor of Worship, Church and Culture, and Founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Together they host the All Rev'd Up podcast.
