Where does Kamala Harris stand on issues of faith?

Where does Kamala Harris stand on issues of faith? Here are 10 quick facts to give you a briefing:

1. Harris has a Baptist background. According to the National Catholic Reporter, a downstairs neighbour, Regina Shelton, often took Kamala and her sister, Maya, to Oakland’s 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland. A few years ago Harris told the publication Interfaith Youth Core: ‘I sang in the children’s choir. That’s where I formed some of my earliest memories of the Bible’s teachings. It’s where I learned that "faith" is a verb and that we must live it, and show it, in action.'
2. But her mother was herself a Hindu and so Harris also attended events at a Hindu temple as a child. Her name, Kamala, means “lotus” in Sanskrit, and is another name for the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
3. Does she attend church? Newspaper USA Today reported a while back that Harris attends services at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. Its pastor, Amos Brown, told the Associated Press she is ‘a spiritual person and a quintessential scholar’. In August 2019 she was quoted as saying: 'Jesus tells us how we should define neighbour. Jesus tells us, your neighbour is not just the person who lives next door, who drives the kind of car you drive, the person shares your zip code.' 'Jesus tells us your neighbour is that man by the side of the road who you walk by, who has faced hardship.'
4. Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish. They share ‘Jewish traditions and celebrations at home,’ she told Interfaith Youth Core.
5. Fake news circulated on the internet has previously claimed Harris said, 'I support world Islamisation' and 'I support Sharia Law in the UK.' These claims are untrue. There was also an internet claim which went viral alleging that Harris refused to be sworn in as Vice President on a Bible. Newspaper USA Today describes this as false, citing photos and videos showing her husband holding a Bible for her when she took the oath of office.
6. Harris has been quoted as saying: ‘The God I believed asks us to serve others and speak up for others... I’ve always tried to be an advocate for the vulnerable,’ according to internet reports.
7. She is also quoted as saying that her favourite Bible verse is: ‘We walk by faith and not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5v7).
8. Harris is a strong supporter of ‘reproductive rights.’ In 2022, according to the Catholic News Agency, she stated in Atlantic City, New Jersey: ‘It’s important to note that to support a woman’s ability — not her government, but her — to make that decision [about abortion] does not require anyone to abandon their faith or their beliefs.’
9. When Harris was picked as Joe Biden’s Vice-Presidential choice, Michael Gerson in The Washington Post commented that the selection ‘contributes to a Catholic problem that already existed because of Biden’s pro-choice views and his newly discovered support for federal funding of abortions. And this, by extension, is also an evangelical problem.'
10. ‘Harris would be the face of the drive to protect abortion rights,' Larry Levitt, an executive vice president at KFF, a health information non-profit organisation, said in an interview with CBS News before Biden stepped down and which was quoted on the news organisation’s website on July 21st. ‘Abortion access would likely be front and centre in her campaign.’

Correction: an earlier version of this article stated that Kamala Harris' father was a Hindu, when in fact it is her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who was a Hindu.