Evangelicals For Harris (EFH) is a group advocating for the election of Vice President Kamala Harris to the presidency. They claim to be “A Community of Evangelicals Upholding Our Values in the 2024 Election.” In an attempt to persuade evangelical voters, who overwhelmingly favor Donald Trump but also have reservations about his uncouth manner and lifestyle, EFH attempts to cast the current vice president as a woman of Christian faith. In this article I will examine those claims. Is Harris a Christian and does her testimony match the biblical and historic claims of the Christian faith?
Some Qualifiers
Before answering that question, let me make a few qualifications.
First, it is not my aim to judge Kamala Harris’ eternal soul. That judgment will be made at a later date and by Someone much more qualified than me.
Second, I don’t want to come to this with a critical spirit. God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4), and so should His children. I sincerely hope that Kamala is moving toward God and finds salvation in Christ Jesus.
Thirdly, this is more of an examination of the group Evangelicals For Harris than of Harris herself. EFH provides a third-person account of the vice president’s religious beliefs. I will be examining those claims on their own terms, while acknowledging that it is unclear if they perfectly reflect Harris’s views.
My Criteria
With all that said, there is a sense in which we are right and just in examining a public declaration of faith, especially when that declaration is used to gain trust or privileges. Recently, I and the other elders of my church interviewed a young lady for church membership. We were not making a determination on her eternal state, but rather examining the credibility of her claim to be a Christian so that she could be initiated into our community and receive all the rights and responsibilities that come with that.
In the same way, if Harris is going to publicly claim to be a Christian and use that claim to garner votes, then we have a right and responsibility to examine the credibility of those claims. We must examine her profession and measure that against the biblical and historical standards of Christianity.
Being a Christian is not like being a Hawkeye fan. Just saying you’re one doesn’t make it so. The word “Christian” has a real and objective meaning. This meaning has been understood for two thousand years. It is a claim that can be examined and judged.
What criteria should we use to make such judgments? In our membership interview, we asked the candidate to explain the gospel in her own words and share how she came to personalize those truths (she did a very good job, by the way). This seems to be a fair standard to use on the vice president as well.
The word evangelical, a moniker that Evangelicals For Harris has seen fit to appropriate, comes from the word evangel, which means gospel or good news. The Christian gospel is summarized by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, (NKJV)
This is the essence of the Christian faith; the first principles of the world’s largest religion; the bare minimum of necessary Christian doctrine. And it is completely absent from EFH’s website.
The Claims Of Evangelicals For Harris
In the section of their website called “Kamala’s Faith Story,” EFH states:
A loving God, the Good Samaritan, serving others, and a deep respect for all faith traditions — these experiences, teachings, beliefs, and values Vice President Kamala Harris grew up with have shaped her into the leader she is today.
Instead of articulating the gospel or anything distinctly Christian, EFH provides four aspects of Harris’ religious convictions.
First, the belief in a loving God is mentioned. Certainly, love is a central aspect of Christianity (Matthew 22:24-40; 1 John 4:8). But in this ambiguous world when the word “love” can mean nearly anything, it hardly tells us much about Harris’s relationship with God.
Second, the Good Samaritan is mentioned as a key aspect of Harris’s theology. The website quotes Harris as saying,
“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 — and understanding that our neighbors aren’t just those who live in our ZIP code, but include the stranger, too. Over the course of my career, I’ve always tried to be an advocate for the voiceless and vulnerable.…”
The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is certainly a powerful and moving story. But, again, it tells us very little about Harris’s actual beliefs. I find Homer’s Odyssey a very spiritually powerful and moving story, but (I hope) that doesn’t make me a Greek pagan. Simply appreciating one of the Lord’s parables does not make you a Christian. While I applaud anyone who seeks “to be an advocate for the voiceless and vulnerable,” this doesn’t make a person right with God.
This brings us to the third claim made by EFH, that Vice President Harris is concerned with “serving others.” Again, I appreciate this attitude. Service is important. But it is not saving. The Holy Scriptures tell us that “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NKJV) and that it’s possible to “bestow all my goods to feed the poor” and still “it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3 NKJV).
Rightness with God is not found in “do-gooder-ism” (though we should do good). It is not found in defending the weak (though we should defend the weak, such as the unborn). Our rightness before God is found by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
This is the very core of the Christian faith. And it is completely absent from anything on EFH’s website. There is no mention of personal faith or repentance. There is no acknowledgement of sin or a need for a savior. These central elements of Christianity are completely absent.
The last characteristic of Harris’ faith is perhaps the most telling. Harris puts a high premium on religious pluralism and diversity. EFH explains:
While a deeply committed and faithful Christian, Vice President Harris has great respect for other faith traditions. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan and relatives in India took her to Hindu temples. She joins her husband, Doug Emhoff, in Jewish traditions and celebrations.
This respect syncs with her baptist tradition, which has a long and distinguished legacy of support and activism for religious liberty and the separation of Church and State.
It seems very odd that in an appeal to evangelical Christians, this group would highlight the fact that Harris participates in Hindu and Jewish rituals. This is more striking in light of the fact that the words “Jesus” and “Christ” are not mentioned once in the entire article. “Hindu temples” are apparently more worth mentioning than the founder of the Christian faith.
In contrast, the Scriptures say of Jesus, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 ESV). And Jesus says of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6b NKJV).
As a Baptist pastor, I feel the need to add that Harris’s religious indifferentism does not “sync” with the Baptist tradition. It is true that Baptists, influenced by the Scriptures and the Church Fathers, believe that religious observance should not be coerced by the state. It’s generally accepted that Baptist theology influenced the wording of the First Amendment. However, this is not because Baptists believe all religions are equally valid. Jesus is the one true Lord and Savior, worthy of all worship. But the worship He requires is one that springs from the heart and therefore, by definition, cannot be mandated by the government. One of the most significant Baptist doctrinal statements describes Jesus as “the only and all-sufficient Saviour” (1833 New Hampshire Baptist Confession; Article 8; pardon the old spelling). Baptists, like other Christians, believe that salvation is only found in Christ our Lord.
The Punchline
Let’s cut to the chase now. Is there anything on the Evangelicals For Harris website that would substantiate Kamala Harris’s claims to be a Christian? On the website we’re given some buzz words about “love” and “service.” But this hardly makes one a Christian.
Throughout the statement, there is nothing distinctly Christian mentioned about Harris’s faith. It almost seems as if the authors went out of their way to not mention of the name of Jesus Christ. Key evangelical convictions, such as salvation by faith and the exclusivity of Christ, are implicitly defined. While church attendance is mentioned, so is participation in Hindu and Jewish worship.
In short, nothing about the reviewed statements provide any evidence that Kamala Harris is a Christian. EFH presents Christianity that lacks Christ and an evangelicalism that lacks the gospel.
Does any of this matter? I am a Christian, but I do not insist on only voting for Christians. To use Martin Luther’s terms, I will vote for a “wise Turk” over a “foolish Christian.” When examining a candidate for office, I look at their policies and record before I look at their statement of faith.
At the same time, if a political candidate is going to use religious language to appeal to evangelical voters, discerning Christians have the right to examine these claims. Evangelicals For Harris appears to be a political stunt, hoping to win over undiscerning evangelical voters to the Democratic ticket. As a Christian and a pastor, I am observing that the claims made by this group are not consistent with the Christian faith.
Christians should vote their consciences this Tuesday, fully understanding the stakes in the election and being guided by the revealed wisdom of God.
Joshua Stilwell is a licensed minister and the associate pastor of Alathea Baptist Church of Des Moines. He lives with his family in Indianola.
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