President Joe Biden made history on Sunday (July 21) when he withdrew his bid for a second term. The reshuffled Democratic presidential field he endorsed, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, is historic in itself, but it also provides a map of America’s future.
With Democratic Party leaders increasingly endorsing Harris, her nomination seems likely in the coming days, which would make her the first Black woman and the first South Asian to be nominated for president by a major party. Harris also comes from a diverse religious and spiritual background that is now far more representative of America’s multi-religious makeup.
Raised as a Hindu by her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, from Chennai, India, she was often taken as a girl to the 23rd Street Church of God in Oakland, California, by her neighbor, Regina Shelton, and Harris’ sister, Maya. As an adult, Harris joined a black Baptist church called the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, led by the Reverend Amos Brown.
Meanwhile, Harris’ future husband, Los Angeles lawyer Douglas Emhoff, grew up in a Reform synagogue in New Jersey.
Harris’ ties to her faith have been on frequent display during her past four years as prime minister, with the couple initiating the tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles in their home and celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
Every U.S. president has identified as a Christian, and that wouldn’t change if Harris is elected in November, but as she runs for president, her religious background will not only be historic, but also indicative of how many Americans practice and encounter their faith.
“She represents the religious story of many Americans because no one in America grows up identifying with a religion anymore,” said Anthea Butler, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania. Few young Americans have only the religious lineage they inherited from their parents, Butler said. Increasingly, Americans are choosing different religious identities for themselves and may be reorienting again as they marry, associate with or support interfaith partners.
Indeed, Emhoff’s daughter Ella, one of his two children from a previous marriage, has identified herself as not Jewish, in line with his hope that her child would choose her own religious and spiritual path.
Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society at Elon University in North Carolina and an expert on South Asian religions, said it is becoming rare for students to come from a single religious tradition in his classes. “These days, they have multiple influences that shape their spiritual ideas and their identity,” Pennington said.
This dynamic is on display with Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, a Protestant-turned-atheist who converted to Catholicism in 2019 after marrying a Hindu woman. At the Republican National Convention, Usha Vance spoke about how her husband adapted to her family’s vegetarian diet and said she strengthened his Catholic faith.
But while Republican leaders have been wary of diversity as a goal in itself, with some describing Harris as the “DEI candidate,” the vice president has suggested her own experience gives her credibility and comfort in navigating different religious traditions.
“Harris speaks so naturally and seamlessly about these diverse influences, as if they were part of the story that shaped her person,” Pennington said, adding that it’s “not hard to imagine that her personal religious and spiritual history would appeal to younger Americans, who are a much larger demographic than older Americans who experience this kind of religious diversity in their families and backgrounds.”
Some white supremacists and Christian nationalists have already condemned Vance’s interfaith marriage, and Harris’ complex religious identity could also draw attack, but Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, said the two couples offer a new perspective on interfaith marriage in their own unique way.
“It’s a positive diversity story for America that people from different religious backgrounds can marry and experience the other person’s faith and it strengthens my own faith and makes me a better person,” Patel said.
Their share of the U.S. religious scene is growing: Nearly four in 10 Americans (39%) who married since 2010 have a spouse who belongs to a different religious group, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey.
The Pew Research Center also found that interracial marriages in the United States now account for 20 percent of marriages, up from 3 percent in 1967.
Patel said Emhoff was a keynote speaker for the Black Interfaith Project of Interfaith America and would continue to serve as a spokesman for the Interfaith movement as First Gentleman. Emhoff has also used his platform to speak out against anti-Semitism.
Harris and Emhoff, who met on a blind date in 2013, in 2021 nailed the mezuzah to the front doorpost of their home on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, where they also host Rosh Hashanah services and Passover seders.
“I think it’s important to have this showcase on a national stage,” Patel said. “It’s a showcase of how diversity is an American treasure, it’s a showcase of how identity is a source of pride, it’s a showcase of how faith is a bridge for cooperation. I think those are all very important things.”
