The US Vice President Kamala Harris will be formally nominated as the Democrat’s presidential candidate at the party’s convention in Chicago this week. With a Hindu mother, Baptist father and Jewish husband, she embodies religious pluralism in a diverse country. But will this make her more or less appealing to constituencies of faith, or the non-religious?
In this Religion Media Centre briefing, the speakers considered how the Democrats, a party with 30 per cent non-religious and 60 per cent Christian, are finding common ground around values, as people decide how to vote, irrespective of faith. The briefing heard the view that the conservative white evangelical support of Donald Trump, with its particular take on Christianity, has pushed the Democrats towards greater clarity that religion and the state are separate and this is what binds their party in a big tent, including people of all faiths and none.
Hosted by Rosie Dawson, the speakers were:
- Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter senior correspondent, who is covering the Convention
- Richa Karmarkar, reporter at Religion News Service, primarily covering Hinduism
- Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew Research Centre
- Dr Melissa Deckman, Chief Executive Officer, Public Religion Research Institute
- Hemant Mehta, American author, blogger, and atheist activist
- Senator Kim Jackson, Georgia
- Rev Canon Broderick Greer, Canon Precentor St John’s Cathedral, Denver
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