The remarks delivered by Vice President Kamala Harris at Koinonia Christian Center in Greenville, North Carolina on Sunday did not set off alarm bells about Christian nationalism in the way, say, ten minutes of Donald Trump at the Dallas church of Pastor Robert Jeffries or a speech before the Catholic Conference of Bishops would.
It has long been a feature, not a bug, of political coverage in America to decry Republicans talking at church gatherings but to ignore as inconvenient to the dominant legacy media narrative of "danger on the right!" the vibrant (and entirely constitutionally appropriate) appearance of Democrats before large Black congregations in the run-up to elections.
I played all of the Harris’s remarks on my Monday program because she’s getting roasted online for a rough beginning and a rough ending. The criticism was unfair. She did a workmanlike job. The context reveals she delivered a very nice sermon on the Christian call to help the distressed, and it was somewhat surprising as I have never heard her discuss faith before.
It was a conventional Christian message and is remarkable only because she is the most overtly left-wing major party nominee in our history and many of her public policy positions—taxpayer funded gender transition surgeries for inmates—would not be featured in the sermons of the African American pastors I know (only four, and all four of whom are I think very liberal).
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I played the entire sermon because Harris is obviously having trouble with the turnout and enthusiasm metrics among the African American electorate (hence the dressing down of Black men last week by former President Obama for not being all in with Harris. This too struck many as tone-deaf. When you feel desperate, though, you try desperate things.
I’ve also been lobbying for CBS to publish the unedited transcript of the Harris 60 Minutes interview because we know so little about her. I routinely quickly publish the complete audio and transcript of every interview with a newsmaker (e.g. former President Trump last week.)
CBS ’60 MINUTES' FAILS TO ADDRESS HARRIS EDIT CONTROVERSY IN LATEST EPISODE
On Monday, Harris followed up her and Obama’s outreach to the Black electorate with a sit down with podcaster Roland Martin. Harris was for 50 days to do any interviews, and then only with interviewers who could be reliably counted upon to use a soft focus lens and the power to edit her word salads into something at least approaching the intelligible. Harris has been very hesitant—completely unwilling actually—to seek out a Guy Benson or Mary Katharine Ham or me—very civil, center-right long-form interviewers. She chose to appear with Roland Martin because she needed to. She hasn’t locked down the Black vote margin she needs, and the election is three weeks away. Martin is well known, very left wing and not at all a setting that could expand her appeal beyond her base. To repeat: She’s doing base repair and maintenance three weeks out. That’s a sign—a very, very bad sign for Harris-Walz. (Walz's disastrous hunting escapade didn’t help either. Did she pick him because it was actually impossible for him to show her up?)
But I do appreciate her preaching at a church in election season as it should (probably won’t, but should) tamp down the "Christian nationalism is sweeping American churches!" drumbeat. It’s not. We are pretty much exactly where we are less 10-20% of attenders across all denominations from when I began covering religion in America in 1991 on radio and 1992 on television. The fastest growing theology is climate crisis theology. For every other band of pilgrim, rough times have marked the past 20 years and more are ahead.
The problem isn’t, however, the rise of a revolutionary and armed Christian resistance. The problem is that Judeo-Christian values once defined the political norms in America. They no longer do. Ours is a secular society that protects its religious minorities. The one good thing I can credit Vice President Harris with doing is this simple thing: Taking her campaign to a church. It’s a fine act that does not endanger the church’s tax-exempt status. Bravo Vice President Harris. I doubt it will work, but after a week like you had last week, seeking prayers for the campaign is a far better strategy than finding a safe place for Governor Walz to do an interview.
Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
