Religiously Confused Harris Wouldn't Sit Well at Al Smith Dinner

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.) 

None of us like to go to a party where we feel out of place.

This explains why U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris decided to stiff New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan and skip the Al Smith Dinner on Oct. 17.

It would be uncomfortable for her, and, quite frankly, for everyone else. She has a lot in common with dissident Catholics (to the extent they can realistically be called Catholic), but not with practicing Catholics.

Harris was raised in a confused religious household.

Her father was a Christian and her mother was Hindu.

She attended a Baptist Church, but she says very little about her religious upbringing.

Nor does she say much about her faith today.

The Religion News Service, a secular-leaning media outlet, says two things about her religious status. She likes to talk about the Good Samaritan, and she likes to invoke liberation theology.

What does the Good Samaritan New Testament verse mean to Harris?

It means helping our neighbor. Fine.

But her comments are so pedestrian as to be childlike in their innocence.

"Neighbor is not about having the same ZIP code. What we learn from that parable is that neighbor is someone you are walking by on the street."

I’ll have to remember that the next time I see hookers and drug dealers hawking their wares in front of Penn Station.

Religion News Service tries to help her by offering a sanitized understanding of liberation theology, saying it is a "strain of Christian thought that emphasizes social concern for the poor and political liberation of oppressed peoples."

Not really.

It's a Marxist-driven ideology with a Christian veneer, just the kind of "theology" that secularists are okay with.

To be sure, Harris is not that different from the man she serves. While the media call Joe Biden a "devout Catholic," a survey by Pew Research Center found that only 13% Americans think he is "very religious."

Her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., is no better. His parents were nominally Catholic.

Walz bolted the Catholic Church long ago to join the most liberal mainline Lutheran denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He wanted nothing to do with the more orthodox Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. During the debate with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, he admitted, "I don’t talk about my faith a lot," which is certifiably true. He then quoted a passage from the Bible.

The religion problem is deeper than the candidates.

The Democratic Party has been thoroughly secularized for some time.

In 2012, the Democrats deleted the word "God" from their Platform (they had to restore it after a pushback). Four years later, the 2016 Democratic Party Platform had 14 sentences on specific rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender persons, and two vague sentences on "respecting faith" at home.

The only time the 2024 Platform mentions God is in a throwaway reference speaking about the need for all of us to "live up to their God-given potential."

That’s it.

Though it does make mention of Jews and Muslims, it makes no mention of Christians or Catholics. It’s as though we don’t exist.

People of faith don’t even merit their own section on religious liberty.

Instead, there is a small section on "Combating Hate & Protecting Freedom of Religion."

It condemns anti-Semitism and Islamophobia but says nothing about all the violence directed at Christian churches and crisis pregnancy centers. Nor does it comment on attempts to stifle Christian speech or punishing Christian foster parents.

Maybe that’s because those engaged in anti-Christian bigotry are part of their base.

Kamala’s decision to blow off the Al Smith Dinner may seem insulting to some, but given who she is, and what the Democratic Party has become, it’s best for everyone that she takes a pass.

Dr. Bill Donohue is president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. A former Heritage Foundation Bradley resident scholar, he's authored 11 books on civil liberties, social issues, and religion. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from New York University. His new book, "Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis," was released in June, 2024. Read Bill Donohue's Reports — More Here.