On the campaign trail, Biden emphasizes that the 2020 election is a “battle for the soul of our nation.” Stephen Schneck of the Franciscan Action Network says the Democratic contender “sees his Catholic faith as a key for bringing the country back together and overcoming…divisions.”
As a Democrat, Biden is pro-choice—a position that puts him at odds with the teaching of the Catholic Church. Last year, a South Carolina priest denied Biden communion for being “outside of Church teaching.” Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life has urged Biden to “conform your conduct to the Church to which you claim to belong, or acknowledge that you no longer belong to it.”
Biden’s position on abortion has gradually shifted to match that of his party. In 2012, he said while he accepts the Catholic Church’s position on abortion, “I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews.
Vice President Mike Pence
Selecting Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate in 2016 helped Trump attract many evangelical voters. Pence, 61, calls himself “Christian, conservative, and Republican, in that order.” Although Vice President Pence has labeled himself a “pretty ordinary Christian,” he also uses the description of “born-again, evangelical Catholic.” Pence grew up Catholic and says he converted to evangelical Christianity in college while attending a non-denominational campus group.
As a congressman and governor, Pence expressed support for Israel, ended state support for refugee relocation, and opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage. After Indiana faced backlash for Pence signing a “religious freedom” bill, he approved a revised version.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Pence has spoken out against church shutdowns, saying religious liberties stand “even in the midst of a national emergency.” When asked about his faith, Pence says he’s “overwhelmed with gratitude” that “Jesus had died for all the sins of the world, [and] somewhere in there he died for me.”
Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris
California Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Democratic running mate, was raised as a Baptist and recalls singing in children’s choir with her sister. “That’s where I formed some of my earliest memories of the Bible’s teachings,” says Harris, 56. “It’s where I learned that ‘faith’ is a verb.”
Harris, a former prosecutor who served as California’s attorney general, says she’s learned from various traditions that faith goes beyond in-church expressions to “the way we live our lives, do our work, and pursue our respective callings.” Her mother was a Hindu immigrant from India, and her husband is Jewish.
The VP candidate says a Biden-Harris administration will partner with faith leaders while protecting religious communities and “believers of all faiths.” Describing her own faith, Harris says, “The God I have always believed in is a loving God, a God who asks us to serve others and speak up for others, especially those who are not wealthy or powerful and cannot speak up for themselves.”
