Senator Mike Lee says Kamala Harris poses a ‘serious threat’ to religious freedom

SALT LAKE CITY – U.S. Senator Mike Lee said Vice President Kamala Harris poses a threat to people of faith because of her past efforts to reform religious freedom laws.

Lee, who served alongside Harris during her brief tenure in the Senate from 2017 to 2021, posted a thread on X on Saturday calling attention to Harris' support of the Do No Harm Act.

“A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote against every religious institution, including schools, universities, hospitals and charities,” said Lee, R-Utah. “This is the truth: Kamala Harris does not believe religious institutions should be able to live according to their beliefs. Rather, they must bow to the popular social justice movement of the day.”

Harris reintroduced the Do No Harm Act in 2019. The bill would have overhauled America's most significant non-Constitutional religious freedom law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, limiting its scope and removing legal recourse for faith groups seeking religious exemptions from civil rights laws.

The bill would also have exempted various provisions related to health insurance and government contracts and grants from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Supporters of the Do No Harm Act say it is intended to prevent discrimination by religious institutions based on race, gender or sexual orientation. Critics said it would rip “the heart” out of religious freedom law in the United States.

Lee called Harris a “serious threat” to “religious freedom – including for Latter-day Saints” and asked why members of his faith would vote for Harris in the 2024 presidential election “given her efforts to undermine the Religious Freedom Restoration Act(.)”.

What is Kamala Harris’s stance on religious freedom?

Harris comes from a religiously diverse background. She learned Hinduism from her Indian mother and Christianity from her Jamaican father. Harris belongs to the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco and is married to a Jewish man, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

But Harris has made her support for legislation that makes religious freedom advocates nervous.

In addition to supporting the Do No Harm Act, which would limit the application of federal religious freedom protections, Harris also co-sponsored the Equality Act, which would create new federal protections for gay and transgender people while preventing people of faith from invoking the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to defend themselves against discrimination charges.

“This religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment must never be used to undermine the civil rights of other Americans or to subject them to discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity,” Harris said in a statement on the Do No Harm Act in 2019, according to NBC News.

Harris has also been accused by Catholic activist groups of applying a religious test to Catholic judicial candidates.

Both Harris and former President Donald Trump have made efforts to reach out to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Harris recently hired Presbyterian minister Rev. Jen Butler to lead faith outreach for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Butler told Religious News Service that she believes Harris's campaign slogan of “freedom” will appeal to people of faith.

At the Democratic National Convention in August, Harris' allies focused on religious relations and religious freedom, arguing that laws that bring the Christian faith into the public sphere pose a greater threat to religious freedom in America.

On Monday, Lee continued to condemn Harris' efforts to “erode religious freedom” in a post on X.