While Kamala Harris has leveraged her Caribbean/Indian heritage and the fact that she is a female to appeal to minority groups such as the black community in the US, there are those who believe that policies should matter more than class, background, or creed in the upcoming US general election.
Based on local media reports, Harris, whose father was born in Jamaica, has the overwhelming support of people from the Diaspora. There are reports of intense campaigning by Jamaican groups to get her over the finish line first and into the White House.
But while some have been sympathetic towards Harris because of her Caribbean connection, president of local pro-life group Doctors for Life said the principles she holds should matter most.
“What someone looks like is a minor thing; where they were born is also a minor thing. The most important thing to me is: where do you stand on what God says? So, I don’t care if you were born on Mars; I don’t care if she c
ame from my own house; if she was my full sister, I would still oppose her with every fibre of my being because my first loyalty is to God, and I know that what God lays down is for our good,” she said.
Harris has infuriated pro-life groups and some Christians globally, given her strong support for abortion. It has been the predominant issue on the campaign trail.
“There are some people who think with their skins. In other words, if a black person says something or does something, they find it hard to oppose that because they hold on to their skin and make that a priority,” Dr Brady-West declared.
Harris was born in California; however, she and her sister moved around a lot as children because both their parents were in academia. Harris often visited her father’s family in Brown’s Town, Jamaica, and her mother’s in Chennai, India.
Dr. Brady-West said that in this age of deception, it is important that people display loyalty towards truth above anything else.
“When everything you promote is a lie, I don’t really care what you look like or where you were born. This is the age of deception, and the enemy will use anything that comes to hand to deceive,” she said.
Dr. Daniel Thomas, president of the Love March Movement (LMM), said Christians have a responsibility to vote for whose principles most align to the Kingdom of God.
“That should be the primary objective. Not who looks better, not whose skin colour is nicer, not whose voice is less or more coarse, or their language is better or worse,” he admonished.
LMM had partnered with international prayer organisation 40 Days for Life to host a vigil and protest abortions between February and March this year.
“Abortion is the deliberate killing of a child in the womb. This is never a good and helpful thing. In every case, abortion traumatises women and kills children,” Dr Thomas said at the time.
Dr Thomas still maintains this stance and is happy that since the vigil, at least 16 women that they are aware of have decided not to abort their babies. The pro-life advocate said that with the US being so influential in policy decisions in countries like Jamaica, the country might adopt the tone of the candidate who wins the election.
“When Roe v. Wade was removed, it put less pressure on countries internationally like Jamaica. It allowed easier conversations and perspectives to come about to be able to protect the lives of innocent unborn children, and we need to preserve that in this country,” he said.
If Harris becomes president, he suspects pro-abortion advocates would be emboldened to push for Jamaica to legalise abortion. He said the group would much rather focus on saving babies instead of pushing back against laws or pressure from the US to promote abortion in the region.
