White House hopeful Elizabeth Warren has revealed a faith-based campaign initiative, with a new religious advisory council and endorsements from over 100 major religious figures from around the country.
She announced the initiative in a statement released to Religion News Service.
“I’m proud to announce a committed group of faith leaders that will lead my campaign’s Interfaith Advisory Council,” Warren told RNS. “If we want to restore communities, what better way than to influence systemic injustices that will break generational strongholds of poverty and oppression. The Warren for President Interfaith Advisory Council will answer the call for social, racial and economic justice by working together to build an America that works for everyone.”
Warren is a United Methodist, but her council is made up of a diverse group of religious leaders and even one humanist chaplain.
Via RNS, the group contains people like Miniard Culpepper, senior pastor at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Massachusetts; William Flippin Jr., senior pastor at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Georgia; Dawnique Daughtry, senior pastor at The House of the Lord Fellowship in New Jersey; Bonnie Myotai Treace, the leader of Hermitage Heart Zen center in North Carolina; and Rabbi Matthew Soffer of Judea Reform Congregation in Massachusetts.
A campaign staffer told RNS the committee will help advise Warren “on policies and positions specific to the faith community.”
Warren invokes her faith often on the campaign trail. At a CNN town hall in 2019, Warren was asked how she was shaped by her religious beliefs. She said her favorite Bible passage is the parable of the sheep and the goats, which has taught her two things. “The first is there is God. There is value in every single human being,” she said. “And the second is that we are called to action.”
