By George Kelly
The Rev. Amos C. Brown of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco said he was inspired by a former congregant to kick off his nationwide “100 Days of Prayer.”
This was no ordinary parishioner. It was the likely Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris.
At Third Baptist’s 10 a.m. worship service Sunday, Brown invited people of all faiths to pray for civility, responsible behavior and peace during the last 100 days before the 2024 presidential election. But it was clear who was getting his vote.
“We are going to be praying, first for these United States of America,” Brown said from the pulpit. “America needs prayer. Pray for every person that purports to be a governmental official.”
The day before, the reverend had set the stage for the sermon by saying, “The nation faces a stark choice with its future in the balance. People of faith and humanity are rightly concerned about both the conduct of the campaign and what will become of the nation if we elect leaders who fail to see the humanity in all our neighbors.”
The 100 Days of Prayer movement emerged from discussions between Harris and interfaith leaders, Brown said, adding that it aims to “bring us together to oppose those who would seek public office to benefit themselves, rather than to serve the needs of the nation.”
Third Baptist Church members on Sunday shared positive views of President Joe Biden’s decision to forgo reelection and endorse Harris as his replacement atop of the Democratic ticket.
The Rev. Beverley Phillips, who led an altar prayer and offered benediction, recalled seeing Harris campaign for San Francisco district attorney in 2002 by handing out leaflets outside a Costco store.
“She has the training, the education, the background, and she understands how to communicate with people,” Phillips said.
Timothy French, who joined Third Baptist Church a month ago, said he didn’t know a great deal about the upcoming election. But he drew on his own experience being raised by a single mother and seeing the challenges she faced.
“It’d be nice seeing Ms. Harris become the president,” French said. “I believe this would be a better world when women are in power and given the right to do what needs to be done.”
Cheryl Thornton, co-founder of the city’s Harriet Tubman African American Democratic Club, said she attended Biden’s speech this month at the NAACP’s national convention in Las Vegas.
She applauded Biden’s decision to step aside, saying the shift upon Harris’ arrival “has been much more positive.”
“We need to save democracy here in our country, because it feels like with the other candidate, President Trump, that we are headed to a fascist government, and we need to maintain democracy and inclusion for all.”
Hanna Gebremariam called Biden’s decision to step down “rational” and compared it not only to George Washington’s rejection of a third term in office but to some African leaders’ retention of leader-ship roles.
“Some people, they just want to go forever, but what Biden did was wise, and he’s gonna be a symbol,” Gebremariam said. “In African countries, they sit in that chair until they die. So I hope African leaders will learn from him. What Biden told the world is that people, when they age, need to step down.”
Gebremariam, who arrived in the U.S. from East Africa a decade ago, called the country her “God-given mother, even though America has a painful legacy with our brothers: Black people, Black men and women — they paved the way for us to live and enjoy it.”
She brightened when she spoke of her late cousin Solomon Jones, whom she said used to work with Harris at the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
“I am an American citizen,” Gebremariam said. “I’m ready to vote for Kamala Harris.”
Harris arrives at her campaign headquarters July 22 in Wilmington, Del. | Source:Erin Schaff/NY Times/Getty Images/POOL
“I’m ready to vote for Kamala Harris,” says congregant Hanna Gebremariam. | Source:Helynn Ospina for The Standard
Brown said he hopes his prayer initiative will encourage reflection and historical awareness.
“Engaging in prayer and being mindful of the lessons of history will help us to avoid repeating the worst mistakes of the past,” he said, cautioning against “fascism, rule by dictator and inhumanity that has plagued so many other nations.”
Brown told The Standard that he first heard about the Biden decision while at the pulpit July 21. “I was just about to take my text from a verse in the biblical book of Hebrews,” he said, on “a great cloud of witnesses” to preach about faithful men and women whose lives and deaths leave track records of positive action for others to follow.
For Brown, those people include not only Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Mary Church Terrell and Mary McLeod Bethune but ministers and academics like Benjamin Elijah Mays and Mordecai Wyatt Johnson.
The list also includes Biden, whom Brown has known since 1991, when he joined other Black Baptist leaders in a panel presentation before the then-senator to denounce Clarence Thomas’ placement on the Supreme Court to fill the seat of Justice Thurgood Marshall.
“Mr. Biden’s a smart man; he’s a statesperson,” Brown said. “He’s solid; he’s a decent person. He’s not stuck on himself. I love him; I appreciate him. He will go around in history as a profile in courage. He put his country and the Democratic Party above his personal aspirations. When you keep that before the world, this is where you do it; this is how you ought to behave. So, we’ll see what happens. But even if we don’t win, it won’t be because we did not state the case and we did not try. The people are energized.”
Brown also called for prayer for Trump.
“I wasn’t going to go out there and name-call or point fingers,” he said after his sermon. “I said what I said because he has to be a very troubled person.”
Brown noted how former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and former presidential candidate George Wallace changed late in their public lives. Perhaps Trump can, too, he suggested.
“Whether or not he is redeemable,” he said, “depends on how he plays the game of life.”
