Elizabeth Warren is one of the most prominent progressive voices in the modern Democratic Party, and she proved that during her 2020 presidential bid. Warren discussed a wide range of issues on the campaign trail, but did she ever bring up her religious views?
Elizabeth Warren is a Methodist. Religion plays an important role in her life, and Warren said that it animates everything she does. The US Senator used to teach Sunday school in her youth and still prays with her pastor before important events.
Stick around to learn more about Elizabeth Warren’s religious views and how they shaped her liberal politics.
Impact of Religion on Warren’s Life
Elizabeth Warren was raised as a Methodist in a small conservative town of Norman, Oklahoma, together with her three older brothers. She was a Sunday school teacher during her time as a young law professor in Texas and joked it was “a low bar” to be assigned to this position at her church.
A low bar or not, Warren always took her faith seriously, and she knows many of her favorite Bible passages by heart. She has a deep appreciation for Matthew 25, especially for Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, which had a profound impact on her life.
Warren invoked this passage on several occasions during her campaign and explained what it means to her saying, “What I hear in that is two things that guide me every day. The first is… there is value in every single human being. And the second is that we are called to action.”
After CNN asked her why she felt the need to publicly address her religious views at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s annual convention, Warren said that she couldn’t come to the house of God without speaking about her faith because it “animates all that [she] does.”
She still carries around the same old Bible that she had since the fourth grade, and takes her children to church on most Sundays. During her 2020 presidential campaign, Warren prayed with her pastor Rev. Miniard Culpepper before debates and credited him for her success.
Culpepper revealed they started this ritual during her 2012 Senate run and exchanged countless prayer-filled emails over the years. Their prayers certainly worked their magic, since Warren became the first female Senator from Massachusetts in 2012 and managed to be reelected for the second term in 2018.
Warren’s Progressive Views
Elizabeth Warren’s Christian faith didn’t stop her from becoming one of the progressive leaders of the Democratic Party, but that wasn’t always the case. She was a Republican before leaving the party in 1996 because it no longer represents the interests of the middle-class Americans.
Her views on certain issues changed over the years, but Warren claimed she always felt the same about one thing – same-sex marriage. During CNN’s Equality Town Hall in 2019, Warren said she wasn’t opposed to LGBT rights even when she was a Republican.
She told anchor Chris Cuomo that it always shocked her to see so much opposition to same-sex marriage from religious groups, because “Jesus loves all the children of the world” and “the whole foundation [of faith] is the worth of every single human being”.
During this event, Warren was also asked what would she say if a supporter told her that their faith teaches them that marriage should be between a man and a woman. She gave a hilarious response that quickly went viral:
“Well, I’m going to assume it’s a guy who said that, and I’m going to say, ‘Then just marry one woman.’ I’m cool with that… Assuming you can find one.”She also believes that women should have access to the full range of reproductive health care services, including abortions. Warren described them as an economic and human right and said that a woman should be able to make decisions about her own body without the government’s involvement.