A Republican congressional candidate for North Carolina is under fire after a Democratic advocacy group unearthed a 2013 sermon he delivered when he was a pastor asking whether chasing a career was the “healthiest pursuit” for women, imploring women to remember their “core calling.”
“In our culture today, girls are taught from grade school that we tell them that what is most honorable in life is a career, and their ultimate goal in life is simply to be able to grow up and be independent of anyone or anything,” Mark Harris, who is running to represent North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, said in the address, according to a recording obtained by Democratic PAC, American Bridge, and reported by ABC News.
“But nobody has seemed to ask the question that I think is critically important to ask: Is that a healthy pursuit for society? Is that the healthiest pursuit for our homes? Is that the healthiest pursuit for our children? Is that the healthiest pursuit for the sexes in our generation?” Harris continued.
Harris gave the sermon when he was senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, in which he noted how the title bestowed on women in the Bible was “helper.”
“This doesn’t mean that you can’t be a woman going to the office, can’t be a woman carrying a briefcase, doesn’t mean you can’t be a woman sitting at an executive board table,” Harris said.
“But what it does mean is that who you are, ma’am, you must understand your core calling,” Harris added. “And as long as you understand your core calling and who you are and that that guides everything you do … well, you can be anything and do anything that you want to do.”
Harris’ campaign spokesperson told ABC News in a written statement that Harris had meant “there is no higher calling that a woman has than to be a helper to her husband and mother to her children” when he referred to a “core calling.”
“This statement can’t exist in a vacuum. Proper context also clarifies a man’s role. A man is to lead the family but to also serve his wife and children. The New Testament teaches that being a leader isn’t about being a dominant figure, but also a servant to his wife as Jesus demonstrated,” the statement read.
Harris made headlines in May when he became the first primary challenger to unseat a sitting member of Congress in 2018, beating incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C. He will face Democrat Dan McCready in the general election in November.
