WATCH: Harris speaks at Georgia Baptist megachurch on her 60th birthday

STONECREST, Ga. (AP) — Kamala Harris told the congregation of a large black church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday that people need to show compassion and respect in their daily lives and do more than just “preach the values.”

Watch Harris’ remarks in the player above.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on her 60th birthday, celebrated with a congregational song, was part of a broad, nationwide campaign called “Souls to the Polls” to encourage black churchgoers to vote .

READ MORE: Kamala Harris and her faith: Baptist with a Jewish wife and connections to the Black Church and Gandhi

Pastor Jamal Bryant said the vice president was “an American hero, the voice of the future” and “our fearless leader.” He also used his sermon to applaud the idea of ​​America electing a woman as president for the first time. “It takes a real man to support a real woman,” Bryant said.

“When black women roll up their sleeves, society has to change,” the pastor said.

Harris told the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke about a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who was attacked by robbers. The traveler was left beaten and covered in blood, but a stranger helped him.

All faiths promote the idea of ​​loving your neighbor, Harris said, but far more difficult to achieve is truly loving a stranger as if that person were a neighbor.

“In this moment, across our country, we see some who seek to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told the congregation. “The true measure of a leader’s strength depends on who you promote.”

It was darker than her political rallies, emphasizing that true faith means defending humanity. She said the parable of the Samaritan reminds people that “it is not enough to preach the values ​​of compassion and respect. We must live them.”

Harris ended by saying, “Weeping may last for a night, but in the morning comes joy,” as those in attendance applauded her.

Many in attendance wore pink to raise awareness for breast cancer. Also present was Opal Lee, an activist in the movement to make June 19 a national holiday. Harris hugged her.

The vice president also makes a midday stop at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro with singer Stevie Wonder before recording an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton that will air later Sunday on MSNBC. The schedule reflects her campaign’s commitment to treating each group of voters like a swing-state voter and trying to appeal to them all in a closely contested election with early voting underway.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was on his way to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife Gwen was on her way to a service in Las Vegas.

The Souls to the Polls effort launched last week and is led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives to all battleground states when early voting begins in the Nov. 5 election.

“My father always said, ‘A voteless people is a powerless people,’ and one of the most important steps we can take is the short step to the ballot box,” said Martin Luther King III. on Friday. “When Black voters are organized and engaged, we have the power to change the course of this nation.”

On Saturday, the vice president rallied his supporters in Detroit with singer Lizzo before traveling to Atlanta to focus on abortion rights, highlighting the death of a Georgia mother amid the state’s restrictive abortion laws following the Supreme Court’s ruling USA came into force, with three judges nominated Donald Trump has overturned Roe v. Wade.

REGARD: Harris is campaigning in Detroit and Atlanta, along with Lizzo and Usher

And after Sunday’s campaign, she will campaign with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“Donald Trump still refuses to take responsibility for the pain and suffering he has caused,” Harris said.

Harris is Baptist, his husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish. She said she was inspired by the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s homeland of India, as well as the Black Church. As a child, Harris sang in the choir at Twenty Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland.

The idea of ​​“Souls to the Polls” goes back to the civil rights movement. Rev. George Lee, a black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after helping nearly 100 black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried served as a polling station.

Black parishes across the country have been running election campaigns for years. Partly to counter voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the black community is emphasized almost as much by pulpits as by candidates.

Early voting began in Georgia on Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted that day, more than double the total on the first day of 2020. A record 5 million people voted in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.