Vice President JD Vance defended his comments about hoping his Hindu wife, Usha Vance, converts to Christianity, calling criticism of his remarks “anti-Christian bigotry.”
Speaking Wednesday at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi honoring slain conservative leader Charlie Kirk, The Washington Post reported that Vance discussed his interfaith marriage and how the couple raises their three children.
Asked why Christianity seemed tied to patriotism among conservatives, he said both he and his wife were nonreligious when they met but agreed to raise their children as Christians.
“Most Sundays, Usha will come with me to church,” Vance said. “Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing I was moved by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that. Because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”
“But if she doesn’t,” he said, “then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
Vance’s comments drew public criticism, including claims he was pandering to Christian nationalists. On Friday, he responded on his official X account, writing that his wife “is not a Christian and has no plans to convert, but like many people in an interfaith marriage, I hope she may one day see things as I do.”
He added, “Yes, Christians have beliefs. And yes, those beliefs have many consequences, one of which is that we want to share them with other people. That is a completely normal thing, and anyone who’s telling you otherwise has an agenda.”
Vance, a Catholic convert who has long written about his spiritual journey, has often presented himself as a moral interpreter of Trump administration policies through the language of faith.
Analysts of religion and politics say the vice president has provided more theological interpretation of Christianity, beyond personal testimony, than any White House official in recent history.
Earlier this year, he argued that Christian teaching emphasizes loving one’s family and country first before extending that care outward, a stance he said guides his views on immigration.
He recently returned from a trip to Israel, where he and his wife attended a private Mass at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
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