JD Vance expresses hope his wife, who is Hindu, converts to Christianity
Vice President JD Vance is facing sharp online criticism after saying this week he hopes his wife, Usha, a practicing Hindu, becomes a Christian. JD Vance made the comments at a Turning Point USA event, where Erika Kirk, the widow of the organization’s founder Charlie Kirk, spoke about her slain husband’s religious faith.
JD Vance told an audience of thousands at the University of Mississippi that he wished for his wife to convert to Christianity because their children are being raised under the faith. He was answering a question about how he balances his faith with his wife’s in a multi-racial, -religious and -cultural home.
“I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” JD Vance said. “But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
JD Vance said neither he nor his wife grew up with strong religious beliefs. But their children are involved in the church, he said, and his wife attends services with him. He added that she is closer than he is with the priests.
Online commentators criticized JD Vance’s remarks, sharing images of his interfaith wedding. It featured readings from the Bible and a blessing by a Hindu pundit blessing, according to The New York Times. JD Vance reportedly converted to Catholicism in 2019, five years into his marriage.
Unbiased. Straight Facts.TM
Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha married in 2014 in an interfaith ceremony featuring a Hindu pundit and a Bible reading.
“Rather than defending his wife’s dignity, he’s giving in to the noise, treating his wife’s faith like a political liability all while trying to please the MAGA base that treats it like a revulsive blot,” Shubhangi Sharma, news editor of India-based News18, wrote on X.
JD Vance fired back at critics on X, writing in part that Usha Vance doesn’t have plans to convert and he wasn’t going to avoid answering the person’s question.
“…Like many people in an interfaith marriage — or any interfaith relationship — I hope she may one day see things as I do,” he wrote Friday.
JD, Usha Vance’s religions
In his speech in Mississippi, JD Vance said Usha Vance grew up in a Hindu family but was not particularly religious. When they met, he said, they were regarded as agnostic or atheist but became more religious as their marriage progressed.
That differed from what Usha Vance told Fox News last year about her family being religious and making an impression on her family values. The interview profiled the couple before President Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate.
“That was one of the things that made them such good parents, that made them really very good people,” Usha Vance said at the time.
JD Vance’s comments followed Erika Kirk’s opening remarks, where she spoke about her husband’s ideals for Turning Point USA and its direction since his assassination in September.
Kirk cited biblical scriptures and claimed that individual rights came from God rather than a government. She added her husband felt the nation’s founding fathers believed freedom and virtue can only come with a belief in God, which wasn’t prevalent in other nations.
The post JD Vance expresses hope his wife, who is Hindu, converts to Christianity appeared first on Straight Arrow News.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
