At a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi, JD Vance repeated past claims that he would like his Hindu wife, Usha, to convert to Catholicism.
An audience member pointed out to JD that he is in an interfaith marriage with Usha, who was raised Hindu, and is raising the couple’s children to be Catholic, which JD converted to in 2019 after loosely being an evangelical.
JD was asked, “Why are we making Christianity one of the major things that you have to have in common to be one of you guys? To show that I love America just as much as you do?”
“Our two kids go to Christian school. Our eight-year-old just did his first communion a year ago. That’s how we decided to come to our arrangement,” Vance said, to roaring applause. “As I’ve told her, and as I’ve said publicly, and as I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends: do I hope, eventually, that she is somehow moved by the same thing I was moved by in church? Yes. I honestly do wish that, because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope that eventually my wife comes to see it the same way. But if she doesn’t,” Vance went on to say, “God says that everybody has free will, so that doesn’t cause a problem with me. That’s something that you work out with your friends, your family, the person you most love.”
Usha has publicly stated she does not intend to convert.
The executive director of the Hindu American Foundation criticized Vance “basically saying that … this aspect of [Usha] is just not enough.”
JD had an answer for a now-removed social media post that said, “it’s weird to throw your wife’s religion under the bus, in public, for a moment’s acceptance by groypers.”
JD classified the comment as “anti-Christian bigotry” and “disgusting.”
“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.”