“She 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 wrote.
He continued, “Regardless, I’ll continue to love and support her and talk to her about faith and life and everything else, because she’s my wife.”
What happened?
At a campus event held on Wednesday, Oct 29, by conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA, Vice‑President JD Vance found himself at the centre of a controversy over his comments regarding the faith of his wife, Usha Vance.
A student at the event posed a multi-part question to the vice president about immigration, concluding with a pointed inquiry about his multi-racial, multi-faith household.
“How are you teaching your kids not to keep your religion ahead of their mother’s religion?… 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 you do?” the student asked.
In response, Vice‑President Vance acknowledged that when he and Usha met, “neither of us was particularly religious.”
“Everybody has to come to their own arrangement here … The way that we’ve come to our arrangement is she’s my best friend. We talk to each other about this stuff. So, we’ve decided to raise our kids Christian.”
He further said, “Most Sundays, Usha will come with me to church … Do I hope, eventually, that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, honestly, I do wish that, because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”
Vance added that he respects his wife’s autonomy and faith, noting, “But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”