Vice president says his wife was raised in a ‘not particularly religious’ Hindu household
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JD Vance has said he hopes his wife, second lady Usha Vance, converts to Christianity.
The US vice president, a staunch Catholic, said on Wednesday that Mrs Vance, who was raised as a Hindu, regularly attends church with him and that they had raised their children as Christians.
Speaking to students at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday, Mr Vance said his wife had been raised in a “not particularly religious” Hindu household and that when they met, both would have considered themselves agnostics.
“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing I was moved by [in] church?” he asked. “Yes. 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, then God says that everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me. That’s something you work out with your friends, with your family, with the person that you love
He added: “One of the most important Christian principles is that you respect free will.”
Mr Vance converted to Catholicism six years ago and is one of several prominent Catholics in Donald Trump’s administration.
The vice president said two of his three children attend a Christian school and that his eldest, Ewan, had his first communion a year ago.
Mr Vance previously said his wife was “very supportive” when he “started to re-engage” with his faith, even though she was not a Christian.
When the Vances married in 2014 in Kentucky, their wedding ceremony included a Hindu blessing.
“We had so many people fly from all over the world, including India, and our guest list and the ceremonies were sort of a representation of our very different backgrounds coming together,” Mrs Vance told an Indian broadcaster earlier this year.
“My parents, of course, were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony.
“So when I imagined weddings and what that might look like, I imagined pictures that I had seen of them or of my grandparents. So it was quite important to me to have both elements.”
Jen Psaki, Joe Biden’s former press secretary, was accused of trivialising domestic abuse when she suggested on Oct 15 that Mrs Vance needed to be “saved” from her husband.
Ms Psaki, now an MSNBC host, said the second lady should “blink four times” if she needs saving from Mr Vance, labelling the vice president “scary”.
“I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife. Like, are you OK?” she told the I’ve Had It podcast. “Please blink four times… We’ll save you.”
Mrs Vance, who was born in California, worked for a law firm that called itself “radically progressive” until she resigned last year, and was registered as a Democrat voter until 2014.
Mr Vance has also defended his wife from racist attacks by Nick Vuentes, a Right-wing Christian nationalist commentator, after he joined the Republican ticket last year.
“Don’t attack my wife,” Mr Vance said. “She’s out of your league.”
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