US Vice President JD Vance has said he hopes his wife, Usha Vance, who was raised in a Hindu household, will one day “be moved” by the Catholic Church and embrace Christianity.
Speaking at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday, Vance 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 by in 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.”
The remark came in response to a question from an Indian-origin woman about how he and his wife manage their “intercultural household.”
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019 after being raised Protestant and spending years as an agnostic, said his wife’s faith “doesn’t cause a problem” for him. “If she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me,” he said, adding that faith was something “you work out with your family and the person you love.”
The couple met at Yale Law School when neither identified as religious. They later decided to raise their three children in the Christian faith, and the children now attend a Christian school.
Emphasising his belief in the role of religion in public life, Vance said, “I make no apologies for thinking that Christian values are an important foundation of this country. Anybody who’s telling you their view is neutral likely has an agenda to sell you.”
His remarks come amid heightened debate in the US over immigration and the H-1B visa programme, where Indians form the largest group of recipients. The recent Diwali greetings shared by Hindu-origin officials such as Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel drew anti-Indian and anti-Hindu comments on social media, including remarks such as “Diwali is un-American” and “Seek Jesus.”
Vance, who was baptised and confirmed at St Gertrude Priory in Ohio in 2019, has often spoken about how Usha supported his spiritual journey. “She was raised non-Christian but very religious, and she knew I was searching for something,” he told Fox News in a 2024 interview.
Usha Chilukuri Vance, in the same interview, said, “My parents are Hindu. That made them very good people. I’ve seen the power of that in my life. I knew JD was searching for something. This just felt right for him.”
