Vance reflects on the role of Christianity in public square, urges students to get married and have kids

At a TPUSA event. What a radical idea!

This is off the website CatholicVote

Speaking to more than 10,000 students at the University of Mississippi Oct. 29, Vice President JD Vance offered a defense of Christianity’s role in American public life and urged students to strengthen the nation’s culture through marriage and family — echoing the message of the late Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk.

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Vance joined her (Erika Kirk) on stage for a student Q&A that touched on his faith, family, and Christianity’s role in public life. One student drew attention when she asked how Vance and his wife, Usha, raise their children given Usha’s Hindu background. 

“She’s my best friend. We talk to each other about this. We decided to raise our kids Christian,” Vance said, later adding, “The only advice I can give is you’ve just got to talk to the person that God has put you with.” 

He said their 8-year-old son received his First Communion last year, drawing loud applause from the crowd. 

“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church?” Vance said of his wife, who often attends Mass with him. “I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian Gospel. I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”

But, he added, “one of the most important Christian principles is that you respect free will,” explaining that “you figure this stuff out as a family and you trust in God to have a plan and you try to follow it as best as you can.”

Turning to faith in the public sphere, the vice president reflected on the Christian roots of America’s founding and said that same foundation guarantees religious liberty. 

He called freedom of religion a “Christian concept” rooted in the imago Dei which he said “means that we must respect the free will of every single person.”