J.D. Vance and the hollow faith of American hypocrisy

Vance’s statement about his wife, Usha Vance, was not a private comment made in the warmth of family life. It was a deliberate, public declaration meant to send a signal. Not to God, but to voters. J.D. Vance represents the same mindset that once sent missionaries to ‘save’ the souls of India.

- SAVIO RODRIGUES

US Vice President J.D. Vance, his wife Usha Vance, and their children at the Akshardham Temple, in New Delhi on 21 April. ANI

When the Vice-President of the United States, J.D. Vance, told a gathering of Christian conservatives that he hopes his Hindu wife will one day be moved by Christianity, he didn’t just reveal his faith, he revealed his hollowness. Behind the carefully polished words of a man desperate to sound godly was the unmistakable echo of arrogance. The arrogance that sees another’s faith as inferior, another's belief as incomplete, and another's identity as something to be corrected.

Vance's statement about his wife, Usha Vance, was not a private comment made in the warmth of family life. It was a deliberate, public declaration meant to send a signal—not to God, but to voters. His message was clear: “Look, I'm one of you. I believe my wife's faith needs saving too.” That's not love. That's politics dressed up as piety.

In that moment, the Vice-President of the United States revealed something the world has long suspected about America’s political evangelicals—they preach about freedom of faith, but they only respect freedom when it looks like them, talks like them, and prays like them.

Let’s be honest—J.D. Vance didn’t stumble into Christianity because of divine revelation alone. He stumbled into it when he stumbled into political ambition. The man who once wrote “Hillbilly Elegy” as a tale of moral awakening found that salvation also came with votes. By converting to Catholicism in 2019, Vance didn't just find Jesus—he found a constituency.

But when he said he “hopes” his Hindu-raised wife will be “moved by Christianity,” the mask slipped. Hope, in this case, is a polished word for expectation. And expectation isa polite word for pressure.