IS AMERICA IN THE GRIP OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOSITY?

Christian religiosity appears to be gaining traction in the United States partly because it is one of the defining features of President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) ideology. Trump himself talks about God and Heaven. In a recent interview with Fox News, he said, “If | can stop wars and bring peace, I think Heaven's going to look at that very strongly”.

- By P.K.Balachandran

President Trump, with conservative Christian influencer Charlie Kirk, whose movement has contributed to increased church attendance among younger Americans, particularly following recent political events

Reflecting on the death of the Christian evangelist and MAGA ally, Charlie Kirk, Trump said that Kirk would make it to Heaven. And Vice President J.D. Vance told a recent “Turning Point USA” gathering that because he was drawn to Christianity, his Hindu wife, Usha, would also be drawn to it eventually.

“Now, most Sundays, Usha will come with me to church. As I've told her and I've said publicly, and I'll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends - Do | hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that | was moved, the church? Yeah, | honestly do, because | believe in the Christian gospel and | hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” Vance said.

Religious difference was not a problem when Vance married Usha Chilukuri, a Hindu from Andhra Pradesh in South India. While there was no pressure from Vance on Usha to change her religion at that time, she agreed to bring up their three children as Christians. But since the ascendence of MAGA and White-Christian majoritarian politics under Trump's second Presidency, Vance, like many White Americans, has felt the need to hold up Christianity as a badge of American identity.

And since Vance is hoping to step into the shoes of Trump when the latter finishes his second term in 2028, he must be thinking of playing up his Christian affiliation.

Even as the Indo-American New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani flaunts his Islamic heritage, some other Indian American politicos have embraced Christianity like Nikki Haley and Bobby (Piyush) Jindal Governor of Louisiana, leaving Sikhism and Hinduism respectively.