JD Vance shares his journey from atheist law student to practicing Christian
Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, detailed his faith journey this week while speaking with conservative Christians, sharing how he went from being an atheist law student to a devout Christian.
Giving an address before a breakfast organized by the conservative Christian advocacy group Faith & Freedom Coalition on Thursday during the Republican National Convention, Vance, 39, discussed his religious upbringing as he grew up in Ohio.
Vance, who penned the 2016 bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, was primarily raised by his grandmother, who, while being a devout Christian who regularly prayed and read the Bible, only attended church services once or twice a month.
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He said that growing up, "there was something a little bit shallow" about his faith, and that, "like a lot of kids," his religious views disappeared while growing up.
"I went off to the military, to college, to law school," he recounted. "Somewhere along the way, that faith that had developed, and was germinating, sort of evaporated. And so, by the time that I was in law school, I started to call myself an atheist."
Vance said "there was a certain arrogance" to identifying as atheist, telling those gathered that "there was this idea that I was smart and wise and I knew things that my grandma never knew."
The senator said marrying his Hindu wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, whom he had met at Yale Law School, brought him back to the Christian faith. The couple wed in 2014.
"Thinking about what was required of me as a husband and as a father," Vance explained, "the more that I thought about those deeper questions, the more that I thought there was wisdom in the Christian faith that I had completely discarded and completely ignored."
Vance began attending church when his first child was born in 2017. He recalled how his wife observed that "there's something about becoming Christian that is really good for you."
He quoted his wife as saying, "There's something about thinking about the Christian faith, there's something about practicing the Christian faith, that makes you more patient with our son, and makes you a little bit more forgiving when I'm grumpy after a long day."
The bestselling author said that he "realized" at that moment that his wife was describing "grace," adding that he did not believe that grace "happens instantaneously" but rather "something that happens over a lifetime."
"In ways big and small, if you practice your faith, if you pray, if you think about what it requires of you, then God makes you a little bit better each and every single day," Vance said.
In 2019, Vance converted to Roman Catholicism, saying in a previous interview with The American Conservative that he never had a super strong attachment to any denomination growing up.
The vice presidential nominee said he loves being part of a faith community, taking his kids to church every Sunday and the questions his children ask about Christian faith.
In closing his remarks, Vance referenced the 1990s R-rated film "Pulp Fiction," specifically comments that Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules makes in response to miraculously surviving an attempt on his life.
Vance recounts when Jules tells a fellow gangster that, when it comes to miracles, "it's not about whether God changed Coke to Pepsi or found my car keys, what matters is that I felt the touch of God."
"One of the really deep beliefs I have is that there all of these small little miracles," Vance said. "And if you look for them, you actually see them."
On Monday, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he had selected Vance as his vice presidential running mate after "lengthy deliberation and thought."
"J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association," stated Trump.
"J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond."
Vance accepted the nomination on Wednesday, telling the Republican National Convention that he believed "Trump represents America's last best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again."
