The Vance factor: bringing religion back into US politics whether the Establishment likes it or not
Religion has not so far featured significantly in the US presidential campaign – as opposed to abortion, which is a moral rather than religious issue – but there is, of course, a Catholic in this contest: JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Mr Vance was received into the Church in 2019 on the excellent basis The post The Vance factor: bringing religion back into US politics whether the Establishment likes it or not appeared first on Catholic Herald.
Syndicated News 
Religion has not so far featured significantly in the US presidential campaign – as opposed to abortion, which is a moral rather than religious issue – but there is, of course, a Catholic in this contest: JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
Mr Vance was received into the Church in 2019 on the excellent basis that he needed grace. He reflected in the following year, in an article for The Lamp magazine, that what he had been looking for was a worldview outside the left-right political divide, which was “obsessed with virtue, but cognisant of the fact that virtue is formed in the context of a broader community; sympathetic with the meek and poor of the world without treating them primarily as victims; protective of children and families and with the things necessary to ensure they thrive. And above all: a faith centred around a Christ who demands perfection of us even as He loves unconditionally and forgives easily”. And he found that in the Catholic Church.
It is, at the very least , an excellent thing to have in a position of real political influence, and potentially in a position of real political power, a man who gives thought to the philosophy that underlies his beliefs to the point that he was prepared to embrace a new faith. Mr Vance indeed found that much in the Catholic Church corresponded to the philosophy of his grandmother, who was averse to institutional religion but loved Our Lord.
He considered the claims of the Church, reconsidered the validity of the atheism into which he had drifted (led, not least, by the social confidence of the university atheists), and took the leap of faith. We have had many Catholic politicians before, but converts are rarer; they have willingly embraced the faith that others grew up in. We should be grateful to have in this presidential election at least one contender for whom religion is a serious matter.
This is not to say that this magazine is politically partisan. We recognise that the choice between Kamala Harr is and Donald Trump is difficult for Catholics, not least because Ms Harris has made abortion almost the defining issue of her campaign. Her focus on making it easier to destroy prenatal life rather than on raising and nurturing children is antipathetic to Catholics.
Mr Trump’s flaws are all too well known – not merely in his domestic life, which is far from exemplary – but in the shocking way in which he left office, denying the validity of the election which he lost. And there are a plethora of other matters on which the candidates differ, from the Israel-Palestine issue to healthcare. Catholics will have to reflect deeply before casting their vote.
Mr Vance has not had an easy time of it since his nomination as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. His passing comment in 2021 to Fox News about Kamala Harris being a “childless cat-lady” has had extraordinary traction, even though he was at the time not even elected to the Senate.
His point was that those without children did not have the same stake in society as those with families, which however debateable was also an unkind observation. Yet it is absurd that he should be held to account even now for a single observation; this obsession says a good deal about the partisan nature of the press coverage of this campaign, which is weighted to an astonishing degree in favour of the Democrats.
Similarly, a single jibe by the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Tim Walz, that Mr Vance is “weird” has been repeated by pundits and online Walz fanciers as if it were a cogent observation rather than a playground taunt.
RELATED: Tim Walz is right – JD Vance is very weird
Mr Vance has the invaluable resort of prayer in this contest. Perhaps he might also bear in mind St Paul’s exhortation to “rejoice in the Lord”; for a cheerful and optimistic demeanour goes a long way in US politics and he can sometimes appear gloomy.
But he should also focus in this campaign on those elements of the teaching of the Church that attracted him in the first place: its social teaching; its insistence that we are all one body, not disparate and competing individuals; its emphasis on the poor and marginalised.
Compassionate politics is not the preserve of one party and he should lay claim to care for the vulnerable. On the Palestinian issue, a Catholic may consistently support the state of Israel, utterly condemn the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and yet vociferously condemn the policies of the present Israeli government – not only for its undiscriminating conduct of the war, but its blanket support for illegal settlements.
Whatever the outcome of this election, Mr Vance is an asset to US public life. It is good that thoughtful and sincere Catholics are participating in politics.
Photo: Republican vice presidential nominee, US Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), speaks to reporters in the spin room following the presidential debate between Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, US Vice President Kamala Harris at The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 10 September 2024. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.)
The post The Vance factor: bringing religion back into US politics whether the Establishment likes it or not appeared first on Catholic Herald.
