What JD Vance has said about his faith
The Ohio senator and recently named running mate of Donald Trump spoke with the Deseret News in 2016 about his religious journey
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. | Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press
By Kelsey Dallas
JD Vance will bring a unique religious perspective to former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, since he’s done more spiritual exploration than many politicians.
Vance, who was unveiled as Trump’s running mate on Monday, grew up believing in God but not affiliating with a faith group, attended an evangelical Christian church off and on as a teen and then entered a period of near-atheism in his twenties. He ultimately chose to join the Catholic Church as an adult.
Here’s what Vance has said about his faith over the years.
JD Vance’s religion
Vance, who will turn 40 on Aug. 2, felt close to God growing up, but he wasn’t invested in organized religion, as he told the Deseret News in 2016.
His family drew comfort from Christian beliefs amid chaotic times, but rarely chose to turn to religious leaders or local churchgoers for help.
Still, Vance credits local churches, and his dad’s evangelical Christian church, in particular, with showing him that there was something better out there than the poverty, drug addiction and conflict his family was dealing with.
“Going to church showed me a lot of really positive traits that I hadn’t seen before. I saw people of different races and classes worshipping together. I saw that there were certain moral expectations from my peers of what I should do,” he told the Deseret News.
But by the time Vance enrolled in Yale Law School in 2010, he was disengaged from church and from God.
“I would have called myself an atheist,” he told the Deseret News in 2016.
At law school, though, Vance began to have new appreciation for the power of faith. He connected with Catholics and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and recognized that their religious beliefs were propelling them forward, not holding them back.
When he graduated from law school in 2013, Vance wasn’t committed to a specific religious community but he was curious about them again. He told the Deseret News in 2016 that he could see himself joining a faith group in the future.
“I’ve been going to church for the past year or so. Not as much as I should, but more than I have been. I’ve been thinking very seriously about converting to Catholicism,” he said.
JD Vance conversion to Catholicism
About three years after his conversation with the Deseret News, Vance did indeed get baptized and received into the Catholic Church.
Rod Dreher broke the news in August 2019 by publishing a Q&A with Vance about his faith in The American Conservative.
Vance told Dreher that Catholicism appealed to him on both an intellectual and emotional level. He enjoyed studying Catholic teachings, and also connecting with Catholic loved ones.
“When I looked at the people who meant the most to me, they were Catholic,” Vance said.
He told Dreher that past scandals in the Catholic Church, including the clergy sex abuse crisis, delayed his conversion decision. Ultimately, he decided that he needed to take a “longer view” on religious institutions.
“The hope of the Christian faith is not rooted in any short-term conquest of the material world, but in the fact that it is true, and over the long term, with various fits and starts, things will work out,” Vance said.
Vance’s bio on X reads, “Christian, husband, dad. U.S. Senator for Ohio.”
Does faith inform JD Vance’s politics?
If Trump and Vance win in November, Vance would become only the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history, according to the National Catholic Register. The first was President Joe Biden, who served as vice president under former President Barack Obama.
Vance has said in the past that, even before he joined the Catholic Church, he shared many policy goals with Catholics. He told Dreher in 2019 that he wanted to be known for promoting the common good.
“I hope my faith makes me more compassionate and to identify with people who are struggling,” he said.
But since being sworn in as a U.S. senator in January 2023, Vance has angered some more conservative Catholics, especially when it comes to abortion.
Like Trump, he does not support a federal abortion ban, and instead says abortion policy should be left up to individual states.
Earlier this month, he again echoed Trump by expressing support for allowing abortion pills to remain widely accessible.
C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, criticized Vance’s recent comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register.
“Vance has no principles, at least none that aren’t for sale, and the asking price is cheap,” he said.
But Vance is far from the first Catholic politician to be out of step with the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion, which state that life begins at conception and that any “procured abortion” is a moral evil, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Biden, who attends Catholic worship services regularly and who carries rosary beads with him, is personally troubled by abortion, but has spoken repeatedly during his time as president about the importance of protecting abortion rights, according to NBC News.
