It is a text that has been circulating a lot among American Catholic conservatives, an increasing number in Congress, since the announcement of the nomination of JD Vance last July. In a long post titled “How I joined the resistance”published in the Catholic fortnightly The Lamp in 2020, the Republican senator from Ohio and now vice president-elect recounts his upbringing in a conservative evangelical family, his spiritual wandering between the evangelicalism of his childhood and atheism, then his discovery of the writings of Saint Augustine… which ultimately leading him to his conversion to Catholicism, and his baptism in 2019.
“I gradually understood that Catholicism was the closest expression of the Christianity to which my grandmother claimed: (…) compassionate with the poor and weak without treating them as victims; protective of children and families while providing them with what they need to thrive. And above all: a faith centered on Christ, demanding while providing the assurance that He loves us unconditionally and forgives easily. »
More conservative than Trump
At the time, James David Vance, born in 1984 in Middletown, Ohio, was best known for his bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy, published in 2016. In this autobiographical story, he recounts his upbringing in Appalachia and the socio-economic problems of his small town in Ohio: deindustrialization, poverty or addiction to opioids. At the time, The World sees in this story a possible explanation for the rightization of the white working class, “painting a dark picture of the industrial crisis, of class contempt for workers, of their abandonment by the two major political parties, converted to the cult of free trade”. To the point that the French fortnightly Society nickname him “American Nicolas Mathieu”.
In many ways, Vance is more conservative than Trump, particularly on societal issues, which he justifies by his Catholic faith: he is opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage, and even Internet pornography. . Unlike the very liberal Trump, he describes himself as post-liberal, an emerging political philosophy criticizing the dominant liberal paradigm in the United States. One of the key ideas of post-liberals is that the State, through more interventionist public policies, must lead citizens towards virtue, in particular by promoting conservative family values.
“It’s true, Jesus is king!” »
During the campaign, he was open about his religious beliefs, to the point of making a political argument in defense of religious freedom, a recurring theme among conservative Christian voters. “I am a devout Christian, I was baptized in 2019,” he assures in a meeting in Waukesha (Wisconsin), mid-October. As a man in the audience screams “Jesus is king”, he replies: « It’s true, Jesus is king! » … Unlike Kamala Harris who, faced with the same cry, retorts: “I think you went to the wrong meeting. »
This difference in reactions was one of the pivotal points in the perception of the two candidates by the Christian electorate, notably white evangelicals and Catholics. “I say this as a Christian, I find that there is something bizarre in the anti-Christian rhetoric of Kamala Harris. Whether you are a Christian or not, Donald Trump and I will fight so that you can practice your faith and live according to your own values. »
Younger, more conservative but also more cultured… Among the young American Catholic conservative guard, many see in JD Vance a successor to Donald Trump who, according to the Constitution, will not be able to run for a third term in 2028.
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