Usha has no plans to convert: US VP Vance amid row over interfaith marriage remarks

Amid criticism over comments about his interfaith marriage, Vice President J D Vance said on Friday that his wife Second Lady Usha Vance has no plans to convert to Christianity but added that he hoped “she may one day see things as I do.”

Vance is facing flak over his comments regarding his interfaith marriage after saying he eventually hopes that Usha, who grew up in a Hindu household, “is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church.”

A post on social media said, “It’s weird to throw your wife’s religion under the bus, in public, for a moment’s acceptance by groypers.”

Responding to this, Vance hit back, saying, “What a disgusting comment, and it’s hardly been the only one along these lines.

“First off, the question was from a person seemingly to my left, about my interfaith marriage. I’m a public figure, and people are curious, and I wasn’t going to avoid the question,” he said in the response posted on X.

“Second, my Christian faith tells me the Gospel is true and is good for human beings. My wife—as I said at the TPUSA—is the most amazing blessing I have in my life. She herself encouraged me to reengage with my faith many years ago.

“She is not a Christian and has no plans to convert, but like many people in an interfaith marriage—or any interfaith relationship—I hope she may one day see things as I do. Regardless, I’ll continue to love and support her and talk to her about faith and life and everything else, because she’s my wife,” he said.

Vance made the initial comments on Wednesday at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi.

He was confronted by a young South Asian woman over his faith and his inter-religion marriage to Usha as well as over the Trump administration’s policies on immigration.

Responding to her, Vance said that on most Sundays, Usha goes to church with him.

“... I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends, do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that, because I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” he said.

“But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me. That’s something you work out with your friends, with your family, with the person that you love.”

In his response to the social media post, Vance further said that posts like this reek of “anti-Christian bigotry”.

“Yes, Christians have beliefs. And yes, those beliefs have many consequences, one of which is that we want to share them with other people. That is a completely normal thing, and anyone who’s telling you otherwise has an agenda,” he said.