In the wake of the publication of Vice President J.D. Vance’s new memoir, Communion, he joined Allie Beth Stuckey on her podcast, Relatable, for a wide-ranging conversation about his personal life, religion, and politics. Beyond the usual questions about foreign policy and elections, Vance discussed his views on Christian fatherhood, drawing on his own faith journey and his experience as the father of three, with a fourth child on the way. He also reflected on how evangelicals can effectively encourage others to embrace their political views.
“If you don’t speak to what kids are dealing with then you’re going to lose a lot of them.”
Vance grew up in a Christian home, attending a Pentecostal church in southwestern Ohio. Growing up, his grandmother was a devout follower of Jesus. He described her as his tightest link to Christianity, and when she died, so did that link. “I didn’t really have any anchor to Christianity anymore,” Vance said.
Thinking of his own role as a Christian father, Vance notes he is “obsessed” with the question of why kids raised with Christian parents in Christian households do not hold on to faith in their later years. Vance said this question is what motivated his book, in which he explains why his faith did not take at first and then why it came back to him later.
At 20 years old, Vance joined the Marine Corps and was stationed in Iraq after his grandmother passed. Vance became an atheist two years into his military career and attributes part of it to his confusion over why evangelicals and Catholics seemed so invested in specific political topics, like the Terri Schiavo case, that seemed to have nothing to do with his young adult life and struggles.
“One of the lessons here is not that Christians shouldn’t care about politics,” said Vance in the interview, “But I think that they have to appreciate that part of what a 21 or a 22-year-old kid is going through is going to be so divorced from the day-to-day of public policy.”
He added, “If you don’t speak to what kids are dealing with then you’re going to lose a lot of them.”
While Vance sees engaging in culture wars as an important part of the church’s duty to young adults, he emphasizes it is certainly not the only part. Instead, he notes that the foundational day-to-day relationships in the home and the church’s support of those families are what truly give young people the spiritual anchor they need.
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