Vance sat down with Mercedes Schlapp, one of CPAC’s organizers, to discuss the administration’s plans and his views on many of the issues confronting our nation. You can watch the entire exchange here (or read the full transcript here), but but it always feels a bit different when you’re in the room as someone is developing his thoughts. Watching Vance speak, you could predict much of what he talked about, but one very important part of his message stood out to me, and that was what he said about his Christian faith and how important it was, not only for himself and his family but as a guiding principle to return freedom and morality to America. Here are a few short quotes that really impressed me.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP: One of the issues that’s central to the CPAC community is the issue of pro-life. What is the administration going to do to defend the unborn, to provide support for those mothers, those fathers that choose life?
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: One of the things, of course, that the president got done during the first term, and I think that it’s why he is accurately called the most pro-life president in American history, is he finally made it possible for the will of the people to speak on the life issue. The Dobbs decision, what that did is it gave the abortion question back to the people.
It took it out of the hands of unelected bureaucrats and unelected judges and gave it back to the people. And I think the most important thing that we can do, and as you know, Mercedes, I’m very pro-life, I’m a devout Christian, is that we have got to persuade our fellow Americans, because now we’ve got the power. We’ve got the power of persuasion. We’ve got to persuade our fellow citizens that unborn life is worthy of protecting. It is sacred in the eyes of God, and it should be sacred in the eyes of man, too. And we have to pick up the torch and fight for that every single day. And I know you guys are up for the task. I am, too.
Now, I am a Christian, but you don’t have to be Christian to agree with Vance on this. Abortion is literally barbaric, and the fact of the matter is that when thelLeft began pushing abortion, it was not out of concern for mothers or families who couldn’t afford children. Instead, it was a direct attack on our Judeo-Christian values. As I argued in my book Who Was Karl Marx, the communists knew that, despite Karl Marx referring to religion as “the opiate of the masses,” it was actually the main source of strength for our culture and society.
Our Constitution was written by godly men (whatever their human flaws), and as President John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” So, the left’s biggest task was to attack those values. As with virtually all the left’s agendas launched in the 1950s and 1960s, it was designed to tear us apart as a nation.
In the conversation that followed, Vance concluded with his faith and how it influenced his public life:
MERCEDES SCHLAPP: So, now we’re going to get personal. This is going to be so fun. Your faith. Yep. Why is it so important to you? What does it mean to you? Tell us why, when you go every single day to work, how faith is a part of who you are.
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: First is, I believe the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, it’s not just a set of good moral principles, though it is that. I think the fundamental tenet of our faith is that the Son of God became man, He died, and He raised Himself from the dead. That is the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, and I think so much flows from that. I think one lesson that flows from that is that we shouldn’t fear death, of course.
Death is a very bad thing, but there are much more terrible things than just losing one’s life, and importantly, you could lose one’s soul. And I think whether it’s fighting for the unborn, or fighting for peace and security for our citizens, I want us to be the kind of society where my kids can grow up to be virtuous young people, can be good young Christians, of course, because that’s what I’m trying to raise them to be, and that’s what our public policy is trying to do.
Creating the space where moms and dads can raise their children in their faith to become good young people who believe the things that I do, that is what I’m trying to create, is the space for you, of course, to raise your children as you see fit, but the space for me to raise my kids to be the kind of young people that I think they ought to be.
And the other thing that I take from it, Mercedes, is if you look at the long history of the Christian faith, we’ve been around for about 2,000 years now, give or take a few years, and there have been really dark times in the history of the Christian faith, there have been really good times in the history of the Christian faith, and I just try to remind myself that we put our faith in God above, we put our faith in the grace of God, and we try the best to do His will, and we don’t worry so much about whether we’re going to have earthly rewards, we worry about whether we’re doing right by God Almighty above. That’s what I try to do, and that’s how I try to run my life in public.
To me, Vance’s words about his faith were the most inspiring and heartening things he said during the entire conversation.
Image: YouTube screen grab.
James Simpson is an economist, businessman, investigative journalist and author. His latest book is Manufactured Crisis: The War to End America. Follow Jim on X & Facebook.