Vice President JD Vance spoke passionately about faith, family, and the future of America during a Turning Point USA gathering at the University of Mississippi honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The event, which drew thousands, featured remarks from Kirk’s widow, Erika, before Vance took the stage to reflect on his friend’s influence and to discuss the role of Christianity in public life.
“A properly rooted Christian moral order,” Vance told the crowd, “is such an important part of the future of our country.”
Much of the discussion centered on faith—how it shapes his politics, his family, and his view of America’s founding. Asked about the separation of church and state, Vance made clear that he sees Christianity as essential to the nation’s moral framework. “I make no apologies for thinking that Christian values are an important foundation of this country,” he said. “Anybody who's telling you their view is neutral likely has an agenda to sell you. And I'm at least honest about the fact that I think the Christian foundation of this country is a good thing.”
Vance also took aim at what he called a “perverted version of Christianity” within modern liberalism. “There's nothing wrong, of course, with focusing on people who are disenfranchised,” he said. “But if you completely separate it from any religious duty or civic virtue, that can become an inducement to lawlessness. You can't just have compassion for the criminal. You also have to have justice too.”
He argued that the idea of banishing God from public life was a historical misstep. “Anybody who tells you it's required by the Constitution is lying to you,” Vance said, adding that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment “effectively threw the church out of every public place at the federal, state and local level. I think it was a terrible mistake, and we're still paying for the consequences of it today.”
One of the evening’s more personal moments came when a student asked about how Vance and his wife, Usha—who is Hindu—navigate faith within their home. Vance shared that he wasn’t a Christian when they met, but that over time, faith became central to their family life. “Most Sundays she will come with me to church,” he said. “Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly, I do wish that. Because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way. But if she doesn't, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn't cause a problem for me.”
Vance credited Kirk for inspiring him to speak more openly about his beliefs. “This is another way in which Charlie has affected my life,” he told the audience. “I grew up in a generation where even if people had very deep personal faith, they didn't talk about it much.”
He said that Kirk’s life and example pushed him to live his faith more publicly and to see his work as part of a higher calling. “The reason why I try to be the best husband I can be, the best father I can be, the reason why I care so much about all the issues that we're going to talk about, is because I believe I've been placed in this position for a brief period of time to do the most amount of good for God and for the country that I love so much,” Vance said. “And that's the most important way that my faith influences me.”