Outrage in India over Vance’s wish for his Hindu wife to become a Christian
The US vice-president’s failure to mention his wife’s faith at an event has also struck a nerve in Hindu-majority India
Speaking at the University of Mississippi last week, Vance said his children were being raised as Christians and that his wife Usha Vance also attended church with the family most Sundays.
“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do with that. Because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” he said.
Vance qualified his remarks, saying it would not be a problem if his wife did not become a Christian and that she did not grow up in a particularly religious family.
“In fact, when I met my wife … I would consider myself an agnostic or an atheist, that’s what she would have considered herself as well,” he said.
Still, the suggestion that his wife might convert – and his apparent reluctance to publicly identify her religious background – struck a nerve in Hindu-majority India, where interfaith dynamics are often politically charged.