US Vice President JD Vance has defended saying that he hopes his wife Usha -- who was raised as a Hindu -- converts to Christianity.
A fervent Catholic who himself converted in 2019, Vance said on Friday that pushback against his remarks reeks of "anti-Christian bigotry."
The 41-year-old was asked about raising their three children in an interfaith marriage at a Turning Point USA event honoring assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday.
"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," he said.Â
"But if she doesn't, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn't cause a problem for me."
Vance, who has been tipped by President Donald Trump as a likely candidate in the 2028 US election, then responded to criticism of his remarks on social media.
Replying to one critic who accused him on X of throwing the Second Lady's religion "under the bus" to placate right-wingers, Vance replied: "What a disgusting comment, and it's hardly been the only one along these lines."
"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," Vance wrote.
Usha Vance was born in San Diego to parents who emigrated from India. She told Fox News in 2024 that her parents' Hindu religion helped make them "really good people."
Vance was raised as an evangelical in a chaotic and sometimes deprived upbringing that he described in his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy."
The couple met at Yale Law School and married in 2014.
Since Vance's conversion to Catholicism five years later, he has frequently spoken about how his faith has informed his conservative political views.
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