Washington Post Op-Ed: JD Vance Makes the Case for a More Christian America, by Matthew Schmitz (Religion Editor, Washington Post)

In a divided America, JD Vance sees Christianity as a unifying force. His new memoir, “Communion,” blames secularism for social strife and proposes faith as the solution. The book is not just a conversion narrative; it is an argument that a more Christian America would also be a more peaceful and tolerant one.

“I do think in a very foundational sense the country is a Christian nation,” Vance tells me in an interview. Religious decline hasn’t removed social divisions, he says, but instead has deepened them: “I see antisemitism spreading … You’re seeing an elevation of anti-Christian bias. You’re seeing an elevation of anti-White bias. You’re, of course, seeing anti-Asian discrimination.” In short, “The United States is becoming more divided against itself. And I think, again, this is the fruit of secular liberalism.”

In place of secularism, Vance champions a nonsectarian Christianity. “If an ideology was advertised as promoting unity and openness and tolerance, and in fact it has created division and discord, maybe we should try something else,” he says. “And I think that something else is to return to the Christian foundation of the country.” …

For Vance, affirming America’s Christian character has less to do with doctrinal agreement or clerical authority than with a shared cultural heritage. The title of his book is a reference not only to the sacrament Christians share at the altar, but also to a common history that binds together disparate people and different generations. There is, Vance writes, a “communion between our ancestors and our descendants” — one he believes is under attack.

Like his previous memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” “Communion” is the story of a man who seeks community and wants to claim a heritage. This was true as well of Barack Obama’s first two books, “Dreams from My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” The parallels between the authors are striking. 

Both men were raised in part by their grandparents. Both had uneasy relationships with absent fathers. Both went to Ivy League law schools before embarking on political careers. And despite their successes, both felt (in Obama’s words) “a longing for place, and a fixed and definite history.”

The search for belonging led both men to church. Vance’s reception into Catholicism by Henry Stephan, a jovial Dominican friar, has its counterpart in Obama’s baptism at the church led by Jeremiah Wright. Before finding the Black church, Obama wrote, “I had no community or shared traditions in which to ground my most deeply held beliefs.” Vance found similar grounding in Catholic faith.

Vance tells me he isn’t familiar enough with Obama’s writing to comment on those parallels. But he draws a contrast between his outlook and the former president’s. Obama, Vance says, “very much wants to sort of locate the American founding in its most secular angle.”

Obama was drawn to the Black church because it was alert to America’s injustices, even as it invoked its high ideals. It was ready to call out the nation’s failings. Vance’s political faith has a different character. He sees America’s history as an endangered inheritance — as something that needs to be cherished rather than criticized. Being Catholic, Vance may one day enjoy the communion of the saints. Being an American, he is part of a communion of sinners, a congregation of 340 million that he wants to strengthen and preserve despite its many imperfections.

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