Well Timed and Poorly Timed Conversions
J.D. Vance and the Strange Catholics
We took on the question of conversos and the revelation of Christopher Columbus’s Jewishness. I like this level of discourse as we interrogate other famous people’s conversions.
So how sincere is J. D. Vance’s Catholic conversion? I know, I know. That’s a rude question to ask but I’ll ask it anyway, especially as we’re getting to the question of authenticity.
The details are curious. His wife Usha isn't a Catholic and there’s little indication that Vance raises his children — at least one of whom has an Indian name — as Catholics.
In fact the Indian press is ablaze that Vance “feels bad” about taking his Hindu-born wife to Catholic mass: “She didn’t sign up for this.”
Vance has been a Catholic for five years. He was brought into the Church by Rod Dreher a.k.a. Ray Oliver Dreher Jr.
We’ve seen learned that Dreher, who is himself a convert having first converted to Catholicism and then to Eastern Orthodoxy, has a father who was in the Ku Klux Klan, according to Dreher himself.
In 2022, following his separation from his wife, Dreher moved to Budapest, Hungary, where he lives in what he has described as a self-imposed "exile." No clue what happened to any of his three kids.
You have to wonder about converts who reject the faith of their fathers and you have to especially wonder about it when it’s done in such a public way. Vance’s biological father is Donald Bowman. Bowman, who passed away in November, appears to have been some sort of evangelical construction man.
“Don was a family man, loving his wife, all his children and grandchildren passionately, but his true passion and heart was for ministry. He loved to pray, study the Word, worship and to be in the presence of God. He was a spiritual father and mentor to many, encouraging and praying for others, always looking for someone that he could help in any way.”
Vance seems to have gone in another direction. Here’s another posting from Rod Dreher.
This is strange stuff. “JD Vance told far-right podcast the Civil War is still ongoing and he’s with the South.”
Maybe it’s J.D.’s real religion. Is he a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle? It sure feels like it. Vance made his business empire in Cincinnati — the very same place as the Golden Circle.
There’s a bit in Mein Kampf in which Adolf Hitler says not to be upset about opportunists because it’s a sign that you’re winning. We’ve talked about Vance’s eugenics-like approach to Appalachia elsewhere.
Richard Herrmann — Vance’s mentor at Ohio State University — is a Sovietologist. Rather curiously Herrmann “has written on the role of perception and imagery in foreign policy as well as on the importance of nationalism and identity politics in world affairs.”
Could that explain his choice of shirt? This is weird stuff.
So what do I believe?
I was raised in the Episcopal Church, which I enjoyed but did not get confirmed despite teaching Sunday school and even serving on the vestry. I joined the Episcopal church out of obligation for the kindness it had shown my cancer-stricken mother.
I myself am a Catholic convert — sort of. I joined the Church more out of loyalty to my then-wife than out of any genuine conviction. I believed then and I believe now that families should be united in faith and so I joined the Catholic Church.
My then-wife and I were married in a secular ceremony in Eklutna Lake, Alaska performed by a Mormon friend of ours. The marriage didn’t last but the respect remains.
Despite my divorce I remain intensely loyal to the Indonesian and Filipino Catholic Church which has always protected my nearest and dearest. Over the years I’ve gone to Catholic mass or Anglican service somewhat intermittently. I’d say that I am a Christian.
Arthur Bloom and I went to mass a few Easters ago at a church connected to Mary Surat, the woman who was hanged for her role in killing Lincoln. I haven’t really been back to a Catholic Church since except for a funeral here and there.
I somewhat wonder how Catholic even the Opus Dei network was. I was introduced to an Opus Dei priest by Matt Malek, who I was in turn introduced to by Steve Bannon. A young woman I met and who I was encouraged to marry was Opus Dei. I demurred; she married someone else.
What then is my religious faith? In a word, Union.
I’m with that old man who told Lincoln: “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.”
I’ll let my fellow Californian — John Steinbeck — have the last word:
This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.
JD is a mason like every other politician on the national stage.
Vance looks like a F2M, the bloated hormone face gives it away. These transhumanist’s love to twist everything in your face.