Speech wows at DC religious liberty conference
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The Vice President of the United States delivered a powerful speech on Wednesday, promising the new administration will not only restore but expand religious freedom.
JD Vance received cheers and a standing ovation during his appearance at the fifth annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, DC. Speaking to a crowd of more than 1,000, including survivors of religious persecution, Vance made clear he understands how the topic "unfortunately grows with each passing moment."
"You shouldn't have to leave your faith at the door of your people's government, and under President Trump's leadership, you won't have to," he vowed.
RELIGIOUS LEGACY UNDERGIRDS AMERICAN POLITICAL PRINCIPLES
The Vice President, a Catholic convert, reflected on the contributions of both the US Founding Fathers, as well as the Early Church Fathers, toward "the freedom to practice one's own faith and act according to one's own conscience."
He reminded the audience that our Founding Fathers rightly recognized the importance of freedom of religion, listing it "first among the liberties enshrined in our great Constitution."
Vance quoted John Adams, America's second President, who observed that politicians "may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which Freedom can securely stand."
A high point of the Vice President's address was his tracing of the Founders' words and great ideas back "to the Church Fathers of classical Christianity to which we owe the very notion of religious liberty."
Speaking to a common misconception, he said, it is "a conceit of modern society that religious liberty is a liberal concept, but we know that religious freedom flows from concepts central to the Christian faith, in particular, the free will of human beings and the essential dignity of all peoples."
"We find its foundational tenets [of religious freedom] in the gospels themselves with Christ's famous instruction to 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's." – JD Vance
The early Church Father Tertullian of Carthage (b. 160 AD – d. 240 AD), who coined the term "religious liberty," figured prominently in his address.
The persecution of the early Christians "weighed heavily" on Tertullian, Vance pointed out, and so he wrote an open letter to the rulers of the Roman Empire in which he argued passionately for universal religious freedom.
“It is only just and a privilege inherent in human nature that every person should be able to worship according to his own convictions. ... It is not part of religion to coerce religious practice for it is by choice not coercion that we should be led to religion.” – Tertullian
Vance also mentioned another Christian apologist living during the time of the Diocletian persecutions, who advised emperor Constantine about the importance of religious freedom with these words:
"Religion cannot be imposed by force. The matter must be carried on by words rather than by blows." – Lactantius (c. 250–325 AD)
The "line of thought" of Tertullian and other apologists "runs from the early Church Fathers to now the modern era where we recognize that we can't force our faith on anybody," Vance said.
Familiar with history, the Founding Fathers "recognized that their own writings [were] in dialogue with these philosophical predecessors," the Vice-President pointed out.
For example, Adams made references in his personal letters to Tertullian, and Thomas Jefferson owned an edition of his collected writings "which he marked up and which today sits in the Library of Congress."
TRUMP'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Vance wound down his speech enumerating the accomplishments made by President Trump during his first term in office.
Internationally, Trump 45 took critical steps "to protect the rights of the faithful ... by rescuing pastors who are persecuted by foreign regimes or bringing relief to the Yazidis, Christians and other faith communities facing genocidal Terror from Isis."
In terms of domestic policy, Vance pointed out, President Trump ... took decisive action ... to combat anti-Semitism and preserve the conscience rights of hospital workers and faith-based ministries as they provided care to their fellow Americans."
Likewise, he laid out what Trump has achieved in just the first two weeks of his second term, listing:
issuing executive orders to end the weaponization of the federal government against religious
pardoning American pro-life protesters who were unjustly imprisoned under the last administration
stopping federal censorship used to prevent Americans from speaking their conscience and speaking their mind whether it's in their communities or online
"Now our Administration believes we must stand for religious freedom not just as a legal principle, as important as that is, but as a lived reality both within our own borders and especially outside of them." – J.D. Vance
THE VP'S DECISION TO CONVERT
The Vice President became a Catholic in 2019, having considered himself loosely an "evangelical Christian" and then an "angry atheist" beforehand.
Soul searching during his Yale Law School years for greater meaning and what endures, he felt drawn to Catholicism and its intellectual heritage, Vance revealed in a 2020 interview with Rod Dreher. Reading Catholic moral philosophers and conversations with conservative Dominican friars moved him along that road.
"One of the things I love about Catholicism is that it's very old. ...The hope of the Christian faith is not rooted in any short-term conquest of the material world, but in the fact that it is true, and over the long term, with various fits and starts, things will work out."
Not unaware of the corruption in the Church, Vance reflected that his conversion "probably would have happened sooner if the sex abuse crisis, or the newest version of it, hadn't made a lot of headlines."
He chose St. Augustine for his patron at his baptism, in part, he says, because of the saint's autobiographical Confessions and his philosophical treatise, The City of God. He said during his interview:
I was pretty moved by the Confessions. I’ve probably read it in bits and pieces twice over the past 15 or so years. There’s a chapter from The City of God that’s incredibly relevant now that I’m thinking about policy.
THE SOUND OF SWISH
In addition to those in his most recent speech, Americans have been treated to a number of Vance's skillful rhetorical slam dunks and 3-pointers, so to speak.
Think of his ball-stealing retorts to Face the Nation's Margaret Brennan on Jan 26, including the now iconic, "I don't really care, Margaret. I don't want [an unvetted person] in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me."
Or his recent defense of ordo amoris (order of love) discussed by St. Augustine and other great thinkers, providing a guide to moral obligations on Fox News.
Americans accustomed to oftentimes incoherent speeches of Joe Biden and the word salads of Kamala Harris are finding a new appetite for Vance's intellectual game.
Vance's speech lasted just 12 minutes, but judging from its substance and audience appeal, his multiple rhetorical shots from the logo, are changing what Americans are used to – and expecting.
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught high school in Poland and Oman and at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
Editor's note:
HOW SOULS AND LIBERTY WILL MOVE FORWARD THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
There can be no doubt we have witnessed an extraordinary moment in the history of the United States and the world. The election of Donald Trump to a second Presidential term is a great victory for Christian patriots, but it is not a complete or final victory. Rather, it is a reprieve from the ceaseless assaults on life, liberty and faith we have had to endure for four years.
Donald Trump is president once again, and his decisions, Cabinet selections, and force of personality are shaping the United States and the world in ways we could only dream of.
We have a Heaven-sent opportunity to step up and ensure this victory is not merely a one-off, but the first of many and the foundation of a lasting legacy of patriotic, Christian, pro-family policies.
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Stephen Wynne
Editor-in-Chief, Souls and Liberty