Vice President JD Vance sworn in on great-grandmother's Bible
Vice President JD Vance took the oath of office Monday using a Bible that once belonged to his great-grandmother.
Vance was sworn in as the 50th vice president of the United States alongside President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The ceremony was more intimate than initially planned: Trump moved inauguration festivities indoors because of cold weather in Monday's forecast.
The Bible is deeply rooted in Vance’s family. His grandmother Bonnie Vance – known to him as “Mamaw” – gave it to him when he left home in 2003 for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in South Carolina. The Bible is a King James version published by Thomas Nelson and Sons.
The new vice president didn’t have a straightforward faith journey. Vance was baptized as Catholic in 2019 at a Cincinnati-area church. Before that, he “occupied the uncomfortable territory between curiosity about Catholicism and mistrust,” he wrote in a 2020 column for The Lamp.
He recalled arguing about religion with his Mamaw and considered himself an atheist for years. As he neared his decision to convert, he wrestled with whether the Catholic Church was a safe place for his children amid the clergy sex abuse crisis.
In the end, Vance said Second Lady Usha Vance, who is Hindu, told him converting would be good for him.
“I realized that there was a part of me – the best part – that took its cues from Catholicism,” Vance wrote. “It was the part of me that demanded that I treat my son with patience, and made me feel terrible when I failed. That demanded that I moderate my temper with everyone, but especially my family. That demanded that I care more about how I rated as a husband and father than as an income earner. That demanded that I sacrifice professional prestige for the interests of family.”
Haley BeMiller covers state government and politics for the Paste BN Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.