(Tyler Arnold/CNA) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance cited both ancient Christian teachings and America’s Founding Fathers as he vowed that the Trump-Vance administration will deliver on its religious liberty commitments during a speech to the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit Wednesday morning.
“Religious freedom flows from concepts central to the Christian faith,” Vance said at the Feb. 5 speech to hundreds gathered at the annual summit in Washington, D.C.
Those Christian tenets, according to the American vice president, are “the free will of human beings and the essential dignity of all peoples.”
“We find its foundational tenets 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,” Vance said. “Early Christians, of course, suffered greatly and unfortunately many Christians still suffer today at the hands of oppressive state power.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance addresses the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5, 2025. | Credit: Migi Fabara/EWTN News
