I’m now in the awkward position of trying to explain Christianity which I don’t know how well I’m doing but here goes. The emphasis in American Evangelical theology is on a personal conversion experience which can occur at any moment in life. So the present condition of a person doesn’t matter as long as there is the possibility of being “born again”.
Now Vance is Catholic but he is a convert who grew up Protestant (and his recent spat with the Pope suggests it might not have entirely rubbed off.)
(I’m the one who originally exclaimed disbelief/horror at his attitude)
I’d missed that he used to be a Protestant; I’m guessing one of the weirder American varieties. I’m not religious, but from a traditionally Catholic country, and I suppose culturally Catholic (my grandparents were Catholic). Most of my experience with Christians would be Catholics and Anglicans.
It _is_, I think, a fairly un-Catholic attitude (certainly post-Vatican II Catholic, which he would have to be, having been born after it), but maybe it fits better with evangelical Protestantism? That said, it’s surprising to me that someone who holds such views would marry someone of another religion; you’d think that either they’d respect the spouse’s beliefs, or find them a barrier.
The middle ground of “I can marry this person, but also _they should convert_” is pretty odd to me.
(I mean, honestly in this case I’m kind of assuming that it’s performative for his audience, and that he didn’t hold any such views when they got married, and probably still doesn’t. Because you’d be a fool to take this guy at his word. But if it’s _real_, yeah, sorry, that’s pretty fucked up)
Now Vance is Catholic but he is a convert who grew up Protestant (and his recent spat with the Pope suggests it might not have entirely rubbed off.)
For me it absolutely was a deciding matter.