Just a couple of years ago, would you have had “the Vice President of the United States debates theology on social media” on your bingo card?
Yet here we are. On Thursday, JD Vance got into an X argument over immigration and Christianity with Tory MP-turned-podcaster Rory Stewart, who had challenged the Veep’s claim on Fox News that Christianity requires us to prioritise care for the local and national community before helping others. This stance, Stewart countered, is “less Christian and more pagan tribal”. Vance shot back: “Just google ordo amoris [the order of love]. Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense. Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone?”
Whatever your position on the underlying debate, it’s worth taking stock of the sheer novelty of this exchange and what it reveals about Vance. Here we have the second most powerful man in the world invoking a concept from classical Christian theology in a transatlantic polemical context — but doing so in a highly online way.
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