{"id":666,"date":"2026-06-17T13:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=666"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:11:05","slug":"are-you-there-god-its-me-j-d-vance-and-i-have-some-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=666","title":{"rendered":"Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, J. D. Vance, and I Have Some Notes."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cI don\u2019t worry about what I will find on the other side of eternal sleep,\u201d J. D. Vance writes in his new book, Communion<\/i>. \u201cEven as a child, I never feared hell.\u201d Charming sentences to find in a book by the sitting vice president of the United States! One that in no way makes me want to run screaming off a cliff!<\/p>\n

Read more Atlantic Trivia: Coats of Arms<\/a><\/p>\n

The book is full of many such humdingers. Here\u2019s Vance, explaining why he prefers Catholicism to therapy: \u201cI found liberation in guilt.\u201d (Men would literally rather \u2026 well, you know.) Here\u2019s Vance, explaining why he felt ready to join the Catholic Church even as it was \u201cgoing through a tough time,\u201d when headline after headline was recounting all of the ways it had \u201cscrewed up\u201d in covering up child sexual abuse: \u201cIf the Titanic is going down, I\u2019d rather be on board than hop on a lifeboat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Vance on the one kind of acceptable immigration: \u201cIt is true that immigration can bring benefits to the host country in its own right. Just think of Elon Musk and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that trace directly to his decision to come to the United States.\u201d He adds: \u201cSome populations assimilate more easily than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Vance\u2019s gloss on the Book of Job and the problem of suffering: \u201cWe are like golden retrievers trying to understand how an iPhone functions.\u201d Well, the Book of Job left me troubled, but that golden-retriever analogy has fixed things!<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople sometimes talk about the size of the universe and how small they feel compared to the infinite stars many light-years away,\u201d Vance writes. \u201cI had never shared that feeling.\u201d This, you can certainly tell. For a man who so often professes to be humble\u2014what made him change his mind about Donald Trump? \u201cWell, Joy, a little humility, actually,\u201d he told Joy Behar on The View<\/i>\u2014he has very little actual humility on display. Put it this way: Vance\u2019s book is about how he finally decided that Catholicism met his exacting standards.<\/p>\n

Whenever he experiences regret, it is for saying something the wrong way. His sister takes offense when he complains that the cereal she serves is pure sugar. \u201cWhatever the merits of my argument\u2014there is some virtue in not eating Froot Loops every day, though I should have raised this more artfully,\u201d he concedes, \u201cit showed how far I was drifting from my roots.\u201d This is as much of a retraction as Vance ever gives us! His regret about the \u201cchildless cat ladies\u201d comment? \u201cI could have made that point much more effectively, and with the benefit of showing a little charity to the many Americans who\u2014some for reasons beyond their control\u2014don\u2019t have children.\u201d<\/p>\n

If only he\u2019d said it better! He was right, but he didn\u2019t say so in a way that allowed people to understand how right he was. That was the problem.<\/p>\n

There are moments in Communion<\/i> when you almost feel for him. A more deft cynic would simply describe a dramatic come-to-Jesus moment. In lieu of that, Vance offers the following: At one point, his car rolls to a stop on a slippery road short of hitting a guardrail. This experience does nothing for him at the time, but it remains in the back of his mind. Don\u2019t worry! God has more in store. Later, he is discussing theological questions with a Catholic friend when\u2014I am not making this up\u2014a wine glass falls off a shelf behind a bar. (\u201cSuddenly a wineglass seemed to leap from a stable place behind the bar and crashed on the floor in front of us.\u201d)<\/p>\n

But wait! There\u2019s more! Once, he was listening to a psalm, and then, when he went to church\u2014this will knock you over with a feather\u2014they were also singing that same psalm. This is especially miraculous when you realize that there is a finite number of psalms and that churches sing or recite one at pretty much every service. (Vance quotes Pulp Fiction<\/i>: \u201cYou don\u2019t judge s*** like this based on merit.\u201d)<\/p>\n

If I were Vance, I would be a little offended that God was not putting in more effort to recruit me. But after reading the book, I had some sympathy for God\u2019s approach. What does faith mean to this man?<\/i> one imagines God asking. Will he alter anything about his life or his choices because of his beliefs, or will becoming Catholic just mean that he feels he can give notes to the Holy See?<\/i><\/p>\n

This question also seemed to be on the minds of the hosts of The View<\/i> when they spoke with Vance yesterday afternoon. (\u201cI\u2019m here to sell books!\u201d he piped up, as the show cut to the first commercial.) How, one panelist asked, does he square his faith with what the administration is doing to immigrants? How can he explain this to his kids? Please go and visit a detention facility, Ana Navarro urged him. \u201cOver 50 people have died in ICE custody. There are thousands of children, 6,200, being held in places like the Dilley detention center.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ve thrown a lot at me!\u201d Vance responded. \u201cI see we got 30 seconds left here!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy their fruits ye shall know them\u201d is a refrain to which Vance keeps returning in the course of Communion<\/i>. The fruits\u2014families, peace of mind\u2014that his believer friends seem to be experiencing are what first make a faith-filled life appeal to him. But the fruits-first approach also turns out to be very convenient for Vance. If he likes the outcome of a thing, then perhaps it is more just than he initially thought. Hence, Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Read more The Moms Who Smoke Weed to Parent<\/a><\/p>\n

The only problem comes when others (even the leaders of his new creed) do not seem to think as highly of the fruits as he does. A conundrum, this! Probably, they are just not using the right words to explain the situation. \u201cI still found our conversation unsettling,\u201d he complains, writing about his visit to Rome. \u201cNot because the Vatican expressed skepticism of the Trump administration\u2019s migration policies, but because of how generic its position was. The diplomats acknowledged that the United States had the right to control its borders, but they also encouraged us to treat migrants humanely. What did they take issue with, exactly?\u201d<\/p>\n

I am going to go out on a limb and guess: the inhumane treatment of migrants. I am going to guess: migrants being warehoused in literal warehouses, and in tents in the Florida sun, with inadequate food, water, and access to medical care. Vance, though, cannot muster a guess.<\/p>\n

More important, now that Vance has faith, he wants everyone else to reap the benefits.<\/p>\n

He quotes a prayer by President Dwight Eisenhower, then laments that \u201cwhen national politicians invoke God that much today, we\u2019re warned that The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/i> has come to life.\u201d But be not afraid! If this sounds ominous, it is simply one of those iPhone\u2013golden retriever situations. Vance (I\u2019m sorry\u2014God) has a plan.<\/p>\n

Unrelated to that Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/i> thing: Our society needs more children! He writes, \u201cWe want more children in our society because children are profoundly good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who will be making those children? Will they be consulted? We\u2019ll start \u201cwinning people over,\u201d Vance continues, by \u201creflecting Christian charity in the way we champion the unborn. Examples are everywhere. All over the country, pregnancy resource centers help young women afford food and diapers, and support young mothers through the inevitable chaos of an unexpected pregnancy.\u201d (This was not a winning message in Ohio, he concedes.) \u201cAnd we\u2019ll need to make a better Christian argument, about building the kind of culture and economy that can actually sustain young families and the life they bring into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah! If only we\u2019d said it better! Then people would understand! We just need better words to smooth over any objections to the \u201cinevitable chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

More children! More people in the pews of churches! More religion! But absolutely not more immigrants. Fortunately, Vance has faith enough to square it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, critics of the Trump administration say we\u2019re too tough,\u201d Vance writes. \u201cThe point is not to litigate this issue on these pages but to highlight that any application of moral principles in the real world requires a constant evaluation of trade-offs. Undoubtedly, that\u2019s what the Christian faith demands of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly! Not feeding the hungry, not tending to the sick, not clothing the naked, not welcoming the refugee. Not seeing the face of God in suffering. A constant evaluation of trade-offs! I think that\u2019s in the Sermon on the Mount. (\u201cBlessed are the meek, for they are best positioned to evaluate the trade-offs.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Now Vance has made his peace. The churches must be filled. The books must be sold. This is about as much faith as can fit in a shattered wine glass. No wonder God didn\u2019t send anything fancier.<\/p>\n

Read more Doctors Are Worried About AI. They Use It Anyway.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A convenient conversion story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor"],"yoast_head":"\nAre You There, God? It\u2019s Me, J. D. Vance, and I Have Some Notes. - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=666\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are You There, God? It\u2019s Me, J. D. 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