I had never read....Hillbilly Elegy....possibly because of what I knew it to be....that it might hit a little too close to home....but I had a high opinion of it from what people told me....and therefore of J. D. Vance. I thought he did well in his debate with Tim Walz....in fact the whole debate was a welcome relief in this attack age. My wife and I reserved seats to hear Vance speak at a Black church....and were in the line.....about twenty people from the door....when someone came out and said that they had miscalculated the numbers as they relate to the fire codes....so we did not get in.
I just finished.....(7AM Wednesday morning).....Vance's autobiographical new book....just released yesterday....Communion....Finding my Way back To Faith....but my opinion of our Vice President had changed quite a while ago. His temper tantrum in the golden Oval Office with Zelensky is not addressed but explained by his life. The book is maybe 50% his personal family life and religious history....30% various social issues....and 20% tops....anything related to politics.
I knew what to expect on his conversion to Rome....for it is a normal passage for people who are searching in all the wrong places....and I'll comment on that....but what hit me out of the blue....that I had not considered before....was that ten years ago this was a man that was still trying to mature...who had decided that being a lawyer....after Yale law school and two years of practice....was not for him....and he had made a lot of money through investing in a short period of time.....who within 17 pages of the book....where he was not forthcoming at all about the details on who helped him and how all of this happened....he went from being an investor to a candidate for the Senate....to a Senator....to on the short list for Trump's VP.....to being the Vice President! And now he is on the short list for Republican nominees for president....all in ten years? It is a sobering thought.
As for his religious conversion....he had a typical evangelical youth experience at various churches and youth gatherings....with no sound teaching in his life at all....except possibly a sermon here or there....and a little bit of the normal Left Behind hysteria....abandoned while in the army what little of evangelicalism he had in his system....took that emptiness into college and law school....and then....picked a religion that suited his high opinion and confidence in his own intellectual abilities and capabilities. It....(Rome)....was intellectually challenging....(that was necessary)....very tradition oriented....(something he wanted in his life)....and he had plenty of friends and acquaintances who could encourage him in this area....but it seems none....to give him the biblical gospel of salvation.
He apparently reads a lot....but once again....not the right books. He made this comment...."I found Lewis (C.S. Lewis)....(whom he read and quoted often)....thoughtful and compelling. But his books weren't the Christianity I'd been exposed to at him." That is an understatement about the great Oxford apologist. His books can stir the mind....but by themselves they are a soup or a casserole without all the ingredients. In another place he wrote...."As a child, I learned that the devil perfected the art of deception." Next to that sentence I put a note in the book....DJT....meaning he knew of deception....but was taken in by the greatest con man of all. I wound up putting that....DJT....for Donald John Trump....in quite a few places in the book....in areas that Vance had contradicted his own beliefs in binding himself to Trump.
He gives a very weak explanation on how he can go from thinking that Trump is bad....to thinking that Trump is good. So much of the book was about his wonderful and brilliant wife....so much that I once thought...."enough already".....but does he care about his wife's eternal soul? I think that the answer to that is probably....yes....but the problem is that he knows how to be devout....and say many of the correct truths and superlatives about God....but chose a convenient method of salvation of faith and works....that does not save.
This is a very easy book to read. J. D. Vance does write well....maybe that should have been his primary calling. I address this issue of Roman Catholicism through novel form....and in detail....in my novella....Isaac Crockett....which can be read in a couple of hours if you are ever interested.
Addendum: Back in the 80s and 90s the debate....at times contentious and always lively....between evangelical protestants and Roman Catholics....was literally everywhere. We were all familiar with what was going on....for it was in the news often. John MacArthur and R. C. Sproul led the way with their ministries. Both are gone home now. Will the church today continue to...."Contend for the faith"....(Jude 3)....or will the current....falling away....extend even to the defense of the gospel itself?
Here is an example from this tech age that we live in....of the differences on the two gospels of salvation. You have an IT device....a thermostat maybe....with a few controls....in one set you put the desired temperature....and then there is a delete button....and then there is a save button. The instructions are to put in the temp that you want....and then save it....(faith in Jesus Christ alone)....but the instructions from Rome are that you put in the desired temp....but then you push the delete button....(adding works of various kinds)....and then push the save button! Nothing is saved....neither is anyone saved by these instructions! Fortunately....and praise God for His mercies upon us....many in Rome do not follow the instructions given them....for they just put in the temp....and then save it.
Here is a very short historical primer....The first two centuries of the church were persecution. The reign of Constantine....circa 325....enabled the church to operate freely....this resulted in the Nicene Creed which was formulated and finalized in the fourth century. Two hundred years later saw the beginnings of the power of what would be the church of Rome. There was a remnant over the next thousand years but it was a downward spiral until the Reformation which began in 1517 where scripture and the gospel were returned to the church. A number of 'protestant; denominations and even beliefs devoloped....but this was a necessary thing. The Roman church had split by then. Liberal Protestantism....emanating from Europe....destroyed the gospel once again....but as always....there is always a remnant. Just as the Great Awakening had come and then waned....there was a legitimate and strong movement in and around evangelicalism beginning in the mid-1900s....but it also has waned. Today....Christian Nationalism is the dominant force....with a return by many to Rome....and to Orthodox (or Eastern)....Christianity....but then.....there is always that remnant.....even within the billion people within Rome itself.
Here is one sign....if you will....God's Word....the Bible....is alive in those that have truly been redeemed and born again....whether they use the term or not....but to the others it is no more alive than the Bhagavad Gita is to Tulsi Gabbard. J. D, Vance says in his book that he read the bible....twice....and the New Testament many times. I had quite a few people over the years tell me that they read the bible....maybe twice....or three times.....from beginning to end....but without that personal redemption....with faith in Christ....alone....someone who brings their sin and nothing else to the cross....no sacraments or good works of any kind....to them it is just a book....maybe their favorite book....but still just a book.
