Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy addressed questions about his faith during an event where a MAGA supporter accused him of drawing parallels between Hindu gods and Jesus Christ while avoiding publicly declaring his religion.
The supporter expressed concerns that Ramaswamy’s omission of specifying the God he referred to throughout his lecture could mislead the predominantly Christian audience into thinking he was talking about Jesus Christ.The supporter emphasized the incompatibility of Hinduism with America and challenged Ramaswamy to clarify which God he was referring to in his speeches.
“I’ve got a couple of observations that I want to make, and then I was wondering if you would respond to them. So the first one is that throughout the course of the lecture, you talked an awful lot about God and faith. And there were some men that came up here and they asked you about your hindu religion. But my suspicion is if they didn’t mention that, you would have omitted who that God was throughout the course of the entire lecture. And most of the people in this Room here would leave thinking you were talking about the only true God, Jesus Christ,” a student asked Ramaswamy.
“So my big question is, and you’ve talked about being forthright and transparent, my suspicion is that you would have omitted who that God was when you were speaking here tonight had you not explicitly been asked about Hinduism. So my challenge to you going forward would be to say who this God is?” he added.
In response, Ramaswamy said that he has been forthright about his identity, despite the ease of adopting a different name and pretending to be a Christian, as some other candidates have done. He dismissed the supporter’s suspicion as baseless, citing his numerous campaign speeches over the past year.
“You run for US President at the age of 37. As somebody who’s been in business, who’s actually easiest thing to call myself, some Vic Ramsey, and pretend to be a Christian, got other people on that debate stage last time who shortened their names and called themselves to be a Christian too, I man up and tell you who I am, and believe me, your suspicion is off base. Listen to any number of the campaign speeches. I gave over thousands of them over the course of the last year. So we can take the disingenuous accusation off the table, but level with what I do think is an interesting coming,” Ramaswamy said.
Further, Ramaswamy referenced Thomas Jefferson, who was not a traditional Christian but a deist, and asked the supporter if he considered Jefferson an enemy of Christianity.
“So watch about the last presidential campaign of last year. And you apparently have had your head stuck in the sand where it need not belong. Now, what I think we need more of in our American politics is less of questioning the motivations of what somebody is and get to the content of where there’s an actual difference of opinion. So the question of whether or not somebody of a non Christian faith can embody and lead the United States of America at any meaningful level is an open question. Thomas Jefferson is on the other side of this question from you. Thomas Jefferson was not a traditional Christian. Do you know what the Jefferson Bible is?” he added.
Earlier during his campaigning, Ramaswamy opened up about his ‘Hindu’ faith, emphasizing that it provides him with freedom and has motivated him to undertake this presidential campaign as a moral obligation.
Ramaswamy said, “My faith is what gives me my freedom. My faith is what led me to this presidential campaign. I am a Hindu. I believe there is one true God. I believe god put each of us here for a purpose. My faith teaches us that we have a duty, a moral duty to realise that purpose. Those are God’s instruments that work through us in different ways, but we are still equal because God resides in each of us. That’s the core of my faith”.