Three interpretations of the vice president’s new memoir.

Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening.

Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall.

Histories have been written about the great political conversions: Constantine to Orthodoxy for victory in battle; Henry VIII to Anglicanism for a divorce; Henry IV, of France, to Catholicism in order to ascend the throne in Paris. But J.D. Vance may be the only political leader in the history of the known world to convert to Catholicism in order to become Protestant.

Emmett Rensin is the author of The Complications: On Going Insane in America. He lives in Queens.