Religion Means the Relationship Before the Rules

Inside JD Vance’s Confrontation with Catholic Bishops: A Bold Reformation of Ordered Love?

Religion means relationships are more important than rules, starting with your binding relationship with God, followed by your relationship with your spouse and family, followed by your community, country, and the world. Vice President JD Vance (right with his Second Lady Usha Vance) shook up the media with that very Catholic message last week. Above: President Donald Trump and Vance at the Liberty Ball on January 20. (DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael Campbell). Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Religion means relationships first, the heart of the culture driving economics, politics, and life.

So Donald Trump keeps signing orders on every cultural divide from borders to DEI to gender to abortion to identity to restoring language—the goal: A more ordered government culture reshaping Western culture.

Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic since 2019, now defines America First as “ordered love.”

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“America First” is “profound,” Vance said, alluding to the Western tradition of prioritizing God, Family, and Country (in that order). He calls all to study “ordo amoris” (rightly ordered love), St. Augustine’s definition of virtue.

The Church similarly speaks of behavior as ordered or disordered. Are we putting first things first? Conforming ourselves to God’s Plan and His Will?

Vance’s challenge to the Church came in TV interviews and social media posts last week, aimed at the heart of the purpose of religion, politics, and all relationships. He makes us…