(VitalNews.org) – Even though Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is running for a party predominantly made up of Christians, the 37-year-old entrepreneur and author isn’t hiding his Hindu faith.
Ramaswamy is gaining more support among the GOP than initially expected, and many polls place him in third place, just behind the two biggest candidates: former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Ramaswamy is also one of six presidential candidates qualified to participate in the first Republican debates at the end of the month.
The top of the list of Ramaswamy’s core beliefs that define his campaign is “God is real.” In order to gain support from Christians, a majority of whom are conservative and tend to vote Republican, he’s been emphasizing in speeches and conversations that Hinduism has a lot in common with Judeo-Christian values, which he states the U.S. “was founded on.”
Ramaswamy describes himself as “an ardent defender of religious liberty,” which may be enough to earn him the votes of other Americans no matter what religion they practice. He’s stated that part of the reason he’s been “more vocal and unapologetic” in his defense of religious freedom is that others won’t be able to accuse him, a Hindu, “of being a Christian nationalist.”
According to Ramaswamy, the belief system he was raised in teaches “there is one true God who empowers” each person with their “own capacities.” He said the Hindu tradition teaches “God resides” in each person, while the Christian tradition teaches all people are “made in the image of God,” emphasizing a similarity between the two beliefs that gives him more in common with someone of any faith than it does with someone who doesn’t have any faith at all.
Although the entrepreneur is the first male Hindu presidential candidate, he isn’t the first. That would be former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, who ran in 2020 for the Democratic nomination.
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