What JD Vance learned about faith, fatherhood from Charlie Kirk

Vice President JD Vance has opened up about how slain Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a personal friend, provided valuable lessons about faith and fatherhood, reflecting on the legacy of the Turning Point USA founder.

Vance published an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. The passage, from the book scheduled for publication June 16, discussed how Kirk’s assassination last September changed his perspective on fatherhood and life.

Describing how he traveled to Utah to comfort Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, after her husband was gunned down during an event at Utah Valley University, Vance wrote that “Erika’s thoughts kept returning to her kids.” She was specifically concerned that her children “would have few, if any, personal memories of him," Vance wrote.

“I realized that in such moments, everything worldly we value fades to nothing,” he continued. “Erika didn’t care that her husband was politically influential or had the president’s ear. She cared about her babies and the fact that an assassin had stolen Charlie from them — so many memories and moments with their father robbed from them forever.”

Vance highlighted Erika Kirk’s testimony that her husband never yelled, cursed or lost his temper with her or their children, which prompted him to reflect on his own behavior.

Continued below.