East republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami took the stage at Penn State’s Spark Building on Thursday, October 17 for Turning Point USA for their “You’ve Been Brainwashed Tour”. After abandoning his presidential bid earlier this year, the Indian-American entrepreneur has taken over as an advisor. In conservative circles.
Ramaswamy addressed hundreds of people in the crowd and spoke candidly about his background, college experience and eventual beginnings as a politician. The discussion began with a question-and-answer period, as the Republican leader encouraged students to vote and stand up against censorship, as highlighted by The Collegian, Pennsylvania State University’s digital campus newspaper.
The question-and-answer session saw one man in particular questioning the Republican politician’s Hindu faith and how it fits in America. Event attendees accused Ramaswamy of making comparisons between Hindu deities jesus christHe held her responsible for not publicly declaring her Hindu identity throughout the lecture until others asked her about her faith. He also claimed that Ramaswami’s omission would have caused most people in the room to think he was talking about “the only true God, Jesus Christ”.
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He pressed the American politician to clarify his religious stance and explain which God he was referring to in his address, but he likely did not do so without angering the Republican leader in the room. Nevertheless, Ramaswami maintained his composure and gave the attendees space to speak at length even as he continued to level allegations against them.
Vivek Ramaswamy confronts an audience member at a Penn State University Turning Point USA event
“I have some comments I’d like to make, and then I was wondering if you would respond to them,” the man began. “So, the first thing is that during the lecture you talked a lot about God and faith. And some people came here and they asked you about your Hindu religion. But my suspicion is that if they did not mention it If you did, you would forget who God was during the entire lecture, and most of the people in this room would walk away thinking you were talking about the one true God, Jesus Christ,” said the student Republican. Asked the leader.
He further said, “God has one name and hindu religion There is an evil, pagan religion, and it is completely incompatible with America. Everybody in this whole room is Christian, they believe in Jesus Christ. You have tried to draw a parallel between Christian moral principles and these Hindu values. You look in the Holy Scriptures and you see that all the gods of the heathen are devils and there is only one name under heaven that can bring you salvation. In the midst of his message, some others in the audience likely reacted strongly to the student’s claims. Ramaswami merely put a faint smile on his face and urged others not to interrupt him and “let him speak.”
Ultimately, the student concluded, “So, my big question is, and you’ve talked about being clear and transparent, my suspicion is that when you were speaking here tonight you would not have disclosed that If you were not explicitly asked about who was God, then my challenge to you going forward would be to tell who is this God?”
Ramaswamy then picked up his mic and began, “That’s fine. I’ve faced much tougher challenges than this, so don’t pat yourself on the back too hard there. I don’t want that to sprain your back.” The audience immediately applauded. The former presidential candidate quipped, “I don’t want you to leave with a sprained back.”
His actual answer began thereafter, as he dismissed the student’s doubts. “You run for President of the United States at the age of 37. As a guy who has been in business, who has actually…the easiest thing to do is to call yourself Vic Ramsey and pretend to be a Christian, previous There were other people on the debate stage who shortened their names and described themselves as Christians. Let me stand up and tell you who I am, and believe me, your doubts are baseless. Listen to the over a thousand campaign speeches I gave during 2015. So, we can drop the fraud allegation, but it’s an interesting thing to get to the level of what I think,” Ramaswami said.
As he continued, he referenced Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. President, who was “considered a deist who subscribed to the liberal religious sect of Deism, which values reason over revelation and emphasizes the importance of the virgin birth, original sin and Rejects traditional Christian doctrines, including the resurrection.” Of Jesus,” according to PBS.org.
The student interrupted Ramaswamy and said that he never “voluntarily” gave information about his Hindu religion, but this information had to be “extracted” from him. The Republican politician declared it a “false” allegation. He added, “So look back at the last presidential campaign last year. And obviously you have your head stuck in the sand where it doesn’t need to be. Now, I think we need to question less a person’s motivations in our American politics and more get at the substance of where there are real differences of opinion. So the question of whether someone of non-Christian faith can embody and lead the United States at any meaningful level is an open question. On the other side of your question is Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was not a traditional Christian. Do you know what the Jefferson Bible is?”
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In his response, the student called Jefferson “an enemy of ChristianityRamaswami immediately objected and responded, “So, that’s where we disagree.” The two sparred again for a while, after which Ramaswamy made his next statement, “If you believe that Thomas Jefferson would have been as unfit to be American President as a deity, then I think you and I See the future of the United States differently. It happens that he was the one who signed this document. the Declaration of IndependenceWhich is the largest mission statement known to any country in the history of mankind, without which the United States of America would not exist. He was the third American president to sign on to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, without which we actually wouldn’t have the United States of America, so if you see him as some kind of deviant who should never have held the American presidency So it was a permitted approach. It’s not something I don’t share. And my view is similar to Thomas Jefferson’s that commitment to the Constitution is what determines whether you will lead the country or not. The beauty of our country is that we are able to take different viewpoints and engage in honest, open exchange.”
Vivek Ramaswamy’s past responses when asked about his faith in America
Contrary to the student’s claims at a Penn State event this week, Ramaswami is actually openly proud of his Hindu faith. In September 2023, Ramaswamy was confronted again about his religion in New Hampshire, NBC News reported. His response reiterated the importance of religious freedom in America. “I am a Hindu and I am proud of it. I stand by that without apology. I think I’m going to be able to be more zealous as a defender of religious freedom,” he said.
Later, during The Family Leader Forum event, the first-time candidate again said, “My faith is what gives me my freedom… My faith is what really carried me to this presidential campaign.”
He further said, “I am a Hindu. I believe that God is true. God sent us here for a purpose. It is our duty to understand God’s purpose. This is our moral duty. The core of our religion is that God resides in all of us.
“They are God’s instruments who work through us in different ways, but we are still the same because God resides in each of us. This is the core of my faith.”
Ramaswami believed in December 2023 Re-examined in CNN TownhallAn audience member asked him, “What do you say to people who tell you that you can’t be our president because your religion is not the one on which our Founders based our country?”
At one point in his address, the then-presidential candidate said, “Would I be the best president to spread Christianity in this country? No, I would not be the right choice for that.”
Instead, he highlighted, “My job will be to instill confidence, patriotism in this country.”
Responses to questioning from Vivek Ramaswamy at the October 2024 Penn State event
The Indian side of X/Twitter was particularly shaken by the student’s allegations against the Republican leader and his description of Hinduism as an “evil, idolatrous religion”.
One user tweeted how India was often dragged as a country defined by communal violence, even though people would never target religious minority communities and political leaders belonging to their beliefs in this manner. “No one in India has ever told a Christian “Your religion is evil…” Sonia Gandhi or muslim OYC On his face. Yet, India is communal and America is secular, he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, some praised Ramaswamy for handling the question “gracefully”. On the other hand, some
Still others commented directly below Ramaswami’s post about how he “answered with a general statement” rather than addressing the question at hand. “They asked you why you keep hiding your true religion to deceive the stupid Republicans who will accept whatever lousy candidate we put in front of them. You replied with a general statement about the Founding Fathers (they would be disappointed if they knew someone like you was running for president). The “teaching moment” is that the person asking the question is right, and you are just an interloper who doesn’t understand our religion or fundamental history. GOP Sucks,” one user wrote.
