Vivek Ramaswamy defends his Hindu beliefs

Brut India

How did Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy respond when a man asked him about how Hinduism fits in America?

Transcript

00:00Hinduism is a wicked pagan religion, and it's completely incompatible with America.

00:07I've had a lot harder challenges than this one, so don't pat yourself on the back too hard there.

00:11Throughout the course of the lecture, you talked an awful lot about God and faith,

00:17and there were some men that come up here and they ask you about your Hindu religion,

00:22but my suspicion is if they didn't mention that, you would have omitted who that God was

00:28throughout the course of the entire lecture, and most of the people in this room here would leave

00:34thinking you were talking about the only true God, Jesus Christ. And God has a name, and Hinduism is

00:41a wicked pagan religion, and it's completely incompatible with America. Everyone in this

00:49entire room is a Christian. They believe in Jesus Christ, and you've attempted to create this

00:55parallel, however tenuously, between Christian principles, Christian moral principles,

01:02and these Hindu values. And you look in sacred scripture, and you see that all the gods of the

01:08Gentiles are devils, and there's only one name under heaven that can give you salvation.

01:13So my big question is, and you've talked about being forthright and transparent, my suspicion

01:19is that you would have omitted who that God was when you were speaking here tonight, had you not

01:24explicitly been asked about Hinduism. So my challenge, I guess, to you going forward would be

01:31to say who this God is. Is it Waheguru, the one that was blasphemously prayed to at the RNC?

01:38Is it one of these other Hindu deities, or is it our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?

01:43I've had a lot harder challenges than this one, so don't pat yourself on the back too hard there.

01:46I don't want you to sprain your back with that one. You run for U.S. president at the age of 37,

01:52and somebody who's been in business who's actually, he's just thinking to call myself

01:55some Vic Ramsey and pretend to be a Christian, gather people on that debate stage last time and

01:59shorten their names, and call themselves to be a Christian too. I'm a man up and tell you who I am,

02:04and believe me, your suspicion is off base. Listen to any number of the campaign speeches I gave over

02:09thousands of them over the course of the last year. So we can take the disingenuous accusation

02:13off the table, but level with what I do think is an interesting...

02:15Not forthcoming with that, you did not volunteer that information. It had to be pried out.

02:20It was...

02:21You never volunteered that information. You mentioned God, but you conspicuously omitted his name.

02:27That's actually false. So let me know when you're done, and I can address your question.

02:29Good. So watch about the last presidential campaign of the last year, and you apparently

02:34have had your head stuck in the sand, where it need not be belong. Now, what I think we need

02:40more of in our American politic is less of questioning the motivations of what somebody

02:46is and get to the content of where there's an actual difference of opinion. So the question

02:50of whether or not somebody of a non-Christian faith can embody and lead the United States of

02:56America at any meaningful level is an open question. Thomas Jefferson is on the other

03:01side of this question from you. Thomas Jefferson was not a traditional Christian. Do you know what

03:05the Jefferson Bible is?

03:07A deist.

03:08Exactly. Thomas Jefferson is a deist.

03:10He's an enemy of Christianity.

03:12So this is where we disagree, right? Is, as you heard, if you believe Thomas Jefferson

03:17is an enemy of Christianity because he is a deist, which is your, just bring the microphone

03:22so he can confirm that.

03:23But you're running for politics in America.

03:26Right.

03:26And the purpose of politics is the temporal good here on earth. Okay, we're talking about

03:32good, and that's an objective thing. So we need laws that are going to govern society.

03:37So you and I have a different point of view on this. And I think that the only point I

03:40would make to those who are listening as students, and I'm glad you're stepping up and asking

03:46a challenging question, I would advise you to next time leave the disingenuous accusations

03:51of motivation to one side, because there's a more interesting exchange for us to have.

03:55If you believe that Thomas Jefferson as a deist is somebody who would have been unqualified

04:00to be U.S. president, then I guess you and I see the future of the United States of America

04:05differently. It so happens that he was the person who signed this document called the

04:09Declaration of Independence, which is the greatest mission statement known to a country

04:13in the history of mankind, without which the United States of America would not exist.

04:17He was the third U.S. president who signed the Lewis and Clark expeditions, without which

04:21we literally wouldn't have the United States of America. So if you view him as some type

04:25of deviant who should have never been in the U.S. presidency, that's a permissible point

04:30of view. It's just not one that I share. And my view is very similar to that of Thomas

04:34Jefferson, is that it's the commitment to the Constitution that matters whether or not

04:39you lead the country. But the beauty of our nation is that we're able to have different

04:43points of view and earnestly engage in an open exchange. And now I come down on Thomas

04:48Jefferson's side of it. And if you're on a different side of it, the beauty of this

04:52country is we let you do that. So thank you, man, for asking the question.

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