From ‘arrogant atheist’ to Jesus follower: JD Vance opens up on faith journey in Glenn Beck interview



On June 16, Vice President JD Vance released his new book, "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” It’s a memoir detailing his straying from the Christianity of his youth, his journey to atheism, and his return to faith through conversion to Catholicism in 2019.

In a recent exclusive interview with Glenn Beck, Vance opened up about his faith journey.

“Can you talk a little bit about the moment you chose to commit [to faith]?” Glenn begins.

In the summer of 2018, Vance visited a Catholic cathedral. At this time, he was “curious about Christianity” but “wasn’t yet ready to commit.”

“It was completely empty, and I felt this kind of sense of despair. ... There was nobody praying. It felt almost lifeless. And then there was just this beautiful sort of ray of light that came through the stained glass windows,” he recounts.

Vance recalls how at that time, the Catholic church was under fire for a massive scandal in Pennsylvania, where a grand jury report exposed credible allegations of child sexual abuse by over 300 priests across six dioceses, harming more than 1,000 victims over decades, along with systematic cover-ups by church officials.

“I felt this sense that, you know, yes, the church is going through a tough spot, but things are going to be OK, and I belong here,” he says.

“And that was sort of the moment that I decided, you know what, for all of my belly aching and back and forth ... this is my home, and I'm going to try to make this home as successful as possible and contribute as much as I can, and that's what I did.”

“That seems like a commitment to the church. Is that the same as the moment to follow Christ? Did that come first and then the commitment to the church or are they the same thing to you?” Glenn asks.

Unlike the moment in the cathedral that led Vance to commit to the Catholic church, the decision to follow Jesus was more “gradual.”

“I was raised in sort of an un-churched but very devout household. My grandmother would take us to church every now and then, but not regularly ... and so I became as a teenager, sort of an early 20s kid ... an arrogant atheist,” he explains.

“I went about trying to achieve every marker of worldly success. You know, I wanted to go to the best schools, and I wanted to have the best job. I wanted to make the most money. I wanted something prestigious to hang my hat on, and I kind of got to this point where I had won all of these elite competitions,” he continues, highlighting his time at Yale Law School.

But despite the worldly success, an emptiness haunted him.

“I was kind of looking around and saying, you know what, those people that I dismissed as simpletons, they're much happier and much healthier and much more interesting people than the elite crew that I seem to be joining,” Vance tells Glenn.

He began to wonder if the "character" and “wisdom” they exhibited came from “this Jesus Christ figure that [he’d] kind of discarded.”

“And so [following Christ] was not like a conversion on the road to Damascus. That was me slowly seeing reflections of Christian truth in the way that various Christians lived their lives and the way that they raised their families, and over time, I just started to think, you know what, there's something real here,” he shares.

Christ, he decided, was not only something he wanted for himself but for his family too.

“I wanted to give my family what I didn't have as a kid, which is a real formation, like an actual church community,” he says, “and I kind of, you know, experimented with different churches and went to a number of different places and eventually, you know, found a home in a church that we love, and that's kind of where we are today.”

To hear more, watch the full interview above.

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Glenn Beck EXPOSES the economic stats used to destroy your hope



If you only read the headlines, you’d think the American dream is officially out of reach. Starter homes cost more than $1 million. Summer electric bills are approaching $800. Families are struggling to keep up.

But Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck argues that the story being sold to Americans is incomplete.

“As of today, there are 242 cities in this country where the typical starter home, the first rung, the one that’s supposed to be for the beginners, costs a million or more dollars,” Glenn explains.

“By the way, before the pandemic, that number was not 242. It was 80. So in five years, it nearly tripled,” he adds.

California has the most cities with these high-priced “starter” homes, while New York and New Jersey aren’t far behind.


But it’s not just housing costs that are up — utilities are too.

“Americans are projected to spend almost $800 on electricity just getting through this summer, June through September. That’s up more than 10% from last year,” Glenn says.

“Now, the pros at the National Energy Assistance Directors Association will tell you it’s a stack of things all landing at once — hotter summers, more air conditioning, an aging grid that needs hundreds of billions in upgrades, the new AI data centers that everybody loves to point at, and inflation,” he explains.

“Monthly bills are up 23% since 2019. And right now, 1 in 6 Americans, 1 in 6 households, is behind on the utility bill. Arizona is getting hit the hardest. Then it’s Connecticut, Washington state. North Dakota has it the easiest,” he continues.

However, Glenn points out that these are just headlines — and as per usual, the mainstream media is not telling the whole story.

“If you lose the truth, the next thing you lose is hope. ... A lot of Americans have lost both. So, let me give you the truth under the headline because the truth is where you’re going to find hope,” Glenn says.

“Let’s start with a million-dollar house. That number is real. It’s not your number. Because buried in the same report is the figure that nobody put in the story or the headline: The typical starter home in America is worth 198,649,” he continues.

“Now, that is still a lot of money, but it’s not $1 million. It’s under $200,000. Those 242 terrifying cities are all clustered where? On the expensive coastlines,” he adds.

As for the electricity bill, Glenn says, “if you are one of the 1 in 6, the why is not warming or cooling your house. Knowing the AI data centers are only part of the problem doesn’t lower the number on that envelope that you’re avoiding now because you can’t pay it.”

He points out that “every bit of wire” in our electric grid “was built by a past generation.”

“The same generation, one generation, electrified a continent that had been dark since the beginning of time. One generation. Abundance was a choice that we made. ... And that means we can make that choice again,” he says.

“You’re not in checkmate. You’re not. You’re being told in stories like this about averages,” he continues, adding, “and you don’t live in an average.”

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New California program demands proof of gayness for $633M in contracts — but a far darker reality lies beneath the hypocrisy



On June 16, independent journalist and BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo published a detailed exposé on California’s “gay certification program” in City Journal. The report blew the lid off the progressive state’s initiative to pressure utility companies into awarding $633 million in contracts to businesses officially certified as LGBT-owned — complete with a bizarre state-run process requiring proof of sexual orientation.

To qualify, business owners must submit documents such as same-sex marriage licenses, letters from LGBT organizations, or even affidavits from personal contacts attesting to their sexual orientation, with stiff penalties including up to a year in jail for false claims.

Glenn Beck was astounded by the news.

“It’s insane,” he says.

The California bureaucrats hired to vet the applicants use a “gay certification checklist,” says Glenn’s chief researcher and writer Jason Buttrill.

“One of the checklist items is three letters of reference from personal contacts ... who have known ... for over one year and can vouch to the status of the individual's gayness,” he laughs.

Glenn can’t help but laugh at what these types of conversations entail. “I mean what are the questions?” he chuckles.

Buttrill adds that another requirement is “one letter from a recognized LGBT organization attesting to the gay status and signed by the organization leader.”

“Now, you have to go not to a friend but to a sanctioned gay organization, so now they've given that gay organization power,” says Glenn. “Wow is that bad.”

Perhaps the strangest item on the checklist is “proof of media coverage, including publications, newspapers, or articles explicitly stating the LGBT status of the owners of the business.”

“You have to be kind of an activist. I mean, because if you're just a quiet gay couple and you own a restaurant, you know, I guess that's not good enough. You have to be out in the media, literally out in the media, declaring your gayness,” scoffs Glenn.

Another prerequisite is “a copy of valid municipal or state license, certificate of marriage, civil union, or domestic partnership,” adds Buttrill.

“You don't need a license or any kind of identification to vote, but if you want to work as a gay person with the state, we have to have all kinds of ID — but gay ID,” laughs Glenn, calling it “ridiculous.”

“I would think the California gay community would be outraged over this. I wouldn't think that they would want some kind of official list with some kind of certification program with their names,” says Buttrill.

Glenn agrees, highlighting how potentially dangerous such a list could be.

“I mean if things, God forbid, ever went horribly wrong — the Islamists or some crazy religious whatever or just somebody who ... just doesn't like gay people [gets in power], you want a list of people that are gay?” he asks.

“People are so blind and so stupid. ... Well, good luck with that, California.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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The utopia trap: Glenn Beck warns America is living this disturbing experiment that ENDS in extinction



What happens when every problem disappears? In one of the most unsettling social experiments ever conducted, scientist John Calhoun created a perfect paradise for mice — complete with unlimited food, safety, and comfort.

“1968, a scientist comes out, and he’s decided he’s going to make utopia, not for people, but for mice and rats. OK? His name was John Calhoun. He worked at the National Institute of Mental Health, and he wanted to answer the question that I think should interest all of us,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck explains.

That question is, “What happens with a society when every problem is removed?”

“So he builds this paradise. It’s a mouse world. Unlimited food, water that never runs out, no predators, no disease, perfect temperature, endless nesting material. Every danger, every want, every stressor that a mouse has ever faced in the history of mice — completely gone. The only thing he gives them, besides protection, was each other and time,” Glenn says.


Calhoun put four male and four female mice into the experiment, and “at first, it’s mouse heaven.”

“They breed. The population doubled about every 55 days,” Glenn explains. “And he called this the strive period. It was heaven, and it was working exactly as designed. But by day 300 or 315, something like that, there were more than 600 mice thriving in a space that he had built to hold nearly 4,000.”

“That’s the peak. Something starts to go horribly wrong. Growth slows for no physical reason. They can’t figure it out. All of a sudden. And in all 25 experiments, exactly the same thing,” he says.

“There’s no role left for a mouse to fill. And a creature with no role, no struggle, no purpose, starts to come apart. The males who had nothing to fight for either turned violent or vanished into apathy,” he continues. “Let me ask you something. What’s happening in our society right now?”

Glenn points to the young men growing up who have nothing to fight for, explaining that they’ve also turned violent and apathetic.

“Then you have the moms. The mothers stopped mothering. They abandoned their young. They began attacking their young. They forgot about their children. The whole intricate social order that made a mouse a mouse completely dissolved in 25 identical experiments 25 times,” he explains.

“Then came the most haunting part of the experiment, I think. There’s a new kind of mouse that appears. This mouse didn’t fight. They didn’t court. They didn’t mate. They didn’t compete. They wouldn’t engage with others at all,” he says.

These mice were called “the beautiful ones” because they spent all their time grooming themselves instead of foraging or fighting.

And with their emergence, the population began to decline.

“On day 600, in a world still overflowing with food, the last baby is born,” Glenn says. “Day 600. After that, nothing. Not one mouse, not ever. And on day 920, the last mice, the last of the mice dies in paradise.”

“And Universe 25 becomes the 25th tomb,” he adds.

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'A murder every 7 to 10 days': South African farmer tells Glenn Beck the horrors white farmers are facing



For years, South Africa has been marketed to the world as a post-apartheid "rainbow nation." But according to South African farmer Jason Bartlett, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“The South African government really has an actual war room that they are creating to try to spread misinformation and hide that South Africa is in turmoil. It’s anarchy. It’s not the rainbow nation. It is one of the most hateful nations towards minorities, including myself,” Bartlett tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.

“There’s 146 race laws. That’s why Elon Musk can’t get Starlink over there. And with the farm murders, there is more than 180 farm attacks every year. Dozens and dozens of murders. There’s approximately a murder every seven to 10 days,” he explains.

But these murders, Bartlett says, aren’t “just normal murders.”


“It’s torture. It’s where a 12-year-old gets boiled alive in a bath, or they cut your Achilles off while they tie you to a chair, and they make you watch them rape 10 people, rape your 5-year-old daughter,” he says.

“Things that are barbaric and inhumane, and I’m sorry that I have to be so abrupt, but like I told the Trump administration, I’m going to be raw,” he adds.

Bartlett tells Glenn that he’s seeking asylum in the United States because after he left South Africa, his cousin was having a cookout.

“I always went to go visit them, and eight black men broke in, and it was deemed a ‘normal’ break-in, and they shot him through the back of the head. The bullet came out the front of his face. They then threw him in the fire, burnt him with a grid, and urinated on him while they sang, ‘Die white bastard,’” he says.

“And his little girls had to witness this. And he doesn’t get a news article. It doesn’t get anything,” he continues. “I have got a cousin who was kidnapped and put into the trunk of his vehicle and driven around for hours and then beaten and thrown up. My other cousins have been hijacked."

Even Bartlett himself has been attacked, as he tells Glenn that there’s “been two attempts on [his] life.”

“They don’t look at what you’ve got," he says, adding, "They look at what you look like, and they attack."

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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