Washington DC: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Saturday opened up about his religious faith saying ‘My faith is what gives me my freedom. My faith is what led me to this presidential campaign’.
Ramaswamy, who made a leap in popularity emerging from near obscurity, emphasized that ‘ I am a Hindu’, while drawing parallel between the teachings of Hinduism and Christianity.
He told 'The Family Leader' forum organized by The Daily Signal platform that his intention was to promote shared values.
‘I believe god put each of us here for a purpose. My faith teaches us that we have a duty, a moral duty to realise that purpose. Those are God's instruments that work through us in different ways, but we are still equal because God resides in each of us. That's the core of my faith,’ he was quoted as saying.
Expanding further, Ramaswamy said he had grown up in a traditional household with his parents instilling in him values about respecting parents, treating marriage as sacred, abstinence before marriage and adultery as wrong.
‘ Marriage is between a man and a woman. Divorce is not just some preference you opt for...you get married before God and you make an oath to God and your family,’Ramaswamy said.
The Ohio-based bio-tech entrepreneur said he had to the Christian High School and learnt the 10 commandments alongside reading Bible and understanding that ‘ there is one true God’.
Drawing a parallel between both faiths, he said ‘There is one true God. Don't take his name in vain. Respect your parents. Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't commit adultery. What I learned at that time, is that these values are familiar to me. They don't belong to Hindus. But, they don't belong to Christians either. They belong to God actually. And I think these are the values that undergird this country.’
The 38-year-old native of Ohio has roots in Kerala as his parents migrated from the South Indian state: his mother was a geriatric psychiatrist and his father an engineer at General Electric.