5 faith facts about Bobby Jindal: an ‘evangelical Catholic’

RNS ^ | June 24, 2015 | David Gibson

[NYer]

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal addresses a legislative luncheon held as part of the “Road to Majority” conference in Washington on June 19, 2015. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Carlos Barria
*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-JINDAL-FAITH, originally transmitted on June 24, 2015.

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(RNS) Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday (June 24) became the latest Republican to throw his hat into the presidential ring — and in this case, “last” may also mean “least.” Jindal, 44, is currently bringing up the rear in the polls among the 15 declared or likely GOP candidates. But he has a strong profile as a religious conservative, the kind of reputation that could give him a prayer, at least in the primaries. Here are five faith facts about Jindal, who has one of the more intriguing religious backgrounds among all the contenders.

1. He was born and raised a Hindu.

He was born Piyush Jindal in 1971, four months after his parents arrived in Louisiana from their native India. When he was 4 he asked to be called “Bobby” after a character on “The Brady Bunch,” a favorite television show.

“I was raised in a strong Hindu culture, attended weekly pujas, or ceremonial rites, and read the Vedic scriptures,” he wrote in the Jesuit weekly America in 1993, the fullest account of his religious journey. “Though my prayers were a child’s constant stream of requests and broken promises, Hinduism provided me with moral guidance and spiritual comfort. It never occurred to me that I should consider any other religion; to be a Hindu was an aspect of my Indian identity.”

2. His journey to Christianity “was a gradual and painful one.”

His introduction to Christianity was when a childhood friend, a Southern Baptist, told him that “you and your parents are going to hell.” He was also given a Bible with his name embossed in gold. The experience did not impress him, but it did prompt him to begin examining his Hinduism more closely.

As a junior in high school, he had a crush on a girl who started talking about her faith in God and opposition to abortion when he started talking to her about going out on a date. She invited him to church, and that led him to begin reading the Bible more closely — though with a flashlight in a closet at home so his parents would not find out.

It took two years until he finally converted: “The single most important time in my life is the moment that I found Jesus Christ,” Jindal said at a prayer rally in South Carolina earlier this month. Then a few years later in college he became a Catholic. “I am best described as an evangelical Catholic,” he said while at Liberty University last spring to deliver a commencement address at the bastion of evangelical Protestantism.

3. His parents were not happy with his conversion.

“My parents were infuriated by my conversion and have yet fully to forgive me,” he wrote in 1993. “There were heated discussions, many of them invoking family loyalty and national identity. My parents have never truly accepted my conversion and still see my faith as a negative that overshadows my accomplishments.”

But, he wrote, “If Christianity is merely one of many equally valid religions, then the sacrifices I made, including the loss of my family’s peace, were senseless.”

4. He has become a stalwart of the “religious right.”

Jindal was once considered a rising Republican star because of his mastery of policy and his championing of reasonable compromises, exhorting the GOP to “stop being the stupid party.” But in the last couple of years he has fashioned himself as an outspoken social conservative and champion of religious believers, especially conservative Christians.

“I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like evangelical Christians are the only group that it’s OK  to discriminate against in this society,” Jindal said at a Good Friday prayer breakfast in Iowa this spring.

Jindal has said he has “no problem” if public schools want to teach creationism or intelligent design, and he added: “The reality is I’m not an evolutionary biologist.” He has taken up the religious freedom cause in a big way. After the Louisiana Legislature this spring rejected a religious freedom bill designed to protect companies whose religiously committed owners disagreed with same-sex marriage, Jindal quickly issued a “marriage and conscience” executive order.

He has also been one of the most vocal defenders of the “Duck Dynasty” reality TV clan, whose patriarch, Phil Robertson, has in particular become known for controversial takes on faith and politics. The admiration is mutual. “I’m the kind of guy who really likes smart people … and that guy’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life,” son Willie Robertson said of Jindal earlier this year.

5. He highlights the threat of radical Islam.

During a visit to Europe this year, Jindal claimed that there are “no-go zones” in cities where Muslims had imposed Shariah that made police “less likely to go in.” He later stood by his comments, adding that there are “communities of people that don’t want to integrate” but instead have immigrated “to colonize, to overtake the culture.”

He has repeatedly criticized President Obama for going too easy on “radical Islamic terrorism,” saying Obama was “unfit to be commander in chief” and blasting the president’s National Prayer Breakfast remarks in February about Christianity’s history of violence.

“It was nice of the president to give us a history lesson at the Prayer Breakfast,” Jindal said. “Today, however, the issue right in front of his nose, in the here and now, is the terrorism of Radical Islam. … The Medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President. Please deal with the Radical Islamic threat today.”

Bonus fact: He once helped in an exorcism.

In a 1994 essay, Jindal described participating in an exorcism of a college classmate he called “Susan.” She had begun having mysterious visions, according to an account in Mother Jones, and visitors to her apartment “reported a faint odor of sulfur.” Then one evening Jindal and others staged an intervention, though without the help of a priest, as Catholic teaching would normally require.

“Kneeling on the ground, my friends were chanting, ‘Satan, I command you to leave this woman,’“ Jindal wrote. “Others exhorted all ‘demons to leave in the name of Christ.’“ Finally, another student arrived with a crucifix and cast the spirit out.

[ansel12]

LOL, you are the one pestering me about it, you are the one that found something in post 4 to start harping about.

[ansel12]

It's possible Jindal didn't have proof of his baptism with him or was just confused and didn't realize he was already.

Sure, he was already saved by a minister and makes that clear, but he may have been re-baptized for the reasons you mentioned, or even because he seems so passionate about religion, that he may have felt better getting a Catholic baptism as a personal event in his becoming a full Catholic, and just handled things in a way, that he got one.

[BillyBoy]

Valid point, and as Ann Archy noted in #18, he may have just told a priest he wasn't sure about his baptism, and asked the priest to privately give him a baptism.

The Catholic initiations I've attended for adults are public events, and usually performed as Easter vigil services with the whole community present.

That being said, if I had to guess, the most likely scenario is that Jindal did not receive a baptism upon joining a Catholic Church, but rather a Confirmation and Holy Communion. Agree its an interesting question, and one of the media likely won't cover.

A more important question, also avoided by the media, is whether Obama was EVER baptized. It appears his daughters were baptized by Obama's hate whitey pastor, but I've ever heard any account of Obama being baptized himself, either before or after joining Trinity UCC. Merely attending his wife's hate whitey church doesn't make him a Christian, and the vast majority of Catholic and Protestant churches agree on that point. People argued about Obama's birth certificate for years, while no one investigated whether self-proclaimed "Christian" Obama had actually become a Christian. Since he gets so offended by suggetions that he's not Chrisitan, the burden should be on him to demostrate that he became a Christian on so-and-so date.

[odawg]

If you lived in Louisiana, you probably would not.

[ansel12]

Compared to Trump, the nutcase, two bit hustler?

[murron]

My late mother in law, who I knew believed in Jesus and His teachings, went into a coma a few weeks before she died. My husband and I were discussing how her funeral arrangements would be handled. I am born and raised Catholic and my husband converted after we were married. My mother in law always spoke of how she admired Catholics and the Catholic religion. So I suggested that we have her baptized so she could have a Catholic burial. We called our priest to ask his advice on this, and he asked if she had ever been baptized before as a Christian, and we had no idea if this was the case. So he came to the hospital and conducted a “conditional Baptism” and gave her the last rites. Within a day, she regained consciousness and was delighted when we told her that we had her baptized while she was in a coma. She confirmed that she had never been baptized and so the priest removed the “conditional” and she was formally baptized into the Catholic Church. She eventually died within the next two weeks, and she had a full Catholic burial. The priest, at her Mass, said that upon her baptism all her sins were now forgiven and she would be able to go straight to heaven.

What’s special about that is that when my husband was conceived, she and my father in law were having many marriage difficulties and she did not want another baby. My husband would be her 4th. She went to a nurse and the nurse gave her some sort of pill that would “bring her period down”, or abort my husband. Well the pill didn’t work and my husband was born. The same baby she tried to get rid of was responsible for her baptism at the end of her life and helped save her soul.

[murron]

I live in Louisiana and I have no problem with Bobby Jindal. He certainly is a big step up from Blanco.

[Ann Archy]

Only is I were a LIBERAL would I not Bobby Jindal!!

[Ann Archy]

AMEN!!! Out of something HORRIBLE, something fabulous happened!! Your husband, her son, saved her soul for ALL eternity!!! God bless BOTH of you!!

[odawg]

I live in Louisiana and his poll now is about 32 per cent.

[odawg]

Come to Louisiana and join the 32% or lower who still approve of him.

[Ann Archy]

Too many Libtards in La.!!!

[odawg]

“Too many Libtards in La.!!!”

I don’t really know how to respond to that, since Louisiana is one of the most conservative states. Jindal is unpopular because he will soon leave the state with its finances in total disarray; he has finagled the budget for years, he lies, he talks a precise conservative message, but governs the opposite, he campaigns against Common Core after he installed it in Louisiana, he has used his office only to gain nationwide exposure, he has been running for president since he was 24, the list is endless.

[Ann Archy]

You are certifiable. Goodbye.

[Salvation]

In some cases people are re-baptized because the original Baptism formula was not followed.

[johngrace]

Nice true story. Thanks

[RichInOC]

I’ve always thought assisting at an exorcism might be useful in politics, both in Louisiana and beyond.

[paterfamilias]

“When I was in a Catholic high school in the 60s, we learned that in the case of a Protestant converting to Catholicism, he received “conditional Baptism” — i.e., ‘If thou art not already baptized, I baptize thee ...’”

This seems quite plausible.

[murron]

Which poll is that?

[odawg]

Poll taken May 12, 2015. (Southern Media & Opinion Research Survey) Some have him at 27% (Louisiana is the most anti-democrat states in the nation)

“Governor Bobby Jindal’s job performance rating is at an all time low. He receives a 31.8% positive job performance rating from Louisiana voters. The Southern Media & Opinion Research Survey in December 2014 had Governor Jindal with a 40.9% positive job rating. Jindal’s negative job rating was 57.6% in December 2014 and today stands at 64.7%.