Profile: Louisiana Representative Bobby Jindal

Today, my faith in Jesus Christ is central to who I am, and I pray regularly for God's wisdom in all the parts of my life. –Bobby Jindal

"There are 154 Catholics in the new Congress—an all-time high—including 87 Democrats and 67 Republicans," reports Kevin Ekstrom, Religious News Service. "While Democrats hold their traditional lead among Catholics, Republicans are gaining, with two-thirds of new Catholic members coming from the GOP." One of their number is Rep. Bobby Jindal, (R-LA), a convert from Hinduism, narrowly defeated by Catholic Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in Louisiana's 2003 gubernatorial contest.

"The Church is bigger than any one political movement or party," said Jindal, who succeeded Republican David Vitter, a Catholic who moved to the Senate. "It's a healthy thing that there are Catholics on both sides of the aisle."

It would be even healthier, if they all upheld the moral doctrines of their faith in the public square and defended the sanctity of innocent human life and the God-ordained institution of marriage.

"Who will make the biggest political splash of 2005?" Duncan Currie introduces his list of "politicians to keep an eye on during the coming year?" in The Weekly Standard. "Will it be an Indian-American Rhodes Scholar from Louisiana?"

Republicans rave about Bobby Jindal, the incoming representative from Louisiana's first district. And why not? It isn't every day Republicans get to boast an Indian-American Rhodes Scholar and health care policy whiz as president of the GOP House freshmen. Jindal, 33, is only the second Indian American ever elected to Congress. Shortly after he won his seat—with 78 percent of the vote—House majority whip Roy Blunt tapped him for assistant whip. Jindal, a deeply religious Catholic conservative, barely lost the 2003 Louisiana governor's race. He's now one of the Republicans' brightest young lights.

Nor is The Weekly Standard alone in praising Jindal, as Jeff Crouere notes in The Bayou Buzz:

Jindal's coverage from the Washington D.C. press corps has been embarrassingly positive. Fred Barnes credits his "stunning resume." Robert Novak calls Jindal "Rookie of the Year."

"Jindal is destined to be a star in Washington," writes Weekly Standard executive editor Barnes, who adds, "It's quite an advantage for a newly elected House member to know the president personally."

• Jindal on Life and Family

On September 21, 2003, The Times-Picayune profiled the views of Louisiana's gubernatorial candidates on a host of issues life and family-related issues from abortion to sex education.

On abortion, Jindal told the paper, "I am 100 percent anti-abortion with no exceptions. I believe all life is precious." On sexuality education, Jindal said, "It is best handled in the home, by parents....We should not have our schools teach 'how-to' courses on sex to young children."

As previously reported on Catholics in the Public Square, Blanco used "aggressive advertising" attacking Jindal for his principled opposition to abortion "without exception" to turn a double-digit gap into a close victory in the governor's race, according to The Times-Picayune. "Protecting life, strengthening marriage and families, supporting faith-based solutions to societal problems, and defending Louisiana values" were four main themes of the faith and values vision of Jindal's gubernatorial candidacy. Rep. Jindal is a strong supporter of a constitutional amendment to protect the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, as he declared in his congressional campaign:

Overzealous judges and others have tried to bypass our legal system by disregarding current laws to push their own agenda. The sanctity of marriage, which is the foundation of families, should not be cheapened by special interest groups.

As I observed over a year ago on Catholic Pundits:

We will watch this rising star out of the East with considerable interest and, perhaps, just a bit of hope.

Update (January 14, 4:30 pm): You'll want to read RedState's interview with Jindal, referenced by my editorial colleague Christopher Blosser in the comments below.

Newsweek profiles Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

Newsweek profiles Bobby Jindal -- Lousiana governor, rising GOP star (and Catholic convert):

Together, Jindal's adaptive instincts and intellectual drive fueled his conversion to Catholicism. At 12, an evangelical friend named Kent gave him a paperback Bible for Christmas. Raised in a "strong Hindu culture," Jindal considered himself "anti-Christian" and stashed it in a closet. But a crush, Kathy, soon convinced him to read the book "from cover to cover." Jindal gradually warmed to the Scriptures, and while watching a Passion film at Kent's church, he was suddenly "convicted" of his "sinfulness and [his] need for a savior." Most conversion narratives end there. But Jindal's doesn't. Ever the A student, he studied Kent's Bible "by flashlight" and even "learned bits of Latin, Greek and Hebrew." After a long stretch of soul searching, Jindal concluded that Protestantism lacked "scriptural cogency" and decided to become a strict Catholic instead. ("Bobby said he trusted God to put his own house in order," recalls Ahsanuddin.) Although critics have questioned the governor's motives—Hindu activist Ramesh Rao recently wrote that "Jindal knew well that [conversion] was the only way, as an Indian-American Hindu, he could achieve his political ambitions"—his deeply Catholic views, including a "100 percent" opposition to abortion "with no exceptions" for rape, incest or health of the mother, undoubtedly anger more voters than they attract. "If I wanted the aesthetics without the inconvenient morality," he wrote in 1998, "I could become Episcopalian."

Nowhere is Jindal's commitment to Christianity more evident than in the 15 essays, Obama-esque in their self-scrutiny, that he published in the New Oxford Review and other Catholic journals between 1991 and 1998. In the most controversial, he details an amateur exorcism he witnessed at Brown. One day, a friend—called Susan in his 1994 account—confessed that she'd started seeing "visions" and smelling sulfur when doctors discovered a cancerous lump on her scalp; soon after, she fell to the floor at a prayer meeting and started "thrashing about." As Susan screamed "Bobby," the group pinned her down and chanted, "Satan, I command you to leave this woman." But Jindal was too terrified to "confront the demon." Eventually, the struggle subsided; Susan claimed she felt "healed." A short time later, surgeons removed the bump—and, according to Jindal, "found no traces of cancerous cells." The account has already raised eyebrows among skeptics who find it difficult to reconcile the governor's Brown biology degree with a belief in demonic possession—liberal bloggers, for example, now call Jindal "the Exorcist"—but he seems unfazed. "It's important to share your spiritual experiences with people who might benefit," he says. "There are a lot of things in this life that we won't understand, and that's OK. How do you explain the Sacraments? How do you explain the Resurrection? Those are hard concepts. So I didn't try to interpret it or declare what happened, because I don't know."

"The Man Comes Around" - Catholic Republican Bobby Jindal was sworn in as governor of Louisiana today. RedState.com has the details.

Here is Bobby's inaugural address.

Louisiana Goes Republican: Katrina Destroys Democratic Hold on Governorship

There was an historic election in Louisiana last Saturday. My home state got a new Republican governor. Yes, in the state of Katrina, which the liberal media has falsified into a "Bush-caused catastrophe," the state went Republican--and not just Republican, but with a highly conservative, pro-life Republican. Let it be clear: many of those from Louisiana knew right off the bat that the Katrina disaster was the product of years of insitutionalized Democratic mismanagement and corruption in New Orleans and Louisiana politics. Yet, the liberal media, oblivious to the facts, boldly projected their anti-Bush obsession onto the disaster and gave the nation a false picture of the cause of the disaster. Much the same is happening with the exaggerated emphasis on global warming.

A new generation is taking over in Louisiana. The new Governor-elect Bobby Jindal is at 36, the youngest governor in the nation. But note that youth is not enough--what makes Jindal special is that he combines youth with an entirely new approach, because there are young clones of the mentality that gave us years of Democratic mismanagement and mediocrity in Louisiana politics. Jindal is also an enthusiastic convert to Catholicism from Hinduism. His parents were born in India. He is a graduate of Brown University and was a Rhodes Scholar. And another great plus: he is not a lawyer! So, a lot of false assumptions fell yesterday: that Katrina would be a Democratic political boon, that Louisianians would not vote for a "non-white" governor, that Louisianians are satisfied with corrupt business as usual, that Louisiana is berefet of intelligent political talent. The skinny, non-lawyer, Republican Rhodes Scholar with roots in India is now the face of Louisiana politics. That's about as different from past Louisiana political figures as you can get. Saturday may finally have been the day that Louisiana really joined the Union. Now, the hard task becomes how the liberal media can spin the facts away and somehow transform this eruption of reality into some kind of evil that can be ascribed to President Bush. (For further details, see this Wikipedia link.)

Congratulations to Bobby Jindal on his election to Louisiana Governor.

LSU Newspaper Column on Democrats' Anti-Catholic Smear of Jindal

Michael Denton of For the Greater Glory has had his first column, "Louisiana Needs an Exorcist for a Governor", which addresses the Democrats' anti-Catholic smear of Bobby Jindal, published in LSU's The Daily Reveille.

Democrats' Attack on Jindal Backfires

A holier-than-thou attack backfires, by Stephanie Grace. The Times-Picayune August 26, 2007:

If the Louisiana Democratic Party wanted to get people talking about its newest attack ad against gubernatorial favorite Bobby Jindal, well, mission accomplished.

The commercial, which lobs an explosive allegation that the Republican Catholic convert is anti-Protestant, is only airing in the heavily Protestant northern reaches of the state. Still, it has become a hot topic all over Louisiana.

But if the Democrats were hoping the ad would put Jindal on the defensive, it looks like they've accomplished the exact opposite. . . .

(Hat tip: Tobias Danna).

Louisiana Democrats go after Catholic Republican Bobby Jindal

WAFB News clarifies the nature of the Democratic Party of Louisiana's attack advertisements against Catholic Republican Bobby Jindal:

The Louisiana Democratic Party says an attack ad it is preparing to air against Republican Bobby Jindal -will- focus on Jindal's religious writings from his college days, but will -not- focus on a piece Jindal wrote about observing an exorcism being performed on a female friend.

WAFB 9NEWS reported Wednesday night that the exorcism paper would be part of the attack ad, but Democratic Party spokeswoman Julie Vezinot says that is incorrect. Vezinot said other anti-Jindal ads will air that focus on topics others than religion. "The ads are based on facts drawn from his voting records in Congress and his campaign contributions," Vezinot said.

Vezinot says the ad focusing on religion is just one of several the party is planning to launch against Jindal in the coming weeks. The party estimates it will spend nearly $1 million dollars on the series of anti-Jindal ads.

Jindal, a Republican currently serving in Congress, is the clear front-runner in the race for Louisiana governor. Jindal ran for governor four years ago and finished first in the primary. However, he lost the runoff election to then Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat. Blanco is not seeking re-election.

"Bobby is a proud Christian, and attacks against his faith prove just how far old-guard party bosses willl go to resist the change our state needs," said Melissa Sellers, communications director for the Bobby Jindal campaign. "People will see this as exactly what it is - the same kind of baseless mudslinging and gutter politics that has held Louisiana back for generations," Sellers said.

A piece on exorcism that Bobby Jindal wrote for the New Oxford Review in December 1994 is being made the subject of ridicule by some liberal bloggers. In the closing paragraphs, Jindal conveys his belief in "the reality of spirits, angels and other related phenomena" and the efficacy of the Holy Mother's intercessions -- the former being common to many Christians, not just Catholics; the latter I would consider admirable.

See Michael Denton's For the Greater Glory and Tobias Danna's Astonished, Yet at Home for the goods.

Congressman Bobby Jindal - Catholic Apologist?

Readers might remember Earl's profile of Louisiana Representative Bobby Jindal featured in Catholics in the Public Square last month. Jindal is the first Indian-American elected to Congress for nearly 50 years and a rising star in the Republican Party. Born a Hindu, Jindal converted to the Catholic faith in his teens.

As I had commented at the time, the blog RedState did an interview with Jindal, in which he was asked what he was reading -- he responded: "I'm reading Ian Ker's biography of John Henry Newman. It's a great book, and he had a profound impact on Oxford and on matters of faith." It might not be much, but I was pleased to know we have a Catholic politician interested in John Henry Newman -- a man of conviction and a great model for Catholic converts.

Well, Vincent of What a Mystery reveals that Congressman Jindal had also been a contributor to This Rock, the prominent Catholic apologetics magazine edited by Karl Keating:

• "Anatomy of a Christian Friendship", January 1998.
  
• "Atheism's Gods", February 1995.
  
• "End of the Oxford Movement" January 1994.
  

In other news, it turns out that Bobby Jindal was behind Congress' ink-stained display of solidarity with Iraqi voters during President Bush's State of the Union Address:

The salute to the voters in Sunday's Iraqi election was organized by Rep. Bobby Jindal, president of the freshman class of lawmakers.

"We all watched with joy as Iraqis dipped their fingers in ink and held them high, proudly proclaiming to the world that they had voted," recalled Jindal in a "Dear Colleagues" letter coordinating the congressional action. He provided the purple ink for both Republicans and Democrats.

"This symbolic gesture will tell Iraqis, and the world, that we believe in their cause and will stand beside them and all peoples who embrace freedom," said Jindal, the president of the House freshman class. "It's been said that partisanship stops at the water's edge. Let us again show that to be true by joining together in this symbolic gesture."

"Congress Salutes With Purple Fingers", by Bob Dart. Palm Beach Post Feb. 2, 2005.