Bobby Jindal tells his story of converting to Catholicism at Liberty University commencement speech.

You may not have heard of Bobby Jindal, but you soon will. Jindal was born a Hindu but has since converted to Catholicism and has the serious potential of living in the White House in 2016.

Jindal is now forty two, but he can still clearly remember the feelings of confusion that he felt when he was a young boy growing up in a Hindu family in America, with an interest in this other religion. Originally born Piyush Jindal just four months after his parents arrived in Baton Rouge, he changed his name when he was just a small boy, choosing Bobby as that was the name of his favourite character on “The Brady Bunch.” But the major culture change that he would make in his life was his conversion to Catholicism.

Although Jindal did not have a dramatic conversion, it was a slow and steady realisation that he was more interested in the Bible than the Hinduism of his family. At a private dinner held with pastors in Virginia, Jindal told the story of how he discovered Christianity.  When still a child, he was given a Bible by his best friend. Later on at college, he was talking to a girl about issues like abortion, and she invited him to church. After reading the Bible in secret so that his parents wouldn’t know, Jindal eventually came to the decision that he wanted to be a Christian.

Since then, he has graduated from Brown University as a Rhodes Scholar, and entered politics. Currently Governor of Louisiana, he has been rising fast through the ranks of the Republican Party, praised particularly for his policy issues, especially health care, and he has started to gain support amongst the religious conservatives in his area.

He recounted his conversion experience at the commencement speech at Liberty University this year where he also defended the Christian faith from the “elites of America” who he claims have been attacking the religion and its believers. In the same speech, he also expressed his support for other Christians making controversial headlines, most notably Hobby Lobby and Phil Robertson from “Duck Dynasty.”  Liberty University has been a popular visit for Republican candidates lately with both Mitt Romney and John McCain having made campaign stops there. Jindal has already been identified as a leading candidate in the race for the office of President in 2016, which would make him the first ethnically Indian President of America.

Resources

• Washington Post
• The Times – Picayune / NOLA.com
• World Religion News
• GQ

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