jindal jindal - miracles, exorcisms and crazy americans

this article frightens on many levels.

NY Times
opinion: By The Numbers
February 28, 2009
Bobby Jindal, the Exorcist
By Charles M. Blow

A day after Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s widely ripped Howdy Doody-meets-Mister Rogers response to President Obama’s address, Max Blumenthal piled it on with an interesting article on The Daily Beast reiterating some things not widely known about the “Bayou’s boy wonder.”

One of the most interesting facts in the piece, titled “Bobby Jindal’s Secret Past,” was that Jindal said he witnessed, and then haltingly participated in, the exorcism of his very close friend (a woman named Susan) when he was in college.

(It should be noted that other bloggers have been making hay of this fact for a while.)

In 1994 Jindal penned a piece for the New Oxford Review, under the title “Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare,” in which he recounted what happened.

The account is straight out of the movies.
Photo by AMC
Linda Blair in the 1973 movie The Exorcist.

According to Jindal, Susan was a “charismatic Christian.” She had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Weeks before the diagnosis, one of her “closest friends from home” had committed suicide. She was hysterical and erratic (I wonder why), and started having “visions” and smelling like sulfur “which supposedly accompanies the devil.”

Everything came to a head at a prayer meeting organized for Susan. Here are some excerpts from Jindal’s article:

“Suddenly, Susan emitted some strange guttural sounds and fell to the floor. She started thrashing about, as if in some sort of seizure. Susan’s sister must have recognized what was happening, for she ordered us to gather around and place our hands on Susan’s prostrate body.”

“I tentatively ap­proached the group and placed the edge of my finger­tip on her shoulder … In a voice I had never heard before or since, Su­san accused me: “Bobby, you cannot even love Susan.”

“The students, led by Susan’s sister and Louise, a member of a charismatic church, engaged in loud and desperate prayers while holding Susan with one hand. Kneeling on the ground, my friends were chanting, ‘Satan, I command you to leave this woman.’ Others exhorted all ‘demons to leave in the name of Christ.’”

“Whenever I concentrated long enough to begin prayer, I felt some type of physical force distracting me. It was as if something was pushing down on my chest, making it very hard for me to breathe. Being a biology major at the time, I greeted this feeling with skepticism and rational explanations. I checked my pulse for signs of nervousness and wondered what could cause such a sensation. Shortness of breath is a common symptom that can mean very little or may signal the onslaught of a fatal stroke. Though I could find no cause for my chest pains, I was very scared of what was happening to me and Susan. I began to think that the demon would only attack me if I tried to pray or fight back; thus, I resigned myself to leav­ing it alone in an attempt to find peace for myself.”

“… the students dared Susan to read biblical passages. She choked on certain passages and could not finish the sentence ‘Jesus is Lord.’ Over and over, she repeated ‘Jesus is L..L..LL,’ often ending in profanities.”

“Just as suddenly as she went into the trance, Susan suddenly reappeared and claimed ‘Jesus is Lord.’ With an almost comical smile, Susan then looked up as if awakening from a deep sleep and asked, ‘Has something happened?’”

Wow. That’s incredible. But is it politically problematic?

This came up to some degree in his race for governor, but it didn’t appear to raise many eyebrows. Then again, the election was in Louisiana, a state steeped in voodoo and hoodoo customs and full of charismatic Christians and religious hysterics. (Case in point, months before Jindal’s article was published, two sisters from Arcadia, La., went on trial for gouging out the eyes of a third sister in an apparent attempt to rid her of a demon.) The state also has a sizable Catholic population, and the church openly embraces the idea of exorcisms.

But how well would Jindal’s exorcism experience be received elsewhere should he consider a national bid? Probably not as badly as some might suspect.

Judging by the number of Americans who believe in the devil and demonic possession, it might turn out to be a positive in heavily religious areas, helping Jindal become more relatable to like-minded voters.

According to The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, nearly 70 percent of Americans believe that “Angels and demons are active in the world,” and nearly 80 percent believe that “miracles still occur today as in ancient times.”