Commentary

Jindal's whackadoo prayer rally

by Patrick Flanagan

To say that the death and destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina was God’s way of punishing gay people, it’s crazy right? Not to our governor.

As his desperation for presidential viability grows, Jindal’s moves to make himself more likeable to American conservatives just gets more and more bizarre. And with the big prayer rally he’s staging on LSU’s campus in January, Jindal’s governorship has started to feel more frighteningly backwards than ever before.

For Louisiana historian/journalist Robert Mann, it seems the line was drawn with Jindal’s Oct. 30 Tweet attack on Mary Landrieu for her Louisiana hasn’t always been friendly to black people statement.

Mann writes:

Jindal and his ilk went berserk. They almost soiled themselves in outrage over what they said was a gross indictment of Louisiana as a racist state.

Landrieu’s remarks, Jindal tweeted on Oct. 30, were “remarkably divisive. She appears to be living in a different century.” Minutes later, Jindal added in another tweet, “That is a major insult by Senator Landrieu to the people of Louisiana and I flatly reject it.”

So, we get it. Bobby Jindal loves Louisiana and its good, decent people. Don’t say anything that suggests otherwise or you’ll incur his legendary Don Knottsian wrath.

Now here’s where the backwards and frightening parts come in. Mann continues:

And, yet, when Jindal hitches up with a Christian wacko group — the Mississippi-based American Family Association (AFA) — to hold a January prayer rally at LSU, no one on the right questions whether Jindal should be in cahoots with a group that blames the deaths of Hurricane Katrina on gays.

That’s right. According to Julia O’Donoghue of the Times-Picayune, the AFA, in helping promote Jindal’s January rally, distributed a number of prayer guides (check it out here) with that very message, as well as a few other golden nuggets of crazed conservative hatred in the name of Jesus. For unknown reasons, the AFA’s prayer guide was suddenly pulled from its website recently, but O’Donoghue had already been there and taken notes.

She writes:

The prayer guide – which appeared to be a few years old and outdated — was pulled from The Response’s website Friday (Dec. 12). Before it was taken down, it contained the following language:

“We have watched sin escalate to a proportion the nation has never seen before. We live in the first generation in which the wholesale murder of infants through abortion is not only accepted but protected by law. Homosexuality has been embraced as an alternative lifestyle. Same-sex marriage is legal in six states and Washington, D.C. Pornography is available on-demand through the internet. Biblical signs of apostasy are before our very eyes. While the United States still claims to be a nation ‘under God’ it is obvious that we have greatly strayed from our foundations in Christianity.

“This year we have seen a dramatic increase in tornadoes that have taken the lives of many and crippled entire cities, such as Tuscaloosa, AL & Joplin, MO. And let us not forget that we are only six years from the tragic events of hurricane Katrina, which rendered the entire Gulf Coast powerless.”

Pretty crazy stuff? Not for Jindal's spin doctors. In a statement issued to the Times-Pic, here’s Jindal’s deputy communications manager, Shannon Bates:

I haven’t looked at their website, so you will need to talk to them about it.

What we do know ... our nation is facing serious issues, but God is real, He is powerful, and He answers prayer. That is why we are asking people to come to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on January 24th and pray for revival.

But capturing why this is nothing but another step back in the past by a governor who probably knows better, Bob Mann says it best:

Now, I don’t know if Jindal blames Katrina and its death and destruction on gay marriage and abortion. But I do know this: He has become partners with a group that has been suggesting just that for several years. Jindal has linked up a bunch of nasty Westboro Baptist Church wannabees.

He’s invited them to desecrate LSU with their so-called “prayers” for our nation. So, who is the one living in a “different century”?

Those who suggest Louisiana deserved Katrina because its tolerance toward gays are the people Jindal wants to hold hands with as he prays. And Jindal is outraged about Landrieu’s mild and very accurate observations about racism?

Jindal argues that Mary Landrieu insulted Louisiana’s people when his new prayer buddies are busy portraying the Bayou State as a place whose “sins” brought down the wrath of a vengeful, murderous deity.

God save us all.

Amen.

Read Mann's full blog here.