Jindal questions Trump’s Christian faith

by Jonathan Swan - 09/25/15 4:59 PM ET

Ben Carson once gently questioned Donald Trump’s Christian faith, but on Friday Bobby Jindal went much further.

{mosads}The Louisiana governor explicitly and repeatedly ridiculed Trump’s faith, effectively accusing him of faking his Christianity before an evangelical conference that had heard the GOP frontrunner speak only hours earlier.

Jindal, who is lagging at 0.3 percent in the national polls for the Republican presidential nominee, came onto the stage at the Values Voter Summit in Washington holding a book.

Jindal joked with the audience, saying that Trump — who on Friday morning held up what he said was his childhood Bible before that same audience — had left his Bible behind. The punchline: Jindal raised the book for the cameras. It was Trump’s bestseller “The Art of the Deal.”

“[Trump] said that his favorite book was the Bible,” Jindal said, later in the speech. “He couldn’t name one verse.”

“Folks, he hasn’t read the Bible. You know he hasn’t read the Bible because his name’s not in the Bible.”

Many in the audience of more than 1,000 evangelicals laughed and clapped.

Jindal received even louder cheers when he described Trump as a “narcissist” who might appeal as an entertainer but would be dangerous as a leader.

“We conservatives have a choice,” Jindal said. “Are we going to turn to our conservative principles… or are we going to turn to a man who believes in nothing but himself.”

Tags Bobby Jindal Values Voter Summit