Exchanging religions

Usually I avoid publications like the Washington Post and the New York Times. The bias in their news reporting is rather obvious (the science and technology articles tend to be particularly inaccurate), and reflects a secular progressive worldview that I do not share. Under the American Constitution they are free to write whatever they wish, and I am free to get my information from more accurate sources.

However, this Post article caught my eye: Julia Roberts is Hindu: Is America ready for a Hindu sweetheart?

Aside from a bit of artistic license in the article's title - just how does an actress go about becoming "America's Sweetheart", anyway? - the premise of the article is that American Christians would be scandalized if they knew that Roberts is a Hindu.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth Tenety (the writer of the article) seems to be suffering from a bit of cultural amnesia. Robert's co-star in the wildly-popular movie Pretty Woman was heartthrob Richard Gere. Gere is a Buddhist, a fact that has been known for a long time and does not seemed to have injured his career.

There were two interesting passages in the article. The first is:

[Julia] Roberts' seek-and-ye-shall-find spirituality is actually quite reflective of American religious practice: 44 percent of Americans currently identify with a different religious tradition than the one in which they were raised.

The second is:

Aseem Shukla, On Faith Panelist and co-founder of the Hindu-American Foundation, pointed in a recent post to the examples of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley (both converts to Christianity --Jindal from Hinduism, Haley from Sikhism) as evidence that association with Dharma traditions is a public liability.

There seems to be a contradiction here. Tenety celebrates "seek-and-ye-shall-find spirituality" as a good thing. Yet she portrays the decision by Governor Jindal and gubenitorial candidate Nikky Haley to become Christianity as calculated political moves to avoid prejudice. In doing so she unconsciously echos the widely-held belief in the secular media that Christianity is some sort of political tool instead of a set of religious beliefs.

This prejudice is not confined to journalists in the secular media. In a separate Post article Shukla go so far as to suggest that Haley converted to Christianity for political reasons, although in fact she became a Christian long before she ran for office.

Perhaps both Tenety and Shukla should consider an alternative explanation: Haley and Jindal converted to Christianity because they believe it to be true. Is that so improbable?