And suddenly, Tulsi Gabbard is in the news again in a big way.
We don’t really have anything to add to the sort of wild back-and-forth between Gabbard and Hillary Clinton. But we just wanted to remind people that Gabbard, the U.S. Representative from Hawaii, brings some pretty interesting baggage to her presidential candidacy.
In February, we wrote about how Gabbard grew up in a strange Hindu sect, the Science of Identity Foundation, that on the one hand promoted a pro-environment vegetarianism, and on the other hand advocated for a virulent hatred of gay people.
Gabbard has disavowed that part of her upbringing, claiming that she’s fully on board for gay rights, but recent evidence, including videos, suggests that she still considers Science of Identity Foundation leader Chris Butler, a/k/a Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, to be her personal “guru dev.”
Butler has not reacted very kindly to press inquiries about him and his group, and we noted how interesting it was that Butler hired a Scientology attorney, Anthony Glassman, to try and intimidate journalists asking questions.
Gabbard says she’s been the subject of a program of character assassination, but ignoring this part of her background doesn’t seem really wise. Anyway, we just thought, as long as Tulsi is back in the news, that we might remind folks of that February story.
