Since being named President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is facing new scrutiny for her ties to an alleged cult.
As The Daily Beast notes, Gabbard became the first practicing Hindu member of Congress when she was elected to represent Hawaii’s 2nd district in 2013. But she is also reportedly connected to a fringe off-shoot of the Hare Krishna movement known as the Science of Identity Foundation. As The New Yorkernoted in a 2017 profile, Gabbard’s parents “joined the circle of disciples” surrounding the group’s founder, Chris Butler, when the family moved to Hawaii in the 1980s. As a child, Gabbard spent two years at “informal schools run by followers of Butler.” Gabbard has referred to Butler as her “guru dev” or spiritual master.
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“I’ve never heard him say anything hateful, or say anything mean about anybody,” Gabbard told The New Yorker in 2017. “I can speak to my own personal experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him, for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people.”
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But former members of the Science of Identity Foundation paint a different picture of Butler, with some describing the group as a “cult.”
In a 2017 Medium post, former Science of Identity Foundation member Lalita characterized Butler as “an abusive, misogynistic, homophobic, germophobic, narcissistic nightmare.” Lalita wrote that as a child she was forced to listen to Butler’s taped lectures on topics like “how evil and out of control gay people were, how women were inferior and subhuman [sic] and should be controlled by their husbands.”
Another former member told The Independent in 2022 that new Science of Identity Foundation recruits were taught to be “highly homophobic.”
According to The New Yorker, “In the 1980s, Butler excoriated same-sex desire; he wrote, for instance, that bisexuality was ‘sense gratification’ run amok, and warned that the logical conclusion of such hedonistic conduct was pedophilia and bestiality.” However, writer Kelefa Sanneh noted, “Butler seems to have deëmphasized the issue: There is no mention of homosexuality on the foundation’s website, or in his recent teachings.”
In 2020, Butler — who is also known to followers as Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa — addressed his position on homosexuality in a Q&A posted by the Science of Identity Foundation’s Medium account.
“I made the decision a long time ago not to put so much emphasis on sexual morality, and rather focus on God’s unconditional love for all of us, regardless of our sexuality, our tendencies, desires, faults, flaws, or sins,” he said.
However, he added, “Every scripture of every religion denounces sexual relations between people of the same sex. And it would be the height of arrogance for me to reject God’s loving guidance on this issue.”
Butler explained that his “combative” language around homosexuality in the past was due to his lack of “empathy for people’s personal challenges of dealing with their sexual desires,” and credited encountering students who he said “were struggling with homosexual tendencies” for his change in tack.
In 2017, Gabbard told The New Yorker that she had discussed same-sex marriage with Butler “perhaps a while ago” and that they disagreed on the issue.
But her positions on LGBTQ+ rights shifted dramatically during her 2012 run for Congress. As a House member, she supported the Equality Act and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, and was a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus. She apologized for her past anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy both in her 2012 run and during her 2020 presidential campaign.
Gabbard’s aunt, Sinavaiana Gabbard, told The Independent in 2022, that her niece’s 2020 campaign was largely staffed by Science of Identity members and claimed that Gabbard’s presidential bid was directly related to Chris Butler’s pursuit of political influence.
Beyond her connection to the group, Trump’s selection of Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence has shocked many political insiders on both sides of the aisle. As Politico noted, critics cite her lack of formal intelligence experience as well as her sympathetic views on autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. One former senior intelligence official told the outlet that the pick was a “left turn and off the bridge.”
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