Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: Stop illegal war for regime change in Syria, Arm Kurds to fight ISIS

[KamaAina]

17. He never made it to the priesthood

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/August-2004/Who-is-Mike-Gabbard/

Understandably, the public has lumped Gabbard into America's growing number of conservative politicians. His social views do veer accordingly to the right. But is he Christian right?

Gabbard himself says he is Catholic. He attends Catholic services regularly at a church in his district. He talks about growing up Catholic and how, at age 14, he entered a seminary, intending to become a priest. He changed his mind, he says, because "I wasn't as spiritually mature as I thought I was."

Those who've worked with Gabbard assume he is Catholic. "We play golf together, and he talks about his Catholic beliefs and God a lot, more than he talks about the issue of same-sex marriage," says fellow council member Okino, who is Catholic. "I've attended mass with him, and he takes communion."

But Gabbard had strong ties to an obscure Hare Krishna splinter group that, in the late 1970s, fielded several political candidates. The splinter group was founded by a Hawai'i homegrown guru named Chris Butler. Butler was a disciple of A.C. Bahkitevedanta Swami Prabhupad, who founded the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). ISKCON is the high-visibility sect whose orange robes, shaved heads, public begging and chanting are what most people think of when they hear the term Hare Krishna.