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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

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It seems she and her husband converted to Hinduism.

She was raised Hindu. You can't convert to Hinduism. No Indian would be able to explain what that even means. Pagans are flexible. The Indian "far-right" (RSS) routinely suggest that Indian minorities are religious chimeras, calling them Muslim-Hindus or Christian-Hindus. The data backs their claims. A majority of Indian Christians & Muslims believe in karma & a plurality believe in reincarnation. For Hindus, the lines between lines between culture & religion are blurry, with very few consensus beliefs.

Push comes to shove, I'd say Hinduism is about:

  • Karma (Actions have consequences)
  • Dharma (Sanctity of the duties you've signed up for + abiding by a personal moral code)
  • Rebirth till Moksha (Less worldly desires is better. Ends up as a general tree-hugger syndrome)
  • General neutrality of the divine. (The system exists for all. No special cut out for devout believers.)

Contrary to popular belief, vegetarianism & non-violence are relatively modern (20th century) ideas and part of Nehru/Gandhi's 20th century Vishwa-guru (teacher to the world) propaganda. Other than a small subsection of Brahmins & Jains (over-represented in the US diaspora), the rest don't put either idea on a pedestal.

All this to say, I'd caution against imposing Abrahamic models onto Pagan religions. American Hinduism is closer to ACX-Rationalism than the sort of conservative thought that is ascribed to India's rural Hindi heartland.


That aside, what's her reason for opposing gay marriage? I know Christians and Muslims have a scriptural disgust for it. I'd like to know where young Tulsi's strong opposition to it comes from.

American Hinduism is closer to ACX-Rationalism than the sort of conservative thought that is ascribed to India's rural Hindi heartland.

LOL, data set of one and all, but this individual cornfed, white bread, SSC/ACX lurking American Hindu agrees with you!

She was raised Hindu. You can't convert to Hinduism. No Indian would be able to explain what that even means.

Gabbard has no Indian ancestry and her mother does not appear to have known anything about Hinduism prior to moving to Hawaii and getting involved with the Hare Krishna sect there, being herself a white American from Indiana. For whatever reason, this rather unorthodox religious background did not seem to bother the Hindu community in the US, who claimed Tulsi as one of their own when she was first elected. Not that I would fault anyone for believing her family aren't real Hindus, but certainly it was also possible to convert to Hinduism in the past, otherwise Southeast Asia wouldn't be full of beautiful Hindu temples.

That aside, what's her reason for opposing gay marriage? I know Christians and Muslims have a scriptural disgust for it. I'd like to know where young Tulsi's strong opposition to it comes from.

Her father is a conservative Catholic whose only claim to fame has been being stridently opposed to gay marriage for the past 30 years.

Many born Hindus do accept Hare Krishnas as Hindu iirc, it’s more that western observers see it as kind of a new age cult because of the audience it attracted in the 1960s (and still does today to some extent). But ISKCON is descended from some 15th century strand of “real Hinduism” via Krishnaism, part of the Vaishnavist collection of Hindu denominations.

Wiki says this was the sect of her mother/parents:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_of_Identity_Foundation

Butler's teachings included condemnation of homosexuality,[1][3] hostility towards Islam, and skepticism of science.[2][10][2][11][12][13]

That aside, what's her reason for opposing gay marriage? I know Christians and Muslims have a scriptural disgust for it. I'd like to know where young Tulsi's strong opposition to it comes from.

She worked for her father's anti-gay organisation when she was younger.

She's since retracted her anti-gay stance.