Washington Republicans decry Yelm spiritual leader’s bigoted rants
Oct 24, 2012, 6:18 AM | Updated: 9:15 am
Anti-Catholic and anti-gay rants from a big-time Democratic Party donor and spiritual leader in Washington are causing a ruckus in the election.
You might remember the name JZ Knight. She’s the woman from Yelm who claims to speak for a 35,000 year old spirit from Atlantis named Ramtha.
She was really popular about 10 or 15 years ago. She has an enlightenment center, and people go to her for spiritual guidance.
The Democratic Party has received thousands of dollars in donations from her this year, and now people are drawing attention to some rants from Knight in the past.
Knight is seen in this video [warning: obscene language] using profane and vile language to describe Catholics, Jews and gays. It’s not clear who made or released the video, but it’s clear the statements are edited together from different speeches Knight has given.
What makes this political fodder is that Knight has donated more than $60,000 to Democratic campaigns in Washington this year. That’s money that the state Republicans are now trying to make political hay with.
Party chair Kirby Wilbur tells KING-5 those statements don’t reflect Washington values, and he believes the money should be returned.
“There is some responsibility on the recipient of the check to know who gives you the check,” he said.
Though it said it doesn’t condone Knight’s comments, the state Democratic Party won’t return the money, but some Democratic groups have said they won’t take money from her in the future.
Knight’s people said the comments were taken out of context.
