Robert Earl Burton and The Fellowship of Friends: July 2016

Introduction

Robert Earl Burton founded The Fellowship of Friends in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1970. Burton modeled his own group after that of Alex Horn, loosely borrowing from the Fourth Way teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. In recent years, the Fellowship has cast its net more broadly, embracing any spiritual tradition that includes (or can be interpreted to include) the notion of "presence."

The Fellowship of Friends exhibits the hallmarks of a "doomsday religious cult," wherein Burton exercises absolute authority, and demands loyalty and obedience. He warns that his is the only path to consciousness and eternal life. Invoking his gift of prophecy, he has over the years prepared his flock for great calamities (e.g. a depression in 1984, the fall of California in 1998, nuclear holocaust in 2006, and most recently the October 2018 "Fall of California Redux.")

According to Burton, Armageddon still looms in our future and when it finally arrives, non-believers shall perish while, through the direct intervention and guidance from 44 angels (recently expanded to 81 angels, including himself and his divine father, Leonardo da Vinci), Burton and his followers shall be spared, founding a new and more perfect civilization. Read more about the blog.

Presented in a reverse chronology, the Fellowship's history may be navigated via the "Blog Archive" located in the sidebar below.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Dobbins-Oregon House community builds new fire station on Fellowship of Friends property

Dobbins-Oregon House Fire Department substation on Fellowship of Friends property. Photo courtesy of eTerritorial.com

[ed. - The Fellowship of Friends has contributed land and equipment for a new Fire District substation 100 yards from the Fellowship of Friends Galleria, Robert Burton's residence. Coincidentally, it appears the Fellowship and Yuba County are working toward a settlement of the Fellowship's lawsuit demanding the County repay nearly $600,000 in property taxes levied against the Galleria property, which the Fellowship claims is used exclusively for religious purposes. Actions related to the lawsuit will be on the Supervisors' closed session agenda throughout the Summer of 2016. (Curiously, and possibly unrelated, the Yuba County Tax Assessor has lowered the assessed value of the Galleria property for 2016 from a Factored Base Year Value of $3,499,940 to a nice round number of $1,500,000. The 2014 assessed value was $3,379,840.)

Given that the fire engine pictured was apparently purchased by a Fellowship of Friends member from Supervisor Randy Fletcher (before he was elected - see below) and then donated once the station was located on Fellowship property, suggests a potential quid pro quo. Fellowship members were strongly "encouraged" to vote for Fletcher in his 2014 race against incumbent Hal Stocker. (In 2014, Stocker voted to deny the Fellowship's claim for a refund.)

Prior to his election, Fletcher (pictured front row center, wearing white pants) was business partner with Fellowship members Steven Dambeck and Charles Sharp, and is now supportive of the Fellowship's "alleged" plans to develop (and/or sell) its unused real estate. This means supporting expansion of community boundaries and water, road, safety, telecommunications, and other infrastructure projects that will aid in promoting growth and increase land values in Oregon House and Dobbins.]

From the Dobbins-Oregon House Fire Protection District announcement:

"I am pleased to announce as of July 1st the Dobbins/Oregon House Fire Department has a new substation located at 12529 Rices Crossing with complete firefighting capabilities. This has been made possible by the joint efforts of the DOHFPD, the people of the Fire Auxiliary, the Fellowship of Friends, the donation of a fire engine by an individual in our community and others too numerous to mention. This joint effort by our community is an example of people working together for the benefit of everyone."

From eTerritorial.com:

"One of our volunteer firefighters living within the CSA-2 was presented with the opportunity to purchase a fully functional fire truck from Randy Fletcher (before he was elected as supervisor) and bought the engine with the intent to donate the fire engine to the district when a suitable location and associated facility could be obtained to house it."