The Baha'i Studies Listserv I read a quote some time ago that speaks to Brent's point about avoiding certain sites and materials.
Dee Hock is the founder and the former CEO of Visa International and has a very good book called, "The Birth of the Chaotic Age". He notes, "The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts in your mind, but how to get the old ones out." Problem with CBing materials is that they leave a permanent imprint in our mind, bias our view and everything else we read is colored by that bias. This not just true about CBer materials, but any sort of negative or attack material. For instance, if I read "Obama is a smoker", the thought of him being a smoker (not that there's really anything wrong with being a smoker) lingers on and colors everything else I read or hear about Obama. Which is why in politics, negative ads are so powerful and effective. Now, if I'm very knowledgeable about Mr. Obama and a huge fan, then the effect of negative comments about him are less or may be in fact negligible. But if I'm only a little familiar with him and his policies, then any negative comment will have a notable impact. CBer materials are like very negative ads. If a person is relatively new to the Bahai Faith and has not had a chance to read broadly and experience the Baha'i community, then negative comments will have a notable impact and will greatly cloud one's judgement. So, care and caution should be exercised. On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 7:31 AM, Brent Poirier <attor...@cybermesa.com>wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv > > The danger in reading Covenant breaker sites is often not that the person > will be in danger of following these groups; it is that they destroy one's > faith. The confusing answers of Mr. Grey, and his statement that he is > leaving religion altogether, make the point very clearly. > ' > One of the most malicious slanders of the Faith is the comparisons of the > Learned to the East German stazi or other tyrannical regimes. This prevents > the believer from seeking support from the people most capable of giving it. > > As to the person who supposedly met a grandson of Abdu'l-Baha, whose father > broke the Covenant, and through whom he did not claim to be a Guardian. This > makes absolutely no sense. The children of Abdu'l-Baha were all daughters. > > It is more likely that it was a great grandson, and possibly one of them > was, for a time, faithful to the Covenant during the conversation he had > with the believer you know. But now all of the male descendants, down to > the present day, are out of the Faith (or at least that was the case up to a > decade ago when I asked a House member). > > Brent > > __________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:ahang.rabb...@gmail.com > Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto: > leave-523726-1092882.b08fc62d23e686946d4de995cae13...@list.jccc.edu > Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to > ly...@list.jccc.edu > Or subscribe: > http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st > Baha'i Studies is available through the following: > Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu > Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st > News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st > Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net > New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu > -- Ahang Rabbani, PhD http://ahang.rabbani.googlepages.com/ __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-523784-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
