The Baha'i Studies Listserv On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 4:20 PM, Susan Maneck <[email protected]> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv >> But Christianity AND Islam AND the Bahai faith include statements in >> their writings which make distinctions between the roles of men and >> women in society. > > Dear Gilberto, > > The question is do we make the same distinctions? The House of Justice > calls the distinctions that remain negligible. I don't think the same > thing could be said for Christianity or Islam.
I think that depends on which interpretations you look to. There are definitely Christian groups (e.g. the Quakers) who are more egalitarian than the Bahai faith where gender in no way shape or form is related to differences in roles or treatment. The picture is more mixed if you look at more mainstream Protestant denominations and there is also an apples vs. oranges issue. (The Anglican Church has female bishops but is a bishop comparable to being on the UHJ?) And even in Islam, are you talking about Amina Wadud's interpretations or the Taliban's? And even if you want to talk about sociology, the Muslim world has seen many different female heads of state (Pakistan , Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia) > It would be dishonest to suggest that Bahais are >> radically different. > > I think the Baha'i Teachings in this area *are* radically different > and it is not dishonest for me to say so. When I say "different" I mean the common fact that the texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahai Faith ALL make gender distinctions and they all have statements which are interpreted to imply some kind of equality. > >> And in the Muwatta Umar (ra) says; "Beware of meat, because it has an >> addiction like the addiction of wine." > > And alas, I am an addict, especially when it comes to lamb and chicken. I was a vegetarian for a number of years and nowadays I occasionally add some seafood. In spite of my "regressive" ways. Imagine that. >>> What I'm saying is that there needs to be some substance behind >>> something we have made a cardinal principle. >> >> Sure. But that substance should come from promoting equality in human >> society generally. > > There is a reason 'Abdu'l-Baha went out of His way to promote the > equality of women and men. Gender relations is where some of the most > grievous inequalities lie. But even relative to its time, the Bahai faith wasn't incredibly advanced compared to what was going on with women's rights in the West. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-537323-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] 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/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
