The Baha'i Studies Listserv Socially liberal, but morally conservative? Liberals would say that laws against adultery, fornication, homosexuality, alcohol consumption, etc. as well as some of the religous prohibitions if they were the law of the land (ie. asceticism, monasticism, begging, clergy, pulpits, kissing of hands, confession of sins, etc.) would make you morally conservative no matter how fiscally liberal you are and thus outside of the bounds of liberalism and into populism, communitarianism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism as a quadrant.
On what bounds do you call the Baha'i Faith socially liberal? The crime of adultery/fornication being liable to be fined is one of the examples of social conservatism. Prohibtion is not socially liberal. All prohibitionists I know from the Internet are far right ultra conservatives. Some liberals even consider the death penalty itself to be illiberal. Moral conservatism inevitably leads to social conservatism. ________________________________ From: Susan Maneck <[email protected]> To: Baha'i Studies <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, November 22, 2010 11:22:43 PM Subject: Re: Grave Influence The Baha'i Studies Listserv > Flat taxes are actually conservative. Yes, they are. Liberals always try to make taxation > progressive. As does Abdu'l-Baha. > This idea first came from the Communist Manifesto. No, actually Adam Smith voiced support for this idea much earlier. He wrote the following in the Wealth of Nations: "The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion." > Liberals would also say that moralistic stances the Baha'i Faith has on > issue such sex, drugs, etc. would put it out of the bounds of liberalism. > I would say that we are socially liberal but morally conservative. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-541682-1719008.2a3842ae5b2f7d34dd5fdfc724616...@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] __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-542101-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@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]
