The Baha'i Studies Listserv Susan,
Thanks again for the information. Sounds like new enrollees are picking up in the SE USA and that's great! In New Delhi, indeed I was probably there when nothing was scheduled. However I could not help but notice how out of date the flyers on the walls were, nothing was recent and up to date. To the other commenters, I do think the faith community somehow comes across as harsh and this discourages seekers. Look at how many divorces there are. In my cases, my wife is Catholic and has tried hard to make friends and be friendly when we were in Connecticut, but Baha'is tried so hard to convert her that they kept insulting her Catholic faith, constantly asking her how she could be a Catholic given the priest sex abuse scandals, and telling her that her Catholic faith was like being in Kindergarten, why didn’t she join the Baha'i Faith and be in high school? In my opinion, such arrogance is unbecoming. I think we need to be warmer, and absolutely more accepting of other religions. I have not, unfortunately, always found Baha'is to "consort with the followers of other religions" with grace. Most of all, I think we need a little humility. When we stand up and tell seekers that we are the world's fastest growing religion, and talk about entry by troops, and how Peace will break out in 2000 (it didn't), and how a Baha'i government will rule the whole world, and they see the actuality of a very small, not growing, community of old folks, many Persian, it makes us seem a little bit like a cult of fanatics sometimes. Maybe we should think about being the leaven in modern society, instead of arrogantly thinking we are going to be a significant number any time soon. It is very likely that none of us, our children, our grandkids, or our great-great-great grandkids will ever live in a world in which Baha'is make up any significant percentage of the population. So why not try to be a small community of Baha'is who actually help make overall society better, kinder, more humble, more God-fearing, more good? You can't do that, in my opinion, by being triumphalist. And if we really want to grow, even slowly, maybe we should emphasize theological details less, and put more emphasis on the big picture, what's good about religion in general, and not just our own theocratic triumphalism, try to bring out the best in people of all religious persuasions, be a good example of religious tolerance, moderation, and good will? After I declared, I was repeatedly told to forget my doubts, that I had to completely accept dogmas that I find to be completely unacceptable, because "once I had declared, I had found Baha'u'llah to be Who He said He was, and therefore, since not only was He Infallible, but all the Central Figures and the Universal House of Justice were Infallible" and since most Baha'is take the literal English definition of Infallibility, that immediately makes the Baha'i Faith more dogmatic, rigid and fanatical than almost any other religion. We must say "War is Peace" because our Central Figures infallibly told us that peace would break out in 2000; that mankind share no evolutionary history with other primates, because of comments by Abdul Baha, that modern Physics is incorrect, there is a quantum ether, again because of comments by Abdul Baha. This makes us less accepting of science than most modern religious persuasions. I'm sorry, but our religion is not perfect. I can clearly see that even Baha'u'llah did not foresee that He we being served poison. Even Shoghi Effendi chose chief lieutenants who were of bad character. Even the Central Figures made prophetic remarks that subsequent events have proven to be incorrect. So what? That’s not why I became a Baha'i, I became a Baha'i because I find Baha'u'llah to be right on the mark when it comes to spiritual matters. But if we can never expect a significant percentage, much less a majority, of the world's people to become Baha'is if we insist hat such becoming mean they accept literal infallibility in the common English sense of the word. If we so insist then it won’t happen and we will remain a tiny community that most people in the world has never heard of. I still struggle, but I am a Baha’i. I struggle with the Aqdas. We say equality of the sexes is a core belief. But the Aqdas devotes more words to inheritance laws than to any other subject. And those inheritance laws are sexist, giving more to sons than daughters. Now since the inheritance laws are mostly irrelevant anyway since we are ordered to create wills, why did Baha’u’llah choose to devote more words in His Most Holy Book to inheritance laws than any other subject, and why are those laws sexist? I can only conclude that He was influenced by His local time and place, circumstances and culture. And so if our inheritance laws are sexist and women also can’t serve on our highest Body, it’s not the end of the world. But when seekers see all this and we try to hide it and blindly insist we are more for equality of the sexes than (name whatever religion they are coming from) they see us as hypocritical, and I have to agree with them. I love the Baha’i Faith. But I think our doctrinaire and triumphalism attitudes are why we have stopped growing and are shrinking. Baha’u’llah re-defined many literal interpretations of previous scripture as nonsense, such as Jesus literally returning in the clouds. Even the core doctrine of most of Christian belief for all Christina history, the bodily resurrection of Christ, He defines as symbolic. I would not at all be surprised if a future Manifestation easily dismisses many of the theological literalisms that many seekers struggle with in the Baha’i Faith as symbolic, not literal and thus of no importance. How ironic then, and sad, if we as a community block seekers access to the spiritual wealth of the Baha’i Faith by emphasizing literal theological orthodoxy. Is this what Baha’u’llah had in Mind? Ron On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 9:25 PM, Susan Maneck <[email protected]> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv > > Good observations. Another thing I've noticed is that, compared with most > religions, few of our children actually remain Baha'is after they grow up. > It is hard to grow a faith community if we can't keep our >children in the > Faith. > > And that's one of the reasons we stress children and junior youth > groups. One thing you will be gratified to hear, Ron, is that we have > become much less anal rentative when non-Baha'is show up for Feast. > > __________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] > Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto: > leave-546409-193154.cd7639b4f32d68d299933c46032cd...@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-546522-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@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]
