Hi all, I feel I want to put my two cents in here - although I may regret it:) I am not much of a scholar so I can't provide chapter and verse but, if I recall correctly - There is a Baha'i scripture that offers a perspective that might be helpful. It says to the effect "That which appears to be wrath may in fact be the tenderest of mercy and that which appears to be mercy may in fact be the fiercest of wrath." >From my understanding - for what it is worth - When people receive nasty consequences for their incorrect choices, they have an opportunity to learn. In the case of 'sin' they have an opportunity to repent. (In may book that doesn't mean "guilt" it means "stop doing that".) If they receive no consequences in this world, they don't have the same opportunity to change the choice, they may not review the choice and they may receive far more serious spiritual damage as a result of continuing to make spiritually damaging choices. As for the suffering of the innocent - this is usually the consequence of social choices made by other individuals or societies at large. The purpose is likely to be to soften the 'harder' hearts and hopefully to move them toward compassion. AIDS is a good example - so many people were so busy blaming the victims of this disease that no resources were made available to deal with the problem. This changed only when 'innocent' people started becoming infected. It is still a very thorny issue for judgmental people who are torn between wanting to blame the 'guilty' and wanting to save the 'innocent'. We as a society apparently need a review of a Christian lesson "Judge not that ye may not be judged." I hope this helps. Sheila --- Kendal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Marlene, > > The main reason I stopped posting a few months back > is because I ended up > regretting half my posts because they were not well > thought out, so I felt > it more appropriate to observe silence. I am > getting that feeling acutely > again. > > My post was misplaced because it followed so closely > upon the discussion > as to whether or not people afflicted with their > disease deserved their > disease. I could not agree with you more that the > idea that HIV positive > patients deserve their disease is disgusting. (My > other life is that of a > physician who has many close and warm friendships > with people suffering > from these illnesses.) I also do not believe that > there is any support in > the Writings for such a view (thankfully!)- the > judgemental view that you > and I both deplore. > > The point I tried to make is that the Writings do > occasionally express > naturalistic events in a metaphorical way as coming > from God. I think the > idea here is that God is the "causer of causes" and > that everything that > happens is part of His Will. My post was a feeble > attempt to merge these > metaphorical expressions with naturalistic > explanations on some level. > > Thank you, Marlene, for the integrity and > intelligence of your posts. I > will keep reading them with interest! Kendal > > > > > > > > > ---------- > You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Baha'i Studies is available through the following: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st > news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st > http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > (public) >
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