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From: jrcole@umich.edu <jrcole@umich.edu> Subject: Re: Baha'i Scriptures and Universal Declaration of Human Rights Date: Monday, April 26, 1999 8:13 PM Thanks so much for the kind words, Fred. I hope you will also do some writing, on things like Robert Hayden's spirituality (I know it is far more complex than the biographies allow). It is true that a subcommittee of the Universal House of Justice composed of Farzam Arbab, Douglas Martin and Ian Semple had the counselors of the International Teaching Center accuse me of 'making statements contrary to the Covenant' in April 1996, just because they did not like my email postings. As a result, I was confused for two and a half years. After all, I had not in my own mind contravened "the Covenant" in any way. I mean, had I claimed to be the 17th Guardian? No! Had I claimed to be able to do more than express my personal and non-authoritative opinion about the meaning of Baha'i scripture? No! Had I made any unreasonable demands on the UHJ? No! At that very time, the UHJ had asked me and I had agreed to help with the retranslation of *Some Answered Questions*! I had offered them, and they had accepted, my provisional translations of the Tablets. What weird sort of dealings did they have with people, to essentially employ them on the one hand but to horsewhip them on the other? I'm afraid I thought that the only sort of persons went about behind the scenes threatening college professors with being shunned unless they fell silent were wild-eyed cultists, and I'm afraid that is still my opinion of Farzam Arbab, Doug Martin, Ian Semple, Fred Schechter, Monajjem, Stephen Birkland et al. Unfortunately, there are lots of nooks and crannies in the Baha'i administration where cultists can hide out and abuse adherents. However, I worked my way through things, and found my faith in Baha'u'llah once more, even if I have become convinced by my dealings with them that the Universal House of Justice has in fact been mutilated by the absence of a living Guardian, just as he predicted would happen. But this 'mutilation' can be a good thing, too. I think the reason we don't have a Guardian is because God decided human beings needed to grow up and stand on their own two feet. This maturity of humankind, which Baha'u'llah proclaims when he talks of the "advent of Universal Reason" among "the people," is incompatible with having someone interpret our scriptures for us authoritatively. So, we have been left with a purely legislative body (the UHJ), and everyone is now free to express their conscience and proclaim their views about Baha'i theology and social principles. Because the UHJ has been, unfortunately, mutilated by the absence of a living Guardian, they have no one, as Shoghi Effendi explicitly predicted, to tell them when they are straying from their proper legislative functions into matters where they have no scriptural or constitutional authority (like the email messages of Baha'i professors or those of Baha'i fiction writers like Michael McKenny). I fear I have concluded that the *only* force that can in some ways repair the damage of the mutilation, the only prosthesis that can allow the House of Justice to walk normally again, is Baha'i Public Opinion and the consensus of the believers. And that is why I speak out and will continue to speak out every time the Baha'i administration contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with regard to its own adherents, given the close fit between the ideals of that document and those of Baha'u'llah and the other holy figures. So, you see, in the end I haven't been 'driven out' of anything. I am a Baha'i, just like any other Baha'i, a believer in Baha'u'llah. Whether others wish to recognize and acknowledge that, and whether they wish to backbite me or listen to others backbite an innocent person, is completely irrelevant to the facts. cheers Juan -- Juan Cole, History, U of Michigan https://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/bahai.htm Buy *Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith* at: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0231110812/002-4036721-8058448 -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- https://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own Homepage |