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From: Ron House <house@usq.edu.au> Subject: Re: Infallibility and deception Date: Sunday, August 15, 1999 8:36 AM Smaneck wrote: > > Ron writes: > > >On the Baha'i Studies mailing list, I recently posted a criticism of the > >Universal House of Justice, which, summarised, was this: that Baha'i > >apologists on the Internet allow less informed Baha'is to believe that > >the UHJ is infallible, when the original term actually is better > >translated as morally perfect, sinless, or something of that nature; > > Dear Ron, > > That is the principle meaning of ma'sum; the word translated as infallibility. > But Baha'is are free to have various understandings of what that means and I > certainly am not interested in imposing mine on anyone else. In the post you > are responding to I was simply pointing out that to try to make too sharp a > distinction between letters from the House and those from the Secretariat > written on behalf of the House is probably a dead end as far as considering the > divine guidance contained therein. And as far as I'm concerned ma'sum carries > with it the meaning of providing such guidance. > > Much of the problem we have been having with you is that not only are you > unwilling to give this same tolerance to others I am sick of your paraphrasing my views in vindictive and dishonest terms. > but you went so far as to > condemn the House of Justice itself for not insisting on a more limited > meaning of infallibiliy. You even stated categorically that they had fallen > under divine judgement and that this was what the Tablet of the Holy Mariner > referred to when it spoke of of the ark being "cast out." I stated categorically that this was offered as my personal opinion. > This kind of dicourse > can only be disruptive to the list purpose of Baha'i Studies. As I pointed out on the list, my opinion amounts to the belief that a prophesy of Baha'u'llah's is coming true. I leave it to the good readers here to ponder the spiritual conditions prevailing on a Baha'i list whose moderators find that such a belief "can only be disruptive". -- Ron House house@usq.edu.au The evils of each age always seem self-evidently right at the time. Homepage |