From: Michael McKenny <bn872@FreeNet.Carleton.CA>
Subject: Re: One area in which Liberty is Limited in the Baha'i Community
Date: Wednesday, July 21, 1999 7:58 AM
Greetings, David and Jennifer.
The point is that all things are to be taken in moderation. Yes, indeed
there are limits to liberty. I can't simply walk down the street and have
sex on the spot with any woman who catches my eye even if she doesn't want
it. I can't simply move into any house that catches my eye, killing them
that were living there previously. I can't, well, I think you get the
picture. There is a golden mean, a middle path, moderation.
And, you know, that means there's a ditch on the other side of the road
humanity is meant to stay out of, too. The quotes you provide are by no
means meant to be an endorsement of the kind of administration endured by
so many people in this Century in places such as the thankfully X USSR. And,
this is precisely the problem with the narrow minded fundamentalist men in
charge of the Baha'i Faith. Rather than ruling with principles that would
be backed by the spiritual resources of the Faith and gain the admiration
of a progressive humanity, they vomit attacks on liberty, backed by the
literalist extremist readings of such passages, as if striving to gain the
admiration of the most detested rulers in human history.
I will remind you that when Abdu'l Baha wrote to the Baha'is of Canada
in "The Tablets of the Divine Plan" that, "In Canada, freedom will increase
day by day," he made it sound like a good thing, that this would be, as a
result, a great place to live. He did not say, "Drat, shucks and darn it,
what a terrible tragedy, but..." Doug Martin, if none of the other eight,
ought to have read that passage, and maybe ought to be doing more to foster
the UHJ seeking to model itself a bit closer to Canada, praised by Abdu'l
Baha, rather than the X USSR.
Here's to moderation, the Golden Mean, the Middle Path, to liberty
rather than bestial unrestraint and rather than totalitarian suppression
of human rights.
To the Future,
Michael
"David Fiorito and Jennifer Spotila" (fiospots@pond.com) writes:
> Here is the quote from Baha'u'llah - the Kitab-i-Aqdas:
>
> Consider the pettiness of men's minds. They ask for that which injureth
> them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them. They are, indeed, of
> those that are far astray. We find some men desiring liberty, and priding
> themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance.
>
> 123
> Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench.
> Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the
> embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal.
--
"My name's McKenny, Mike McKenny, Warrant Officer, Solar Guard."
(Tom Corbett #1 STAND BY FOR MARS p2)
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