From: McKenny Michael <bn872@FreeNet.Carleton.CA>
Subject: Re: What is a Cult? and McKenny case
Date: Saturday, January 30, 1999 12:17 PM
Greetings, Rick.
Many thanks for your comments.
You wrote:
>
> Dr. Cole, here, interprets this to mean that any religious organization must
> be forced to admit to their membership anyone who wishes to claim that they
> are members. This is a rather novel interpretation.
>
A couple of things need to be stated, here.
Michael McKenny had the belief that Baha'u'llah had come to provide a
framework for the harmony of the human species. He was 21 years old when
he encountered the Baha'i Faith, firmly convinced that the Cold War was
going to become hot, and that he would die young, along with a great many
others. He was a student activist, despite this negative assessment, the
head World Federalist Youth in Canada. He was overwhelmed by the spirit
he saw in the Baha'i Revelation and in the potential for this Revelation
to serve as a means whereby humanity could escape the horrors of nuclear
war, or, as most Baha'is believed at the time, emerge from the ashes of
such a war and establish a glorious civilization.
For many years Michael McKenny had been meeting pagans, and often
told them that were it not that he had first encountered the Baha'i Faith
he would be a pagan. This is a bit inexact, in the sense that most pagans
will tell you that paganism is not something you become, not something
into which one is baptized or signs a card. What occurs is that people
discover there is a word to describe what they have believed, what they
have been, all along.
Then, as recounted elsewhere in some detail, Michael McKenny came
onto the Talisman e-mail list seeking provisional translations of
unpublished works by Baha'u'llah, only to run into a degree of Baha'i
fundamentalism, of whose existence he had been totally ignorant. This led
step by step to his meeting with Susie Tamas and her invitation that since
he said he had no trouble with the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of
Ottawa or the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada, but
only with the Universal House of Justice, then he should write to the
Universal House of Justice.
The concerns that led him to write to the Universal House of Justice,
the extent to which these concerns were not addressed in the reply, and
the numerous invitations Michael McKenny received to resign from the
Baha'i Faith, did not cause him to cast aside the religion.
It has happened in the past that the spirit of a religion became
something less than perfect at the top. The Baha'i Faith has the ability,
the capacity, the potential to become what Michael McKenny imagined it
would when he first encountered it. This is not facilitated by all the
liberals resigning from the religion, because they are invited to do
so by fundamentalists. This would be rather like all the democrats in
the United States renouncing their US citizenship because they were being
given a hard time by republicans. This is quite convenient for the
republicans, it will make elections easier to win. However, it is not in
the best interests of the United States.
Now, if the Baha'i Faith is a political party, or if it is any kind
of limited outfit, such as a cult, then it is understandable if it is run
so that only one segment, only the fundamentalists, only those humans who
are able to believe in the priority being blind obedience of any command
soever, even when this involves, censorship, interrogation and hounding
of liberals out of the faith, and principles can be thrown in the garbage.
The Universal House of Justice never issued me a command saying, this
is our last warning. Shut up or else. I certainly knew that they wanted me
to shut up. If Susie Tamas says I promised to shut up after a reply came
to my letter, i will not contradict her. i believe she is completely
honest. After I came home from a meeting several hours long, I tried to
write some notes so my memory could be prodded. I was not intentionally
dishonest, and I was quite taken aback at the extent to which the reply
did not respond to the letter I had sent.
I do not consider it is advantageous to the Baha'i Faith, or, were
the Baha'i Faith so narrowly interpreted to become dominant in the world,
gods forbid, for this insistence on silent obedience to the lack of
principle. It is not likely that I would have obeyed even a command which
said that I had to shut up or else. Freedom of speech is a basic principle
and, certainly speaking about such basic principles as the equality of
women and men is something that no one at all has the right to silence.
So, when without such a final warning, the Universal House of Justice,
through the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada, informed
me that they no longer considered me as within the Baha'i community, I
accepted they had the power to do that, and, really, if the Baha'i Faith
is an entity that actually discriminates against women, that really will
prefer censoring information, analysis and opinion which promotes the
principles of the religion, that truly uses its constitutional capacity
concerning membership to exclude a rather eloquent liberal, then, yes,
they are very right, and I am not a part of such an outfit.
And, so, I said in public, that I am a pagan. If really, the Baha'i
Faith, the cutting edge of monotheis, in theory, now, in practise, has
become a cause of conflict, contention and division, if it replicates
the worst features of patriarchal structures from the past, then, the
views of our pre-monotheistic ancestors are given greater weight and
I am delighted to actively participate in the pagan community where i
live.
And, still being a believer in the essential nature of freedom
of speech, I will continue to post here, as busy as I may be, so that
the Universal House of Justice may not imagine that by such means they
may hide from convincing views, unpalatable as they may find them,
though, really, I only post what I feel is in the best interests of
the Baha'i Faith, and of humanity as a whole.
This has been typed live, off the top of my head, yet, I think it
is quite adequate. I hope no one else need ever type such a thing.
To the Future,
Michael
--
"My name's McKenny, Mike McKenny, Warrant Officer, Solar Guard."
(Tom Corbett #1 STAND BY FOR MARS p2)
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