Disqus - Latest Comments for AmadodeDios

Re: Baha’u’llah & “The Subject of Boys”

AmadodeDios — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:14:55 -0000

Hi, Dawnbreaking. I understand that the idea is that a Bahai man can employ a virgin / maid and be expected not to take advantage of her sexually. A Muslim was obliged to marry her, assuming that she would have to provide full service to the master, and - if required to perform as another wife - should have the legal rights of a wife. The Bahai Law gives the employer the responsibility of behaving himself, rather than assuming he will not!

Re: We Have Annulled the Rule of the Sword

AmadodeDios — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 14:57:07 -0000

Thanks for your response. Please excuse me for saying that I might have answered just the same, not so long ago! Shoghi Effendi said that we "deepen" precisely because we understand things better and better!
Let me try to be clear: it is perfectly possible to accept Baha'u'llah's Words as God's guidance without swallowing everything that has come afterwards as un-changeably ideal.
Of course, you can accept someone else's understanding blindly (read the Kitab-i-Iqan to see what Baha'u'llah thought about blind acceptance!) but that ultimately requires you to relinquish your individual spiritual obligation to think about what you are doing!
So you think that Baha'u'llah's Revelation has new features - I agree.
And you think we haven't messed it up or misunderstood or veered, even so slightly, from our course - and I don't agree!

And you think the 9 guys in Haifa do everything right, always - and this is obviously not the case...

Re: We Have Annulled the Rule of the Sword

AmadodeDios — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 22:16:56 -0000

Hi, DNA - You start by growling. I growl, too, but when I am trying to communicate with my dogs, in my capacity as their alpha male...
If you are angry, some psychologists believe that anger is rooted in fear. If you are willing to believe blindly (ascribing infallibility to a bunch of gentlemen who are obviously fallible) this may also reflect fear.
Actually, one can wish the 9 guys in Haifa were doing a better job without attacking Baha'u'llah.
And we all have to come to terms with our fears; perhaps realize that God will, in fact, eventually help things turn out better; and acknowledge that this may not be according to what we think today...
When you want to growl, breathe deeply!
Amado
By the way, I know what "DNA" stands for (the National Dyslexia Association).

Re: Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Gardener

AmadodeDios — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:36:28 -0000

Incredible metaphor! (forest vs. bonsai...)

Every day of our lives, we have to work to avoid bowdlerizing (almost "bowler hat"!) the Faith, and to undo the confusion we've sown by understanding less in the past than we do now!

Re: Baha’i Faith & Homosexuality: It’s Getting Better

AmadodeDios — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:31:29 -0000

This is a key issue, in my opinion, because it does require us to figure out what our "Teachings" actually are! Must we slavishly follow every little detail by 9 guys in Haifa who would like us to think they are infallible but change their minds quite a bit? Must we grant 1000 years of enforceability to a phrase out of context by the Guardian's secretary? Is the Guardian himself infallible - even if we find him opining about things that we know more about then they did back then? Does Abdul-Baha have to be 100% right about everything for us to take him as our best example of courage and constancy? Christian theologians have a hard job explaining why Jesus cursed a tree (the fig tree, for having no fruit just then). Can we hold Bahá'u'lláh, Who was in a human body and had a very difficult life, to a very square, blindered vision of 100% quotability on everything, regardless of the context?

Clearly, the Most Great Book of Laws prohibits child prostitution. Some of us feel that Shoghi Effendi (both himself and his secretary) went too far - were actually wrong - in extending this to include the X% of the human race who are clearly not 100% heterosexual. This is one way to be a Bahai - with our eyes open, using our minds and science to try to find the truth. There is the other way - blindly insisting on our current understanding of literal texts (bearing in mind that some 80% of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings are not yet translated or otherwise available yet). Yes, that is another way to be a Bahai, but it's not the only way.

I am a Bahai, too. I think questioning and investigating (Bahai qualities, right?) are good. I think Bahai Rants enhances the prestige of our Faith, showing that not all Bahais are fundamentalists. How can we make life better for ourselves and for everyone, as Bahais? (Certainly not by supporting narrow-minded persecution...)

Re: Ruhi Redux

AmadodeDios — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 17:53:44 -0000

Our daughter just went to the youth conference for our region, three days of indoctrination in obeying the institutions and getting cracking on the "institute process" (studying and teaching the Ruhi books).

In sum, time and money wasted.

1. They had empty rhetoric on building “community”. Why do I say “empty”? They thoughtlessly isolated each group with the other kids from their own part of the country, totally wasting the opportunity to forge friendships with Afro-descendants from the Coast, indigenous from the Highlands, other kinds of kids from other parts of the country… Totally wasted – what “community” are we talking about? Perhaps all the “training” that our
beloved Auxiliary Board Members get has never included any ways to help people get to know each other, make friends, find commonalities and bond!

2. I warned her there would be a lot of boring lectures. There are so many things a group of people can do together – why so many sermons? And why is almost the only alternative to lectures to form “small groups” to study the “guidance” – long, boring, unnecessarily repetitive documents?

3. “Tell me something new you learned” – “there wasn’t much information…”

Perhaps a hundred thousand dollars was thrown away (the kids’ $100 a head plus central spending) to achieve no new learning, no new friendships, no insight into other ways of taking advantage of being
together…

Oh, but the purpose was to push the “institute process” – then why is there no action step? Really! Their “commitment” is to study Book 5 (teaching “junior youth”) – and there is no concrete plan for them to do this! No date set for an organizational meeting, no study schedule – nothing at all…

Re: It’s a little known fact. . . [4]

AmadodeDios — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 12:39:32 -0000

Another question about husbands and wives. We have, in the Codification of the Kitab-i-Iqan's notes, the concept of mutatis mutandis. The note hints that Shoghi Effendi introduced this useful phrase (obviously from Western legal thought, in Latin). Do we know if Shoghi Effendi made this useful, elegant clarification, or would it be some anonymous genius in the Research Department?
Amado

Re: Election of Universal House of Justice 2013

AmadodeDios — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:34:44 -0000

Just lovely: a bit of litter cleanup, consultation, protecting trees, improving health, overcoming gender, caste and inter-generational impasses - very heartening.

Lots of good music. And this offers hope. I know that, just as Bahais working on development projects have borne up under constant flak from their "leaders" (both appointed and elected), some of the prettiest, liveliest music we hear on this video was persecuted as "too lively" for Bahai songs. But now we are proud of this music, and it is mainstream.

Perhaps the strong points will continue to overcome the feeble. The first few "junior youth" books, which are brilliant, will inform the increasingly duller ones churned out after them. As women and youth start getting their rights, we will learn not to oppress - and even partner with murderous fanatics - against sexual minorities.

I find that the House used to have shorter, pithier messages, and they are now quite pedestrian and repetitive. Let's hope that the vitality of the strong points can overcome the unquestionable strait-jacket boundaries of our increasingly stultified administration and approach to the Teachings, and ultimately make us a force for progress again!

Re: Hossain B. Danesh Seminar on Baha’i Marriage and Family

AmadodeDios — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:09:56 -0000

"Contact the auhorities" - oh, come now! One point here is that "the
authorities" are the good-ol'-boy circuit who are perpetrating the
embarrassing behavior! A starry-eyed neophyte can trust blindly that the
wise people on "the Institutions" will judge fairly - when one has
tried to deal with committees of incompetents who think they are guided
by God (and anyone who disagrees is un-holy!) one soon loses any
illusion that "the authorities" are going to clean up their own act. Our
Bahai Administration that we are so proud of lacks a whole area of
mechanisms for self-cleaning, such as honest disclosure of personal
records (Right to Information), any ombudsman function, any protection
(rather than persecution) for whistle-blowers, etc.

Re: NSA Elections in North America – 2010

AmadodeDios — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:24:38 -0000

The Hands of the Cause stayed out of the first UHJ election in 1963 (and Counselors are supposed to pick up the torch from the hands). Term limits were proposed reasonably decades ago. The solutions (like full rights for women) are right there, as clear as in the noon-day sun - if we would open our eyes!

Re: The Trouble with the World

AmadodeDios — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:18:11 -0000

In a shameful travesty of justice, the Iranian court has been doing its best / worst with our Yaran friends. We have prayed, written countless letters, and expected something more sensible, but they refuse to budge – their word is the last word.

Some of the Star chamber are already angry at me for suggesting that sometimes one doesn’t make the right decision perfectly the first time, and asking them to adjust their actions to make them fairer (more “just”), just as they visibly revise their own plans and systems. If I venture to draw any parallels between these two cases of injustice, they will surely be even angrier – and of course, ruder in person.

However, I think one comparison might be made. When Persian Bahá’ís are jailed under trumped-up charges and denied any recourse, what is our reaction? Do we say “Good for them! They get to suffer and become more spiritual!” Do we reflect that if they had just kept a lower profile and inspired less envy among the mediocre, they might be “free” today?

Actually, who knows what goes through anyone else’s mind, but I suspect that these “central ornaments”, like anyone else who cares about other people, and about justice, want to do what they can to find justice for these unfairly treated people, punished on the basis of lies.

However, for those of us who are victims of “infallible” rulings, the best we get is the interesting opportunity to learn from the results of unjust (and un-appealable) mistreatment.

Re: New Pressures Brought Against Iranian Baha’is

AmadodeDios — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:46:57 -0000

A general comment to express my appreciation, which I will insert here in this discussion of administrative inadequacy.
To our friends who have attempted to deal with the tremendous institutions (those that are supposedly infallible sometimes and those that are most certainly never infallible) my deepest thanks.
Now that a couple of the rudest old coots are retiring from the UHJ, I was preparing a last-chance letter, suggesting that they straighten out their irresponsible actions before they leave forever.
Having read through such attempts to elicit a reasonable response from these prideful bullies, I realize I can use my time more profitably than in explaining to dogs why they should stop barking at me.
Friends, your suffering (annoyances, whatever) from dealing with these arbitrary tyrants have freed me (and perhaps lots of others) - like Baha'u'llah accepting chains to free us from ours.
Very sincerely, thank you!
Amado

Re: Second Fastest Growing Religion

AmadodeDios — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:40:58 -0000

Any such estimates are questionable. Some drastic reductions in numbers would actually be good news. For example, if we used to "elect LSAs" by meeting with a handful of docile locals, doing the paperwork for them, and having an appropriately termed "paper Assembly", a drop from 200 such LSAs to zero could actually mean we are telling the truth from now on...
What interests me is, even if numbers are dwindling / getting real, that there still seems to be enough money to run the Haifa facilities, hold all those conferences to push the Ruhi system, etc.

Re: Change is a Law of Nature

AmadodeDios — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:59:04 -0000

May I share some information I think is meaningful? I have been chatting with an old Baha'i who was a personal friend of Ruhiyyih Khanum. She said that one of Shoghi Effendi's administrators was gay.
This has, I think, several interesting repercussions for us. If we wish SE and RK (as his secretary) had not said / interpreted non-modern ideas, this can help us see them as a bit more reasonable. We have a "precedent" for peaceful coexistence. And my informant noted that SE "had no problem with letting the gay man handle SE's money!" and never touched the man's administrative rights. So, our precedent includes respect and apparently gratitude.

Re: Change is a Law of Nature

AmadodeDios — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:53:39 -0000

What can I say? I feel like an astronomer, trying to figure out what a galaxy somewhere is made of, by what I can see from here!
I have known Baha'i couples who got along enviably well and supported each others' service; all the way to the other end, those who served heroically because home was not an option. I have heard Irán Muhajir tell anecdotes of marital harmony - but no one can maintain terror 100% of the time, so that is still "anecdotal" evidence. I really liked Dr. Muhajir...

Re: Change is a Law of Nature

AmadodeDios — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:50:31 -0000

I'm not original - this is a novel thought for me! Of course, they must have been somewhere on a continuum between secretly divorced / dysfunctional and an incredible love story that survived all the differences and distances! Now I feel like a gossip for wishing I knew! (Thanks for the insight!)

Re: Change is a Law of Nature

AmadodeDios — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:57:32 -0000

I just noticed the two "ex-". Did Iran Muhajir divorce Rahmatullah Muhajir? Or do you mean "ex-" because he is dead and she is not?

Re: Universal House of Justice: Ridvan Message 2009

AmadodeDios — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:30:02 -0000

Actually, Argentina, I think.

Re: Change is a Law of Nature

AmadodeDios — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:57:06 -0000

Re: "While we were young I witnessed the straight normal Baha’i friends fornicate and drink and do drugs with impunity". Maybe that selective lenience was partly like Shoghi Effendi's delay in letting Western Baha'is know about not drinking alcohol - giving priority to the basics first, and (frankly) not scaring people away. (Dr. Muhajir told us NOT to mention not drinking, because people will run away and never learn about Baha'u'llah!)
Couldn't this same reasoning justify being decent to people with different preferences, even for people who are not fully sure whether homosexuality is all right or not?

Re: The Trouble with the World

AmadodeDios — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:01:57 -0000

I'm sorry. If you see an obstacle in the road and say "slow down" and the driver accelerates, it is natural to say "brake, brake!" I don't mean to retort back-and-forth, and this was not a trap, like a child's trick (What is the first sign of being silly? Having hair on your knuckles - and the second is looking!)
But another sure alarm-revealer-flag to highlight bickering is when one party instantly points out "that's right, YOU have been bickering". Please - I was asking most of the contributors to be friendlier, by which I meant sincerely friendlier, structurally friendlier - not just more fancy insults.
Please forgive me if I sound like I am also slapping back - I think I really want all my friends to get along a little better!

Re: The Trouble with the World

AmadodeDios — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:12:32 -0000

There are easy giveaways for certain behaviors that are traps. For example, if someone says "I am obliged to let you cheat me" they are surely out to cheat the other person. If someone says "of course my merchandise is expensive - it's not like that cheap junk in Shop X" it may be useful to have a look at Shop X!
Bickering has several revealing characteristics: getting on one's high horse (I am important, have suffered, know fancy words), shifting to attack the unguarded flank that was never a part of the opponent ("straw man"), unkind words (not exactly a Baha'i Teaching, is it?).

Might we stop bickering? Even if only to prove we can, and thereby blast the other arguer out of the water with our warm, loving friendliness?

Re: The Challenge of Homosexuality – Part Deux

AmadodeDios — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:26:53 -0000

If I may crave everyone's indulgence, now that most or all of the back-and-forth seems to have subsided, I would like to try to pull this together into a summary, perhaps going stepwise from what we all agree to where the contention lies.

(First of all, many societies have taboos about different forms of sexual expression, and those of us raised in any culture anywhere are imbued with all of that.)

This means that, when Bahá’u’lláh says “boys” we need scholars’ help, and we find that the connotation is pederasty. By the mutatis mutandis principle, this must mean all sexual abuse of minors, both girls and boys. I suspect we all agree so far. There are people who advocate free love with children, but I think most of us feel this is traumatizing for little people.

Now, when Shoghi Effendi says that this really extends to forbid all same-sex relations, this is where we branch off. I think most of us recognize that Shoghi Effendi was a genius who worked himself into an early grave for us, producing such brilliant writings, plans and gardens. So, we would like to find some “wiggle room” in the fact that so many of his zillions of letters were read and signed by him, but composed by someone else, a secretary / assistant (often Rúhíyyih-Khánum, to whom we also owe so much). However, for example, the letter in Lights of Guidance that uses the phrase “against Nature” is apparently written by the Guardian himself.

And it was one of the Guardian’s functions to interpret like that – but about all subjects, binding forever?

So, here we have to decide whether we agree. This creates a deep conflict for me, because I think it is hard for me to think of anything else that Shoghi Effendi interpreted that I don’t go along with (except perhaps the penchant for sexist language, which is also a phenomenon of changing social realities).

On the other hand, Shoghi Effendi clearly pointed out that scientific issues (including economics, medicine, etc.) would have to be straightened out scientifically.

And Science already sees these issues extremely differently than 80 to 100 years ago. (For example, “against Nature” sounds embarrassingly unscientific now…)

Next step: the House of Justice puts in its opinions, holding firmly to the above “party line”. This does not create such a crisis for me as Shoghi Effendi’s interpretation, because the House of Justice has demonstrated that its infallibility must itself be interpreted.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá refers to the House as the “source of all good, freed of all error” but we have seen them do what Bahá’u’lláh said they would: decide one thing, and then decide otherwise. One small – hopefully not contentious – example: there have been numerous adjustments in “the institute process” (what clusters do what, which ones do intensive growth campaigns, etc.) as it has developed. If these admittedly minor changes were 100 years apart, we would say that society changed and the House changed its rules accordingly. Since they have been months apart, I think it means that we have to understand its infallibility as (1) the Master’s hyperbole (not the only such instance of His generously lofty over-statement) and (2) by no means absolute.

(As an aside, I think the House’s infallibility can be summarized as the fact that we have to abide by whatever they decide, so for all practical purposes they are right – even when they shift gears over and over – or refuse to budge when they seem to be wrong!)

So, the House of Justice could come around, at some point in the future, to being among the last religious authorities in the world to open up and become tolerant toward the X% of the human race who have different personal preferences.

I don’t know how they will get around the Guardian’s express pronouncement, though. Speculating, when a vast majority of the world and the Bahá’í community have become freed of practically all our obsolete excuses to discriminate against others, this could result in even a House of Justice ruling that the Guardian’s pronouncements regarding scientific issues may be treated as opinion rather than binding interpretation.

For instance, the original electrical wiring at the World Center was installed according to Shoghi Effendi's instructions. However, no one would say that it is heretical (or unfaithful to the Covenant!) to upgrade the wiring!

Anyway, as more and more people come to appreciate the undeniable beauties of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, I expect this to evolve into a situation in which each Bahá’í community has lots of friends, many of whom are involved with different activities, but only some of whom are “officially” Bahá’ís.

(This is now the case already, for example, if a teenager in a Bahá’í family has not felt like declaring as a Bahá’í but still comes along with the family to Feasts, or for other family members – parents, who already have “the station of a believer” – and other friends.)

I expect that, as society becomes more tolerant, even we backward Bahá’ís will learn to follow along and grow up.

And, looking further into the future, as the world becomes civilized, many things will change. For example, perhaps the promiscuity associated with both heterosexual and homosexual relations will decline. As repression vanishes, and as every family is finally a loving place, we will learn a lot about how people really are, when allowed to be.

But unless change accelerates, we early 21st-century Bahá’ís will be cheering these advances on from beyond the pale!

Re: Explaining Incumbency in Baha’i Elections

AmadodeDios — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:36:59 -0000

Another reason favoring incumbency is laziness - the equivalent of calling for the re-election of the poor devil who has been president or whatever for years now, by acclamation. We are usually even too lazy to give the voting any real thought (and there they are, listed, to re-elect) but there is also the safety that, if it's the same old bunch, I can continue doing nothing!