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| Jenifer Tidwell |
The Local Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Arlington. Massachusetts
My dear Baha'i friends,
I hope this year's Fast found you happy and healthy. This special season, which seems to arrive sooner every year, always makes us slow down and reflect upon spiritual matters -- why we go through this physically exhausting fasting process, what we expect from it, and what we believe about God's laws and our obligation to follow them. The Fast is a test, but it's also a time of spiritual rejuvenation, and I have always looked forward to it.
But this year was different for me. I was not fasting with the rest of you. This year, I am observing Lent instead; and at the end of it, I will celebrate Easter, for the first time in my entire adult life.
You see, I've been going through a crisis of faith over the past several months. The problem is this: I love the Baha'i Faith dearly, but there are some doctrinal and spiritual issues in it that I can no longer accept. Since I began attending an Episcopal church last year, many of those issues have been thrown into sharp relief. Seeing them "from the outside" has helped me understand the latent problems I've had with being a Baha'i all these years.
What it ultimately comes down to is that, now, I feel closer to God and to my fellow human beings than I did while I was an active Baha'i. That's the only factor that really counts, I think. Everything else either contributes to it, or is secondary to it. I think I should explain some of my reasons for making this rather unusual move (I don't personally know of anyone who has gone from being a Baha'i to being a Christian, let alone an Episcopalian). This letter is my apologetic. I hope that it will also help some Baha'is and Baha'i communities understand some of the factors that I think are causing them problems, at least in the United States; some of these points, while controversial, should at least spark some good discussion or soul-searching.
Read complete article here:
http://www.mit.edu/~jtidwell/letter_lsa.html
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