Why Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit is relevant to ex-Baha’is?

Baha’i PR Smear Campaigns

Since its inception, the Baha’i Faith has used smear campaigns to discredit anyone who disagreed with them, from historical observers to family members to academics. With the founding of Wayfarer Studios production company, the Baha’i Faith now has access to modern day PR machine. How effectively they can utilize this tool to spin public perception will be demonstrated using this court case.

Follow the Money

Wayfarer Studio production company was co-founded by Baha’i Justin Baldoni and Baha’i billionaire Steve Sarowitz. The Wayfarer Foundation office is 2-3 blocks from the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly in Wilmette. The CEO and all board members are Baha’is. This company is openly pushing Baha’i agenda and gives grants exclusively supporting Baha’i projects and social principles which means…

Control

As many ex-Baha’is know, Baha’i equality and social Justice is only acceptable in the context of unquestioning obedience to institutions, their representatives, and social unity. A Baha’i must speak lovingly and never create disunity. No ruffled feathers, no bruised egos. A Baha’i who speaks bluntly about discrimination or abuse in the community may be drawn as side and ‘educated’ at the very least. Social initiatives should not cause personal or social discomfort, which brings us to…

Hypocrisy

The Baha’i controlled production company purchased the rights to a book about domestic violence and made a movie about domestic violence based on this book. The Baha’i who headlined this movie touts himself as a champion of women in his podcast ‘The Man Enough’, had received a Solidarity Award as an ally for women, and part of the Mona Foundation. What happed when Blake Lively indicated multiple times that she didn’t feel comfortable or safe on the set of a movie about domestic violence? Were her concerns considered? Was she listened to? Nooooo. Baldoni pushed back, and now claims that her attempts to advocate for herself were actually done just to make him look bad. The problem for the Baha’is and their production company is that the internal messages planning to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her in a PR campaign have been made public and are part of the lawsuit.

Well that will make women feel comfortable of set of a Wayfarer produced movie.

Summary

The actions of Baha’is with power that are illuminating here. How did Baldoni respond when Lively brought to his attention that she did not feel comfortable with his behavior? How was she was being treated on set? (No cloth to cover naked parts between takes, impromptu kissing that wasn’t in the script etc.) It’s not a good look.

And it’s not just Blake Lively. Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios are also suing the NYTimes for publishing an article, which I thought fairly balanced, about the situation claiming defamation.

Baha’i billionaire Steve Sarowitz has said that he is willing to spend up to $100 million on their campaign. I’d be shocked if we didn’t see extra ‘visitors’ on our board while these cases are active.

https://old.reddit.com/r/exbahai/comments/1i4dr0r/out_of_the_loop_justin_baldoni/