"Nowhere but in the purity of its precepts, the sublimity of its standards, the integrity of its laws, the reasonableness of its claims, the comprehensiveness of its scope, the universality of its program, the flexibility of its institutions, the lives of its founders, the heroism of its martyrs, and the transforming power of its influence," OK, lets examine each of these claims to measure their merit.
1: "Purity of it's precepts" - The precept of the oneness of humanity which is directly contradicted by the Baha'i doctrine of shunning as well as the Baha'i religious practice of labeling those whose religious interpretations are diverse from the Haifan Baha'i elite as being spiritually contagious lepers.
2: "Sublimity of it's standards" - The supposed standard of the removal of the past religious practice of dividing humanity the "pure tree" from the "evil tree", a religious practice which the founders of the Baha'i Faith as well as Shoghi Effendi, as well as the UHJ today, and in turn all Baha'is who religiously follow these exemplars directly contradict though continuing to divide humanity the chosen from those nasty evil covenant breakers, as well as the supposed standard of the abolition and nullification of the past religious practice of shunning a religious practice that the Baha'i founders practiced religiously, and which Shoghi Effendi applied to his entire family, his own parents included.
3: "The integrity of it's laws." Bigamy allowed for men, inequality for women in inheritance, as well as the burning alive of arsonists.
4: "The reasonableness of it's claims" - The claim that Baha'u'llah was not only a manifestation of god but god incarnate, an idolatrous claim which Baha'u'llah himself refused to dissuade his delusional followers from holding as well as the claim that in spite of all the many contradictions and even hypocrisy between Baha'i teachings and the manner that the founders conduced their own lives that Baha'u'llah's spiritual station was higher than any human beings spiritual station, former manifestations included.
5: "The comprehensiveness of it's scope" How can any ideology which makes the claim that all of humanity which does not bend the knee to that ideology is ignorant and deserving of being "cleansed" by their god be comprehensive? Quite the opposite.
6: "The universality of it's program"- An exclusivistic and triumphalistic program which excludes the majority of humanity can not be universal and is truly the antithesis of universality.
7: "The flexibility of it's institutions" - Lol!!! This is truly a joke. The Guardianship which was to be central to that flexibility is no more, the present UHJ has shown no flexibility whatsoever, not even a desire to be just, to respect due process, to actually have the integrity to inform those Baha'is it has so callously rubbed out, erased from Baha'i membership roles, of exactly what they have done or said to offend them.
8: "The lives of it's founders" - Men who said one thing but in their own lives did another thing. Men who said that shunning was nullified and abolished yet religiously shunned in their own lives. Men who said that we should draw no lines between ourselves and others, that we should see no one as an enemy but who did exactly this in their own lives drew lines and saw enemies, even among their own family members.
8: "The heroism of its martyrs" - The martyr complex in religion has as many negative manifestations as it does positive ones, the Baha'i Faith included.
9: "The transforming power of it's influence" - What influence I would have to ask. 150 years after it's inception the Baha'i Faith still remains a disappearingly minor influence in the world. What exactly has the Baha'i faith transformed except the hillside of Mount Carmel?
Cheers
Larry Rowe
Source : TRB
