I've had a few days to marinate on my Baha'i experience. We met with two Baha'i ladies on Monday and on Tuesday we sat in on a Baha'i devotional. Today is Thursday and I realize how difficult it is to not write almost immediately after the experience. But I will try to piece together my thoughts, mainly for my sake.
Monday: Walking to the coffee shop with Erin, we exchanged our excitement about what we would learn. I mostly knew about the Baha'i's emphasis on volunteerism/support for and recognition of humanity and humanity through education. Erin and I also talked briefly about how the Baha'i's recognize that there is a prophet that is right for each moment in time. So, armed with a brief knowledge of the religion, I think I all too quickly became disillusioned once we started learning a bit about Baha'i.
Number one. The idea that we were created in God's image. God is our creator, and just like a table that was crafted by a carpenter can never Truly know the carpenter, we can never know God. I agree that we can never "know" the universe or fully comprehend our existence. But throw the word "God" in there, and my mind just goes into screensaver mode. I don't know what it is about formulating our existence around God, but I can never actually talk about this. This I found especially weird because the Baha'i believe that science and religion are not incompatible. I can look in at the fundamentalist Christians with a more compassionate eye because they are trapped in God mode and science works on a totally different level. But how can we talk about God (and creation) AND science (ie. evolution)? This blows my mind. We can talk spirituality, essence of life, and etc.; let's avoid God-talk, particularly in the realm of science.
B. So you have Baha'u'allah, the prophet. You have his son, who interpreted his writings, and you have his grandson, who also interpreted his writings. Now there is an elected council of 9 (Very significant number throughout the world. Awesome.) that deliberates on various Baha'i issues and etc. How is this somehow more pure or sacred or less likely to dilute the religion? I don't know how this can possibly maintain a unified Baha'i religious following in the future. People will always interpret and re-interpret writings. Is it truly possible for a council to mediate this somehow?
Number three-a bit of a nit-picky point of contention. I might be the rain on your parade (or a Debbie downer) but Israel is located in a desert. This means that it does not rain a whole heck of a lot. This means that there should not be green grass in the desert year-round. Yes, your administrative center and the shrine of the Bab is located in Haifa, in a desert. Much like a green golf course in the middle of the Arizona desert, this is the symbol of man's power OVER the environment, emphasizing our difference from nature. While the gardens are beautiful and a central pilgrimage point for Baha'i, the environmentalist in me (not to mention my spiritual side) cries to see over-watered grasses in the desert.
Now, getting to Tuesday's devotional...
It was beautiful. Baha'u'allah's words are beautiful. It was an intimate, Quaker-style gathering in a small apartment. We read prayers by candlelight ("We" actually being the Baha'i who were of average age 15 years) and sang songs spontaneously. It was organic. It was the most organic service of my life. There were some people with beautiful voices, and Erin and I were even able to sing some of the songs (because of the repetition). The one off-putting thing (that I've blogged about before) is the whole referring to God as "He." How can we even begin to talk about equality and justice when the creator is a man? Erin and I had also discussed taking Baha'i classes because it sounded really interesting to learn more about the faith and Baha'u'allah, but once I saw the workbooks I had flashbacks to years and years of Hebrew school and knew immediately that it is not for me.
A couple of interesting things: My dad lived in India for a while when I was growing up and I remember getting postcards of Delhi's Baha'i lotus temple, but I never connected the two until Monday. Also, I have lately been on a quest of love. Since a major part of my life has fallen apart two years ago, I've been working on this unconditional love thing: unconditional love of friends, family, and even people that I wouldn't normally like. By loving people for who they are (their good heart and spirit) instead of what they do I hope that I can re-build that aspect of my life. So the connection here is that the Baha'i are really into love (unconditional love) for humanity and people. So I really found that aspect of the religion to be attractive and meaningful. I'll probably read more about the Baha'i in the future.
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But how can we talk about God (and creation) AND science (ie. evolution)? This blows my mind.
:-) Perhaps it was meant to. But the exercise may be good for us.
How is this somehow more pure or sacred or less likely to dilute the religion? I don't know how this can possibly maintain a unified Baha'i religious following in the future. People will always interpret and re-interpret writings. Is it truly possible for a council to mediate this somehow?
Interpretation is something we must do. It's a step in developing understanding. But can you change your mind? Can an understanding grow? If so should it be bound by the understanding one had previous? Consider the doctrine of the trinity - the word was coined by a person who later didn't believe in it. But then ideas stick around and can get in the way.
So in the Baha'i Faith the question is what interpretations are done with sacred authority. People have had wars over theological questions after all. (see second section here under "New Teachings"). Please note the context of this explanation - arguing over the nature of Jesus is what splits most of the early camps of believers. But the structure of the Baha'i Faith goes beyond simply saying somethings are not for us to argue over. We also have what we call the Lesser Covenant - a chain of authority, and breaking away from that chain has so far failed to leave one with much company. There have been attempts. There are attempts. but they are a tiny fraction of a million people whereas the religion as a whole is probably over 10 million people now.
I might be the rain on your parade (or a Debbie downer) but Israel is located in a desert. This means that it does not rain a whole heck of a lot. This means that there should not be green grass in the desert year-round. Yes, your administrative center and the shrine of the Bab is located in Haifa, in a desert.
Care to consider if we recycle our water? We even use grey water.(see here But more importantly it's a Paradise Garden. Why a garden? Pretty, isn't it? Gardens serve a purpose.
The one off-putting thing (that I've blogged about before) is the whole referring to God as "He." How can we even begin to talk about equality and justice when the creator is a man?
We don't. It's a limitation of English. You may feel free changing the language, and it does change over time, but on the whole, really, the male pronoun is used for the generic, despite lot's of attempts otherwise. Baha'is often refer to the next Manifestation, as we call them, as a "she" if that helps. No book references or anything. Just similar inclinations. I understand that in the original language it's more obviously gender neutral without being to distant like "it". I've often wondered if English would borrow gender neutral pronouns from Arabic or Farsi or somewhere. But it's not happened yet. But God is most certainly neither male nor female, though as He transcends such qualities, both qualities can be found in His light. Consider, on a plane closer to us, if a soul is female or male after we die.... I think not.
Erin and I had also discussed taking Baha'i classes because it sounded really interesting to learn more about the faith and Baha'u'allah, but once I saw the workbooks I had flashbacks to years and years of Hebrew school and knew immediately that it is not for me.
You can have conversations. I never took a study book. I went to what we call firesides. You come and can ask questions. The firesides I attended took on a long study session as we broke out the main doctrinal work of Baha'u'llah's (The Book of Certitude - of course I highly recommend it.) But we discussed the meaning. If people don't have questions firesides become more like opportunities for talks. I prefer the ones driven by questions myself.
But as for the study books... many people are getting to like them a lot....
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