Bahai Faith Overview Discussion (ritual, spiritual, marriage, Abraham, Christianity)

[Amalcas]

*Rubs eyes after checking document for errors*
Doesn't appear to be any (minus grammar....).
A special note: Interracial marriage is encouraged, not merely accepted.
Yes, I'm a Baha'i.

[Runt]

Welcome to the forum, Amalcas!

[arthra]

Generally I think the summary provided on the Baha'i Faith above is pretty good...there are a lot of details of course but for a one page outline it's not that bad.

The Universal House of Justice is our supreme Institution today and the Center of the Cause. It is elected every five years by the Baha'i National Spiritual Assemblies around the world. It's function is to deal with issues not specifically already defined in our Writings and by the Guardianship of Shoghi Effendi.

The Universal House of Justice has it's own Constitution and By-laws:

http://bahai-library.com/published.u...stitution.html

It is believed by Baha'is that this Institution has conferred infallibility and can also revise previous pronouncements it has made... In other words it has the power to alter previous decisions it has made....

The House also consults it's Research Staff which provides detailed information on relevant issues found in the Writings of Baha'u'llah and the interpretations of Abdul-Baha and on statements by Shoghi Effendi.

The Baha'i International Community has consultative status as a Non-Governmental body recognized by the United Nations.

See:

http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/

- Art

[andyjamal]

I'm impressed with the overview, but I feel compelled to comment on the Baha'i Faith's placement on this site's forum index. Although the Faith was born in the Middle East as were Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is an Abrahamic religion just as the others. It should also be noted that the Baha'i Faith is the second most wide-spread religion in the world. Perhaps it should not be classified as an Eastern religion.

[kiwimac]

From a comparative religion world-view religions are usually classified by their place of origin.

Christianity is often classified, for example, as an Eastern religion. Of course that definition is arguable not because it is so widespread but because it has been part of the Western World for 1900-odd years.

Kiwimac

[Green Gaia]

Originally Posted by barnardpi

I'm impressed with the overview, but I feel compelled to comment on the Baha'i Faith's placement on this site's forum index. Although the Faith was born in the Middle East as were Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is an Abrahamic religion just as the others.

This is what I thought too, but wasn't for sure. Thank you, I will rely the message to Rex. Welcome to the forum!

[michel]

Originally Posted by barnardpi

I'm impressed with the overview, but I feel compelled to comment on the Baha'i Faith's placement on this site's forum index. Although the Faith was born in the Middle East as were Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is an Abrahamic religion just as the others. It should also be noted that the Baha'i Faith is the second most wide-spread religion in the world. Perhaps it should not be classified as an Eastern religion.

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[Green Gaia]

LOL Historically, he is correct, michel.

[RonPrice]

It is, indeed, fitting that the Baha'i Faith should be classified as it is at this site under 'Abrahamic Religions.' The Founder, Baha'u'llah, is related geneologically to Katurah, the third wife of Abraham. I posted an item on the Baha'i Faith here some 18 months ago. This time I will post a prose-poem on the Baha'i Faith to give the informative outline above a personal note. It is not my intention here to tell a lot about this new Faith. Readers can obtain this at a number of sites on the internet(bahai-library.org; bahai.org, etc.)-Ron Price, Tasmania.
______________________________

REENCHANTMENT

The great sociologist, some say the greatest, Max Weber, wrote about the reenchantment of the world. The phrase has come to be used in many contexts by sociologists and philosophers, scholars and social scientist specialists in various disciplines. This writer, this poet, sees the reenchantment of the world as having its beginnings with the birth of Shaykh Ahmad in the middle of the 18th century. By that time all the traditional religions were well into the winter of their lives, although there were many cold and sunny, bright and often windy days to come. From my perspective or at least one way of expressing this perspective, this reenchantment has been underway for over 250 years. This reenchantment has been accompanied by a tempest which, in the last 100 years, has seen over one billion people die from various traumatic social events.



Reenchantment has a host of forms: industrialism, capitalism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism, democracy, communism, science and romanticism to choose but nine of its many manifestations. The core and centre of this reenchantment is to be found in the Baha’i Faith. The very nature of matter, new models of scientific knowledge, explosions in knowledge, in material goods and in population are all part of this reenchantment. To even begin to write about the transformation that has occurred in the last two and a half centuries when this reenchantment has been taking place would require a book. Our world is being transformed right under our nose and the noses of previous generaitons--did ye but know it!-Ron Price with thanks to Kate Rigby, Topographies of the Sacred: The Poetics of Place in European Romanticism, University of Virginia Press, London, 2004, p.17.



They all got a slice of the action,

all got a piece of the cake,

as the essential revolution

proceded quietly, obscurely,

largely unnoticed, in the hearts

of millions who dropped out

of a socio-political world they

long ago found meaningless.



Some of the routines have gone on;

some of the laws have been obeyed,

but the roots of faith have been severed,

unbeknownst, seductively, insinuated

by revolutionary, spiritual, forces

that are entirely out of human control.



And here I am in this place in early adulthood

amidst diverse living things and natural forms,

beneath the sky, light’s alternations and rhythms

of the seasons, in community worldwide now,

open to the advent of the divine and beckoning

the messengers of the godhead’s reenchantment.1



1 Kate Rigby, op.cit., p.84.



Ron Price

January 16th 2006
_________________
These are personal views not authoritative ones vis-a-vis Baha'i.

[BruceDLimber]

Speaking of the overview, it would be very nice if it could be re-edited to shorten the line length, as the lines are currently too long to fit on the screen!

Regards,

Bruce