What A Thread That Was!! I must say "thanks," to all you folks for your follow-up to my initial post. There were far too many issues in this thread to respond to them all. But I will post a general statement and look forward to more replies. Hopefully I won't take several years to respond as I did last time. In these middle years(65-75) of late adulthood(60-80) and on two old-age pensions, I survive, but life is busy. Hopefully, too, I will last into old-age(80++), and continue to read your many and varied responses and the many questions you have raised. -Ron Price, George Town, Tasmania
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Readers here should read the following before reading any of my attempted answers to your questions. If they read the 1500 word framework below, a framework that tries to place my remarks in a general and relevant context, they will also gain some context for my view of the Baha'i Faith. If I dont answer your questions immediately, I will try to get back to you within 24 years by which time I will be 89!!
The function of an expert is to act within the terms of reference as outlined by some centre of authority. i can not lay claim to being an expert. The terms of reference which specifically define the general objectives and methods of an expert must be found elsewhere. I see my role as serving the specific need of an individual who writes to this site with a question and who is seeking an answer to that question. I am not here to dictate arbitrarily to anyone, but rather to serve as one of the multitude of unifying factors at work in the Bahai Faith. I try to be courteous and tactful on the one hand and to respond in a frank and honest way on the other in dealing with questions and comments that come in. Courtesy and frankness are difficult qualities to combine. I also aim to foster a spirit of independence rather than a spirit which excessively relies on others to carry out their research and their study of the Bahai Faith. Whether the person is a Baháí, an interested observer or, indeed, someone without any special interest in this Faith, often the answer to their question can easily be found on the internet at one of the thousands of sites, Bahai and other, now in existence.
Often in answering a question, I direct the questioner to one or more of those sites for a more complete answer than the one I am providing. It is also important, especially for Bahais but also for others who write in, to utilize the many sources of assistance within both Bahai administration and the burgeoning number of locations for expertise available in our diverse society.
Government organizations, non-government organizations and special interest groups, inter alia are now available at the press of a button, the dialling of a number and a few clicks on the internet. So, too, are books, journals, pamphlets and a vast cornucopia of print and electronic media. Evolution is forcing humanity to engage in a cooperative enterprize that is global--interplanetary--intergalactic now--in its reach. This site and my contribution is but a small part of this vast cooperative enterprize.
There are generally two kinds of Bahai literature or writings about this Faith. One presents the/an official view and has the voice of authority behind it. Such words are not the personal opinions of individual Bahais. There is a second category which includes all other writing. The writing that I place here sometimes exists in this latter category, although from time to time I insert quotations that belong to the first category to explain my answer to a particular question. The quotations, of course, are used by me in a certain way and form a part of an interpretive schema that becomes part of the second category--that is, opinion.
Truth, the correct and only answer, often cannot be found for many of the questions that arise here, even if the evidence of the Bahai Revelation, its Holy Texts, is included. This is mainly because there are often many truths, many answers, depending on the circumstances and situationsand many perspectives depending on the person answering the question and the person to whom one is writing. To put this briefly, I could simply say that truth is relative, especially religious truth which is the main variety I deal with here and with which the various questions that come in are concerned. As much as possible I try to draw on relevant quotations from the voluminous Bahai Scriptures. Sometimes I simply do not have access to the relevant literature on a specific question since Bahai literature in its many forms has become burgeoning, especially since the 1980s and 1990s.
The Bahai Faith had some 200,000 adherents in 1953 when I first came in contact with this new Faith which claims to be the emerging world religion on the planet. It now has some 5 to 7 million in 2009. In those six decades much of its literature, originally in Persian and Arabic, has been translated into English. Still, there is much that remains untranslated.
Each Bahai seeks to acquire, in his or her own way, a deeper understanding of the Revelation of Bahaullah. What is written here represents some of the fruits of my own efforts, limited as they are. As I have said above, my words are not authoritative. This site provides Bahai opinion and offers but one source of opinion. This opinion is written in accordance with my capacity and understanding. Readers might like to try drawing on other Bahais at this site and other sites, if they find my answers not to their satisfaction.(1)
The Universal House of Justice, the internationally elected body of the Bahai Faith, pointed out recently that the exercise of wisdom calls for a measure of love and the development of a sensitive conscience.(2) I am only too well aware of my incapacities on these fronts. I feel somewhat presumptuous in taking on this role of opinion giver for I do not seek any preference or distinction; I do not regard my ideas or myself as superior in anyway. All of ones talents in life are a gift from God, a gift as one writer put it, of some unmerited grace. After more than 50 years of association with a global Force that makes such a significant claim to be the emerging world religion on this planet, I offer these words and any answers I might give to questions simply as a service to others. If you would like a more personal, direct and continued communication with me just write to the email address I have provided below. -Ron Price,
[email protected], 3 August 2009.
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(1) With the extensive development of the internet in recent years and the massive number of sites that now exist on that easily accessible medium, at least easily accessible to those who come to this site, answers to questions like the ones I have received here can, as I say and as I want to reiterate, be found by seekers, questioners, students and others written by ostensibly informed members and often authoritative sources at many an internet site.
These sources include those: (a) within their own religion, sect, denomination, branch, division, cult or school, (b) within what one might call some individualist position as part of the existing framework of that individual or (c) within some other interest group to chose a convenient general label.
Often individuals who ask questions of me see themselves as Christian, but they are not adherents of any particular group of Christians. The answers that I am suggesting such people seek are answers written from a perspective, a point of view, of the adherents of their own particular religious-sub-group: fundamentalist Christianity, Sunni Islam, Theravadan Buddhism, et cetera--or written from some particular philosophical stance: secular humanism, agnosticism, atheism or existentialism among others--of the questioner. Such answers are often, if not usually, more satisfactory to such seekers. Answers that I write here are inevitably and obviously written from a Bahai perspective and questioners need to keep what you might like to call this Bahai bias in their minds as they read my answers to their questions.
I am suggesting, then, that questioners seek out answers from other writers, other writers who tend to be more satisfactory from within their own specific religious or philosophical framework, from within any one of the wide variety of possible religious and philosophical positions because these answers: (1) usually confirm and conform with what these questioners already believe and/or (2) they provide a much more thorough answer within the framework of experience of that religious or philosophical group vis-à-vis the Bahai Faith.
Of course I leave the approach taken by those who seek out answers that I might give to each seeker who comes to this site and I trust that whatever answers I may offer to questioners are helpful to them. After five years of answering questions at this site, albeit belated and often leaving the process to others, I feel confident that my service here has some value.
(2) Extracts from Letters of the Universal House of Justice on issues Related to the Study of the Bahai Faith, in Bahai Canada, May 1998, p.18.
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Ron Price, Tasmania, Australia
[email protected]
6 Reece Street
Pipe Clay Bay
George Town Tasmania 7253
Australia
Tel: 03-63824790-from mainland Australia; or
dial your international access code # and then 613-63824790-from outside Australia.
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