I'm strictly talking to myself in this post, for future reference, so I'm not trying to make it understandable to anyone else. Questions are always welcome.
I keep wondering what else I can do about defamation campaigns excused as defending the Faith. One idea was to post a copy of the letter from the House of Justice about responding to attacks, with examples, and invite Baha'i bloggers to read it.
Then I had a feeling that I wasn't getting to the heart of the issue. The heart of it for me is estrangement between Baha'is. I already know what I want to do about that, but I keep wanting to do more about online feuding.
One idea was to practice and promote fellowship between people associated with different camps. I thought of posting ideas and examples about how to do that. Then I got confused about what to call the camps. Liberals, non-protesting members? Is there some way to avoid labeling the camps altogether?
Around and around.
Back to square one. What first attracted my attention was the feuding I saw. Now I see that as only the tip of an iceberg. Abuse and violence thrive in a climate of estrangement. The people I've seen feuding are associated with online communities estranged from each other. The people I've seen campaigning against the House of Justice have associated with each other on the Talisman list. The people I've seen campaigning against them have not all associated with each other. I've seen some of them at Beliefnet and others on trb. Now I see one blogging that I've never seen before. Some of them might be as estranged from each other as they are from Talisman liberals.
I've seen this before. The appearance of two camps is misleading. People campaigning against the House of Justice are not part of a single fellowship or community. People campaigning against them and excusing that as defense of the Faith are not part of a single fellowship or community.
I want to see more fellowship across boundaries, but what boundaries? All of them, of course, but where do I want to start?
One kind of division I see behind all this in the larger community is associated with Baha'i bandwagons. I want to see more fellowship between people who are on the bandwagons and people who aren't.
I see at least seven Baha'i communities on line estranged from each other. I see a few people spending time in more than one community.
I wonder . . . could it serve my purposes just as well, (or better) to practice and promote spending time in other communities, in fellowship with people whose ideas and interests seem contrary to ours, Baha'i or not?
That's what I was doing when I first joined the Talisman list, and now I'm planning to do it some more. I've also spent some time in a Gay Baha'i forum, an atheist forum, and a Pagan forum.
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2 comments:
Hi Jim,
Here's another way to analyse the situation:
It's about individuals losing one set of beliefs and gaining another set of beliefs. Each journey is different. One person's primary journey may be giving up a long-standing social and economic development project to focus on the Ruhi method. Another person's focus may be on a re-evaluation of their relationship with the Baha'i administration. In the process each of these people go through a sense of loss -- loss of belief, and also loss of close connections with people who shared their old values. Plus, they go through a sense of gain and excitement as new attachments are created.
Just as the grief process has stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) the "reattachment process" ("religion"?) probably has similar stages.
I try to ignore the categories and labels attached to individuals and online communities. It's not difficult, because the same kinds of individual behaviours and attitudes are manifest on both Talisman and Bahai-discuss -- two online communities that are generally considered to be quite distinct.
What matters is the individual, and where each individual is in their grief and re-attachment stories. Each one will have hot-button issues as they work through the issues and interact with each other.
What can you do? Practising and promoting fellowship by meeting people on their own level is a perfect start -- and you already do that exceptionally well. Exploring your own grief and re-attachment stories is also a healthy way to go, I think.
Thank you, Steve. That was very nice.
"Exploring your own grief and re-attachment stories is also a healthy way to go, I think."
My own grief and re-attachment stories? Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. Hmm. I don't remember anything like that happening to me. Hmm. Something to ponder. Maybe, a long time ago. I'll try to remember.
I don't have beliefs any more. I learned to do without beliefs many years ago, and it didn't happen suddenly. Now I only have views, models, understandings, and other ways of thinking, and I never have to give any of them up to learn new ones.
Jim
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