Friday, January 30, 2009
Looking deeper into Baha'i Watch views
I'd like my BW journalists to look deeper into what Baha'u'llah says about Himself. To improve my practice of what I'm promoting, I've been trying to look deeper into their views. Now I'm considering looking deeper into Sen's views, even though I wasn't thinking of Him as a Baha'i Watch journalist. Now that I think of it, I have seen some posts from Him about what's wrong with the Baha'i Community. I see more room for me to explore in his writings, than where I've been looking.
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5 comments:
err... what are "Bahai Watch views"?
"Baha'i Watch views" is short for "Views of some people I'm interested in who post frequently on the Internet about what's wrong with the Baha'i Community, without ever having anything good to say about what it's doing."
That didn't include you, but now I've decided that looking deeper into your views might serve my purpose. I've had trouble finding material to work with, with some others.
Correction: "Baha'i Watch views" is short for "Views of some people I'm interested in who post continually on the Internet about what they see the Baha'i Community doing wrong."
Ah! well I have stuff like that, but if I post url's the spam filter will not like it. Look on my blog senmcglinn.wordpress.com for
century's end
the supreme institution
how-theocracy-happened
and also Red Tulips and 750 Muskets, and one coming soon called 1917 and all that.
What these have in common is evidence and analysis of how stories and practices are passed from mouth to mouth in the Bahai community, how texts get changed as they are transmitted, and how the misunderstandings of the Faith that result make things very confusing, for Bahais and also for anyone outside looking in, and trying to figure out what this "Bahai Faith" actually is.
This comes from having done several degrees that showed me the same thing happening everywhere: in Shakespeare plays, in Old and New Testament texts, and in the Traditions of Islam. What I learned about textual criticism and the history of doctrines in those disciplines, I apply to Bahai literature and the things Bahais believe (or think they ought to believe). This is not something wrong with the Bahai community in particular: it is part of the dynamics of human societies and the transmission of texts. It does shock some Bahais, either because they are not aware of how slippery texts are in general, or because they have thought that the Bahai Faith is exempt from such issues. Potentially, the Bahai Faith is indeed in a better position than previous religions, but only if the Bahais are aware of the problem and deal with it, by distinguishing between authentic and inauthentic texts, by going back to the sources to counter the effects of changes that creep in ans texts, and ideas, are passed from generation to generation.
Thank you, Sen. I've already read your posts about red tulips and 750 muskets.
What you say about it being part of the dynamics of human societies, is how I feel about Baha'i social issues in general. They're not Baha'i inventions. They're part of what's wrong with society in general. I used to imagine the Baha'i Community had some kind of immunity to all that.
The views of my AO apostates (I'll be writing about that soon) that I want to look into are not your views about what's wrong with the Baha'i Community. I want to look into your views about how to make the best of our lives, and how to help improve the world. Your post about the betterment of the world is one example of what I'm looking for.
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