Re: Some Thoughts From A New Lurker


<zekejoed@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1128906177.531984.217240@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>
> And that
> does matter because you assert that there are two 'observably seperate
> ways of thinking about the faith'


No I didn't assert this. I observed that some people have got this idea. My
own view is closer to yours, I think, in that I see a number of differing
views being expressed but being conflated into one.
I think the process of conflation is partly being driven by the perception
that there is an 'official' view of the Faith and that anyone who reads the
voluminous writings of the UHJ plus the Writings will be able to understand
what this view is. Then anything that is perceived as contrary to the
official view or even tolerant of non official views is lumped into the
dissident camp while anything perceived as supportive is limped into the AO
camp. I think this attitude is just as pervasive within the 'liberals' as
within the 'fundamentalists' incidentally.
Personally, I don't really see many grounds for saying the Faith has an
'official' view. certainly it has a way of certifying books, and teaching
materials, etc that stamps them as official but I don't see much evidence that
it is used, or at least effectively used, to impose a consistent ideology.
Even at the highest level of the administration there are clearly quite
sharply opposing views battling it out. For example, the Arbab/Lample (to use
a fairly random label) faction really doesn't pay much attention to Shoghi as
an administrative architect. In fact though no-one has actually said it I
think they see the Shoghi designed structure as part of "the failed model of
the Faith". I also suspect these people have little interest in expelling
people, controlling the expression of individual opinion, etc. Their focus is
much more on the mass movement and individuals, however naughty, are utterly
unimportant. On the other hand there is still a body of opinion which sees
Shoghi's most trivial decisions and his emphasis on the individual heart of
the believer as immutable. I could be totally wrong about all this - perhaps
especially in using the Arbab/Lample label - but I don't think I'm wrong in
suggesting that the clash of ideas is played out in the normal political way
in the higher echolons.

While I basically reject the 'two camps' scenario I do believe you can see
some continuums in the views of people in the Faith. For example, I think
there is a continuum in the use of scripture or perhaps better the concept of
scripture. For some people every sentence ever produced by the Central
Figures, Shoghi Effendi, or the UHJ is scripture and however you understand
it, it can't be ignored. Stuff produced by the ITC or the Counsellors is only
just below this level. At the other extreme, there are those who feel even
the most explicit texts can not be taken in isolation - you must immerse
yourself in the Ocean and trust that God will generally guide you through your
thus educated conscience. I can see common sense at both ends of this
continuum and so I guess I'm somewhere in the middle but I also see a great
deal of frustation caused by conversations between people who think that an
approriate quotation ends an argument and thos who think a generally agreed
Baha'i principle settles an issue.




.

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