BEWARE

If you are exploring the Baha'i Faith and thinking you might join some day, do not rush into it. You should make sure you ask a lot of questions first. Here's a post I made to the "Ex-Baha'is" club on Yahoo that should give you some good questions to ask.

If you are looking into the Baha'i Faith

I see that this club hasn't had any posts for a while, so this might not be the best place to post warnings about this so-called religion. But if you are browsing the net and for some reason exploring the Baha'i Faith, please make sure that you investigate it carefully before you join. If you join, you'll be joining a religion that exists solely to get converts, that is absolutely obsessed with its own Byzantine administration, and which will be hitting you up for money at every opportunity. Every few years you will find new building projects that will suck your community dry - like the current 60 milllion dollar Kingdom project in the U.S. - and who knows how much money is required to support the expensive structures on Mt. Carmel.

If you are under the impression that this religion is really okay because you've met some nice well-meaning people, just ask them about "entry by troops" and you might get a glimpse of what the religion is really all about.

You might want to ask them what "protection" and "propagation" are all about and why there are international counselors for these two topics, and auxillary board members for these things, and why these auxillary board members have "assistants" in virtually every community.

Ask to read back issues of the "American Baha'i" the glad rag of the American community. Again, do this before you join.

You might want to ask why the "Guardian" of the faith excommunicated every single member of his own family, which is why there is no Guardian today. You might want to read the "Will and Testament of Abdul Baha" before you join. Then, once you've read it, ask your Baha'i friends how the Universal House of Justice can function according to the Will and Testament with no Guardian at its head. You'll get answers, think about them before you join.

If you are concerned about the separation of Church and State, be aware that the Baha'i Faith appears dead set on uniting them in a Baha'i commonwealth, so you might want to ask yourself if want the likes of Peter Khan, a Universal House member with a predilection for making unsettling statements, running the world.

I appreciate the existence of this forum and thank whoever is responsible for having set it up.

Here is a second post on a related subject.

Re: If you are looking into the Baha'i Faith  6/11/01 6:36 pm

I agree that some Baha'is are kind people. In fact, some of them are very remarkable people and I wish them well.

Your response puzzles me and makes me wonder if you have been active in the faith recently, or at all. Otherwise, you are quite a liberal.

You wrote that you do not think that the Baha'i Faith will take over governments and that you do not think the leaders of the faith were perfect. Well, I hope you are correct about the former, and I agree with you on the latter point. Since Baha'is do not normally talk about "leaders" of the Faith, I'll assume that you mean the three principle figures, the Bab, Bah'u'llah, and Abdul Baha. Baha'is in general do believe that these three leaders of the Faith were perfect, especially the first two, who as manifestatins of God possess "the most great infallibility." Even Shoghi Effendi is viewed in popular Baha'i culture as infallible. Currently, the Univeral House of Justice calls itself the "head" of the faith and popular American Baha'i belief is that this body is infallible, though many Baha'i intellectuals understand what bunk this is. I take it you agree with them. Try discussing your views on "freed from all error" at the next feast. For even more fun, tell them you don't think the Faith should become a future world government. Seekers should pose these sorts of questions as well and should ask for and read carefully the "World Order of Baha'u'llah" - which the Baha'is in the United States have just finsihed studying intensively at the direction of the American National Assembly as part of a two year study program.

As for money, Baha'is get hit up for it all of the time. One of my least favorite parts of feast was the haranguing we would get from the treasurer about the money we had to give. It ranked right up there with the horrid letters and tapes from the National Assembly which focused on two things, "teaching" and money. Now that the "Arc" is completed, they still want to build more stuff in Israel and the Baha'is are going to get hit on for that too. It never stops. The rank and file are kept constantly in a crisis mode, every resource-consuming plan emanating from the major institutions of the faith is couched in millenial verbiage making even the stupidest of things, like the Ruhi training, appear as if they are fundmental steps in saving mankind. So,while giving money is not yet mandatory, it is all but mandatory with intense pyschological pressure applied to contribute to a variety of funds on a regular basis.

To be an active Baha'i is to subject oneself to never ending demands on your time and money so that big shot Baha'is have nice places to live and work and jet set about.

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