Why I Joined and Left the Baha\'i Faith

 

By: Eric Stetson, former member of the Baha\'i Faith community

I was introduced to the Baha\'i faith during my first year in college, by my next-door neighbor in my dorm. I decided to attend a Baha\'i meeting because it sounded interesting. I had always been very interested in various religions and philosophies ever since I was old enough to begin exploring these things for myself. The Baha\'is I met at the meeting seemed like nice people, and they held an idealistic view of human potential, emphasizing ideas such as world peace, racial reconciliation, and respect for all major religions. I would say that two things attracted me most to the Baha\'is and their religion: the people themselves and their optimistic spirit about the future of humanity.

I decided to believe in Baha\'ism and join the organized Baha\'i Faith after a few months of studying the religion and socializing with Baha\'is. Looking back, I would say that there were many details of Baha\'i beliefs and practices that I wasn\'t aware of when I joined, which if I had known about might have prevented me from joining their religious organization. It was the overall spirit of the Baha\'is and their faith – the big picture view – that drew me in, and at that time I probably would not have even wanted to know anything about the Baha\'i Faith that would have turned me off from it!

Throughout my college years, I was an active and serious Baha\'i. I participated in local Baha\'i community meetings and Baha\'i college club meetings. I followed the religion\'s rituals of daily prayer and the annual period of fasting. I enthusiastically tried to share my Baha\'i faith with other people, because Baha\'is place a great emphasis on \"teaching\" the faith (trying to educate people about the existence of the Baha\'i faith and encourage them to study it and join). I even went on two Baha\'i \"teaching trips\" to a rural, impoverished area where we attempted to befriend and evangelize Native Americans and other people living in poverty. I also wrote a draft of an introductory book presenting the Baha\'i faith for a Christian audience (but I left the faith before seeking a publisher).

As I became more and more involved in the Baha\'i Faith community, I began to notice some things that bothered me. There were two things in particular that troubled me the most: first, that Baha\'i Faith members overemphasize obedience to their religious institutions and believe the highest leadership organ of their religion is directly guided by God and infallible in all its decisions; and second, that they tend to have an unhealthy liking for bureaucracy and downplay the importance and benefits of individual free thought and activity.

I strongly disagreed with the long-standing policy that all Baha\'i scholars and writers must submit everything they write about the faith to a Baha\'i \"pre-publication review committee\" for official approval. I was also frustrated by the fact that the Baha\'i Faith organization prohibits its members from participating in politics, since political activism had previously been an interest of mine.

After a few years, I decided to leave the Baha\'i Faith for these reasons as well as others. At the time, I regarded the Baha\'i Faith organization and the faith itself to be basically synonymous – as most Baha\'is do – so I didn\'t think much about the possibility of remaining a Baha\'i without in some way supporting the dominant Baha\'i tradition (which is sometimes called \"Haifan\" Baha\'ism, because the organization representing this tradition is based in Haifa, Israel). I did briefly feel compelled to try to promote some ideas for reforming the religion and its institutions, but I did this in an arrogant and ineffective way and soon gave up on it.

Sourced from: Bahai-Faith.com