A ’concerned’ ex-Baha’i writes about his Experience

Baha’i Faith – the harbinger of a United World, Unity of Mankind and New World Order is presently suffering from the same ailments that it was supposed to remove.

Differences are galore and individual ambition to rise in administration hierarchy is apparent. Much as the Universal House of Justice (UHJ), the central governing body of the Baha’is at Haifa, Israel, would try to cover this weakness, the internet (and not the Baha’i Faith) has made the world smaller and informative. As the happenings in the Faith spread through internet (blogs, facebook, emails and web-sites), the reality of the present status of Faith stands exposed.

An analysis of the information available reveals following fronts where the Baha’i Faith (read Baha’i Administration) stands with its hand in shame :

1. Baha’i Administration – Indeed the functioning of all Administrative bodies, headed by the UHJ, have become a center for nepotism and mal-practices. Elections are controlled and manipulated. The present axis of evil at the UHJ is Farzam-Faredon-Payman, all with Persian background and LOYALTY. Indeed the control is so strict that any sign of difference in opinion is crushed with negative publicity of the individual daring to express his opinion. Shameless propagation is apparent before key elections. Baha’is who have lived with Baha’i values and idealism towards the advise of the founding father, Bahaullah, are side lined as being irrelevant, non-progressive and negative. There is a virtual moral collapse due to this approach by administrative bodies. What more evidence is required about the spiritual status, when even the numbers related to devotions held, classes conducted and seekers induced into the Faith are manipulated and inflated!!!

2. Baha’i Campaigns – The grossly inflated news about teaching campaigns have only 10 % truth. Those few that venture for such campaigns are doing it more to justify their place in the Faith than with true devotion. More time is spent in story-telling, singing, dancing and partying than the spread of the Faith. At the end of the session, the contact(s) get an impression that the Faith is more like an NGO or a Social Club than a Faith with a serious message. Also contributing to this failure is lack of knowledge of those who set out for such campaigns. They are so distant from knowledge of History and the Faith principles that they mumble their own interpretations. On occasions, the message conveyed by different Faith members contradict, making the campaigns look mocking. All these campaigns are announced in publications, as grand success, just for the sake of competing with a neighboring assembly and to satisfy individual egos.

3. Motivation of Local Assembly Members – The Local Spiritual Assemblies (supposed to be the key link in the administrative system linking individuals belonging to a local community with the central UHJ, are occupied by such members who cannot meet regularly even once in two weeks. The priorities are their professions, their families and their excursions. The average attendance of LSA members in meetings of LSA is 50 %. The efficiency of the system in plain terms is reduced thus by 50 % (100 % attendance is seen when certain dignitary happens to come on inspection visit!!!). The effectiveness of the remaining 50 % can be gauged when one sees that most members present come late. The LSA meetings start at least 45 minutes after schedule, but ends on time in another 45 minutes. The meetings include lavish snacks and gossiping of members of community as hidden agenda and balance time for the official agenda.

4. Independent Investigation of the Truth and the Internet - A principle which underlies all campaigns stops after a seeker has entered the Faith. Now he has to digest only what is fed. Thanks to the internet, such Investigators of Truth, can access to several nagging questions like – Was the faith left sans guardian (without a Guardian) by the founding fathers? Is it true that the Baha’i Faith does not have sects? What is the ideology of other sects? If the Faith has come to remove differences, why is there a ban on interaction with other sects of the Faith? If the Faith encourages upliftment of women, why are they denied position in the UHJ? Indeed with a click of a button, several embarrassing truths emerge. The Faith and its administration have failed to curb the impact of internet on minds of the Faith members.

5. Failure in Court Cases – Attempts made at censuring different schools of thought and sects have miserably failed. With each court verdict, not only is the Faith retreating several steps but also facing an embarrassing exodus of Faith members. One doubts the wisdom of the administrators in challenging differences of opinion, use of “Baha’i” word by other sects and Guardians of other Baha’i sects, when the founding fathers had always preached tolerance and restraint. In today’s democratic society, filing such cases appear primitive. It makes one wonder, if the Baha’i Faith  is really a religion of the new era?

6. Conduct of Baha’is – The morality and conduct of not several but most of the Baha’is, some of them include important personalities and Councellors, leaves a lot to be desired. Some have been arrested on grounds of false travel papers and forged documents, some have been nabbed on espionage charges and others on flouting laws of the land. Most of the counselors have a divorced life. Eloping has become almost a law and not an exception. Faith. Extra-marital affairs are common (and for certain position-holding individuals legalized by the Faith), consuming alcohol has become a habit and is publicly displayed and divorce on the rise. One can imagine the rot when such behavior is gaining prominence in the small numbers that the Faith presently has.

It is a shame that due to this the Faith has been banned in several countries. Their moral class teachers are arrested, Ruhi activity is look with suspicion and the intelligence services of various countries have opened a special cell to monitor the activities of Faith.

7. Excommunication – The height of intolerance is ex-communication of those sincere Baha’is who have stood-up to challenge the present situation. They are termed as traitors of the Cause and Breakers of Covenant. Their administrative rights are snatched and they are ex-communicated. Abusive languages for respected Baha’is have become a common phenomena in the letters of UHJ. Threat of being Excommunication is almost a routine affair of UHJ. So demoralizing is the situation that we find numbers in other sects of the Baha’i Faith rising day by day while UHJ dominated Faith continues to dwindle in numbers.

The above are sure signs of downfall! The Baha’i Faith will decrease in influence in next few years, and this is irreversible.

The Sinking of Titanic of Baha’i Faith is imminent.

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