Baha’i Justice

@Janice With respect to Mason Remey and his followers, comparing him to Jesus and Remey’s small number of followers to Christ’s twelve Disciples is, frankly, an insult to Christ and His Disciples.

@Martin The Baha’is are taking the Remeyites to court because of the misleading nature of their (your?) recent efforts. Were it not for the Internet, I’m guessing the Bahai’s would let you go your merry way. It’s on said Internet that your small numbers can be obfuscated by a fancy web site design, making it difficult for those seeking the truth to distinguish between the Worldwide Baha’i Community, 6 million adherents strong, and yours of 100. Anonymous

On the comment of Kendra M. about Orthodox Baha’is who «around barely reach 100». There are such believers in Africa, in Canada, in Australia, in England, in Germany and for sure in the USA. It is quite fascinating to see the heterodox Baha’i organisation spending millions of dollars against them. As an Orthodox Baha’i from the province of Quebec, can only hope that freedoms of expression and religion will be respected in your country and elsewhere. Martin L.

This story appeals to the all-too-human attraction to stories of division and disunity that compete in the world with our deeply spiritual desire for unity — the unity of God, religion, and mankind. The movement towards unity and peace is irrepressible and inevitable, but not automatic. Each person is tested along the way. We do have free will, and can make the right choice or the wrong.

The fact that a number for Baha’is is given, but a current figure for so-called “Orthodox Baha’is” is not seems like a gross oversight.

If something is of God, it lasts. If it isn’t of God, it doesn’t. What is remarkable about the Baha’i Faith is that it has grown exponentially and remained unified.

I grew up in Downers Grove and graduated from the U of I in Champaign, which is where I became a Baha’i in the 1960s. When I was a Baha’i there were about 14,000 Baha’is in the U.S. There were 164,765 Baha’is in the U.S. as of a few weeks ago, the time of the annual National Baha’i Convention.

It’s easy to play with numbers and come up with different interpretations. To me these numbers define growth and confirmation. A mere handful of people holed up in New Mexico does not a world religion make.

Go online and Google “Baha’i.” What percentage of stories are by or about the group in New Mexico? One percent,a half of a percent, a tenth of a percent?

Those people who want to investigate further the issue of the unique and precious Covenant of Baha’u’llah may visit the following blogs, which by the way, are put out by individual Baha’is, and are not institutional. Of course, the official sites, http://bahai.us and http://bahai.org are pretty impressive in their own right and are relevant for further investigation,too.

Recently Baha’is held 41 conferences all over the world in places like Sükhbaatar, Mongolia, and Battanbang, Cambodia. Almost 80,000 attended them. A rather impressive display of unity in the world, if you ask me. George W.D.

According to the court documents themselves there are only about thirty followers of the so-called Orthodox Baha’i Faith (or Remeyites, as I prefer to call them.) But the real problem with this article is that it distorts what this court case is really all about. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States is merely attempting to enforce an *existing* court order which came as a result of a lawsuit the Remeyites had themselves filed in 1964 where, under Mason Remey’s direction, they themselves attempted to claim a monopoly, not only over the term “Baha’i” but to claim all Baha’i properties as well. Had Mason Remey
believed this was something that should be decided in hearts and
minds, and not in the courts, this court order would never have been
issued in the first place. Remey, by the way, accepted that court order and ordered his organization to disband and stop using the term “Baha’i.” That is when Joel Marangella broke with Mason Remey and claimed the Guardianship for himself, forming the “Orthodox Baha’i Faith.” Their argument has been that since they are a separate organization they are not bound by the court order issued against Mason Remey’s organization. The National Spiritual Assembly holds that this new organization was but a subterfuge around the court’s original decision. This is what is being argued before the Court of Appeals. It is an issue of who owns the Baha’i trademarks, not which faction is really ‘orthodox.’ The National Spiritual Assembly is not trying to infringe on anyone’s religious liberty, merely to safeguard the names and symbols of their own organization. Susan

This is guaranteed to happen when a myth is taken literally. Childish arguing about which fantasy is the “correct” one. Amazing to find adults behaving so foolishly; but then religious believers have always been at one anothers’ throats because there is no substance in any of their dogmas. Personal attacks then bloodletting always follows. Michelle

Correction: The statement “Charles Mason Remey, then in his 90s, said Effendi had addressed him in letters as his son or spiritual descendant.” is not the teaching of the Orthodox Baha’is. Instead, they believe that Shoghi Effendi appointed Mason Remey as the second Guardian in conformity with the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha, when he appointed Remey as the President of the embryonic Universal House of Justice he called the International Baha’i Council. Jeffrey

Kendra,

This article describes the Orthodox Baha’i as a “tiny band of believers”.
Also, Jesus, at first, had 12 disciples. While their numbers are few, the Orthodox Baha’is try to follow the truth and share it with others. If the numbers are so insignificant, why is the larger group so bent on suing them? Janice

The Chicago Tribune does not get to the heart of the matter, which is that the Baha’i scriptures very clearly state, in explicit terms, who would have the auhority of succession in the Baha’i Faith. Mason Remey did not fill the qualifications by any measure and those who followed him have no just claim on the marks and institutional names of the Baha’i Faith. The “Orthodox Baha’is” and one or two other miniscule groups (probably fewer than 100 people each) deliberately attempt to confuse Baha’is and others through internet sites and postings wherein they misrepresent themselves as if they were ostensibly the Baha’i Faith. It is this group itself which launched a number of lawsuits to attempt to get courts to give them title to Baha’i poperties around the country, despite clear documentation to the contrary. Any fair-minded investigator who reviews the entire record of these groups will see that it is the “Orthodox Baha’is” who are not standing on firm ground. Will

This article makes it seem as if the Orthodox Baha’is have many followers. However, their numbers barely reach 100. This is clearly not a great schism as the article claims. In all of the monotheistic religions where divisions occurred among sects, thousands initially followed these sects. If you want to cite Protestantism, they now number in the millions! As such, one cannot compare Orthodox Baha’is with cataclysmic sects. Kendra M.

The Baha’i faith is not a sect of Islam, it is an independent religion. Anonymous