If you asked your average friendly neighborhood Baha’i about the age of consent in the Baha’i Faith, they would most probably say 15 years of age.
And that is true… for the most part. The Kitab-i-Aqdas and Some Answered Questions both mention the fifteenth year.
But if that was all there was to it, this wouldn’t be another installment of “it’s a little known fact”!
A recent article written by Sen McGlinn delves into the topic and explains why the age of consent for Baha’is is actually, 15, 14 and unknown (not yet set by the UHJ). Yes, all three.
In case you were otherwise engaged and were not made aware of this peculiar phenomena, for the past few months, a very small Christian group, lead by Harold Camping has been making a great hue and cry about the impending arrival of judgement day or the rapture on May 21st 2011.
You may not be surprised to learn that this is not Camping’s second prophecy. He made a similar claim in 1994. He said he wasn’t embarrassed about the previous failure because it was “premature” and regarding the current prophecy he again and again said that it was “guaranteed” and there was no way it wouldn’t happen.
The website of the group is now offline but here’s a screenshot of their homepage from Google cache:
While Family Radio, the group behind this prophecy is small, their message and the effect they’ve had has reverberated around the United States and the world. There have been hundreds of articles and news mentions of the group and its followers. Some of which made arrangements for the end of the world that would mean their lives going forward will be extremely difficult. Many euthanized their pets, used all of their savings to put up print and billboard advertisements to “blow the trumpet” and “warn people”.
Most other people are having fun with this. Here’s a satirical response from a university professor to his students Others organized to have unused clothes placed around town to simulate people being “raptured” out of them and some even asked the believers if they will gift their personal possessions to them (since they won’t be needing them in heaven).
Of course, this is the latest in a very long series of such prophecies.
The most famous one is known as the “Great Disappointment” within the Millerite movement who expected the return of Jesus to earth. That lead to the creation of two other Christian denominations: Latter Day Adventists and Jehova’s Witnesses.
Baha’is of course believe that Miller was off by only a few months and by a literal rather than figurative interpretation of the Bible. Instead of October 1844, the Bab declared a few months earlier on May 23rd 1844 (in Shiraz, Persia instead of the US).
There has been no news officially from Harold Camping so we don’t know what his reaction is. But at 89 years of age, I don’t think he’ll have much more opportunities to make further prophecies and the small group around him will dissolve into obscurity and this event will melt away into the annals of history.
Here’s a clip from Six Feet Under (mature content) which I thought was apropos:
A recent letter from the Universal House of Justice (via the Secretariat) responding to a question from an individual Baha’i addresses the question of racial prejudice and the priority that the Baha’i community should place upon its elimination in the US.
We don’t have the actual question but from the reply we can infer that it juxtaposed the prominence that Shoghi Effendi placed upon it with the more recent exhortations from the UHJ and ITC on the “framework for growth”:
You indicate that some friends wonder whether the Guardian’s statement characterizing racial prejudice as “the most vital and challenging issue confronting the Bahá’í community at the present stage of its evolution” still applies to the racial situation in the United States, since it was written so long ago. The House of Justice has determined that it is not productive to approach the issue in this manner, as it gives rise to an implicit and false dichotomy that, either what the Guardian said is no longer important, or it is so important that it must be addressed before or apart from all other concerns
Ultimately the House sides with themselves on the issue, writing that the framework for growth takes precedence:
Only if the efforts to eradicate the bane of prejudice are coherent with the full range of the community’s affairs, only if they arise naturally within the systematic pattern of expansion, community building, and involvement with society, will the American believers expand their capacity, year after year and decade after decade, to make their mark on their community and society and contribute to the high aim set for the Bahá’ís by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to eliminate racial prejudice from the face of the earth.
I’m a bit puzzled by their claim that:
Even if such a community were to focus the entirety of its resources on the problem of racial prejudice, even if it were able to heal itself to some extent of that cancerous affliction, in the face of such a monumental social challenge the impact would be inconsequential.
Because one of the most famous quotes from Shoghi Effendi on teaching is this:
Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching – no matter how world-wide and elaborate in its character – not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and skeptical age the supreme claim of the Abha Revelation. One thing, and only one thing, will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u'lláh. The Bahá’í Magazine – Star of the West, September 1925, Vol. 16 No. 6, page 538
Doesn’t that explicitly contradict the UHJ? Especially since Shoghi Effendi excludes “an organized campaign of teaching – no matter how world-wide and elaborate in its character” and posits that the extent to which we live the Baha’i principles in our lives is the key? wouldn’t a community that “mirrors forth” the principle of the unity of mankind, with no racial prejudice, ultimately “secure the undoubted triumph” of the Cause?
As always, I’d like to hear your thoughts. For your consideration, here’s the full letter:
