Udo Schaefer, a German Bahá’í scholar, makes a very strong case that the infallibility of the House is only with regard to their duty of supplementary legislation, and that their executive and judicial acts/decisions are not covered by this. He makes this argument in the book “Making the Crooked Straight” and in at least one other published article. Since the book was mentioned by the House itself in glowing terms in the Ridvan letter of 2000 (or 2001?), this is not a view that they seem to have taken serious issue with.

The crux of his argument is that executive and judicial decisions are dependent on information provided by others, and that the quality of those decisions is therefore influenced by the quality of information the House receives. The House itself has stated as much. This shoots a big hole in the “its the outcome, not the process” view. In fact, he specifically critiques this view in stating that the consultative process is critical to the functioning of the House. (This leads to a reverse view, though, where some will argue that “it’s the process, not the outcome” - meaning that even though the House made a wrong decision because the information was bad, it was somehow arrived at by an infallible process, or some such. This view seems to stretch the credibility of the term - if this formulation were true, anything and everything could be infallible.)

Legislative decisions, on the other hand, are normative - they act at the level of general principles and not of specific cases, and therefore are independent of outside information sources. These, therefore, fall under the infallibility of the House.

There is much more to this than my brief summary here. Please read some of Mr. Schaefer’s work for a better understanding of this view.

Peace,
Simeon

Interesting Urls. I’ll watch the video a.s.a.p.. I think that there is some mis-understanding circulating about the station of people like Glenford Mitchell. He, as an individual, may make any statements he feels needful; but, as he will attest, they have no weight except that of any truth they may bear. (I would further repeat, that if we are going to do justice to people we should have them authenticate the remarks they made for completeness and contextual clarity. This was not done by the editor of the Mitchell talk.)

Now, as to acting upon matters of conscience; there is nothing I have found in the Writings to suggest that we cannot speak and take action regarding atrocities occurring in the world. Certainly, our Exemplar, Abdu’l-Baha, pointed out in a speech to Parisian non-Baha’is the apparent difference in concern over a few people dieing in a train wreck and the thousands dieing daily in a war. He is our Exemplar.

Further, just as Judaism and Christianity praise “Rahab the harlot” for lying while concealing the Israelite spies; I’m sure that God would have expected the same actions of Baha’is hiding Jews from the Nazis.

There is plenty of scope for an active, God-inspired conscience. I find that the conventional routes popular in the 1960’s, e.g. anti-war protests, have become forums for all manner of distracting, polarizing individuals; so, I find them unattractive as a Baha’i and a thinking being. But there is still the written word which now has tremendous reach over the Internet. If we are presenting spiritual verities rather than conspiracy theories (no matter that they may be true) we can have quite an impact. You will note above where Shoghi Effendi instructs NSAs to encourage personal initiative regarding publications.

Warmest regards,
overmywaders

After 36 years of effort I have given up on the Baha’i Faith. It is a hopeless, hopeless organization. I have gone back to my veterans group and will end out my days trying to help these souls who were sent to “do God’s work” in the mental world of Glenford Mitchell, lifetime employment member of the Universal House of justice.

http://www.tinyurl.com/v4tco

http://www.empowermentproject.org/sso.html

I wish you well.

Craig

I know a woman who gave over $40,000 to the Faith over several years in the 80’s in another nation who has now left with her husband and absolutely livid about the destruction of the Baha’i Faith by the corrupted lifetime incumbent class now leading it. Baha’u'llah is going to deal with this. And it is not going to be pretty. The Tablet of the Holy Mariner foretells all of it.

I know a woman who gave over $40,000 to the Faith over several years in the 80’s in another nation who has now left with her husband and absolutely livid about the destruction of the Baha’i Faith by the corrupted lifetime incumbent class now leading it. Baha’u'llah is going to deal with this. And it is not going to be pretty. The Tablet of the Holy Mariner foretells all of it.

I have gone back to my veterans group and will end out my days trying to help these souls.

http://www.tinyurl.com/v4tco

http://www.empowermentproject.org/sso.html

I wish you well.

Craig

I salute you in your post to me recounting your attempt to speak reason to the powers that be. I am sure you are a nice guy and I apologize somewhat for the tone in my posts. But after 36 years of service “loving” is no longer in my vocabulary regarding anything in the current version of the Baha’i Faith. Sorry.

To me the Baha’i Faith in it’s current incarnation led by men like Glenford
Mitchell has failed every man, woman, and child on Earth. His quote represents to me everything that has gone wrong in my lifetime in it. I honestly feel it is now led by an appalling lifetime incumbent class who have gamed the electoral process for themselves and now function with complete detachment from reality and human decency. It is not that Judgment Day is coming. Judgment Day has come. The current $13 million short fall in the U.S. National Baha’i Fund is only the tip of the iceberg.

I personally know seven people totalling over 210 years of steadfast service in the Faith who have left in the last two years alone. These are people that served on Local and National Spiritual Assemblies in the U.S. and around the world and worked at the World Center in years of dedicated service. GONE.