The Baha'i Studies Listserv Gary, You have prodded the sleeping elephant in the room!
I recall many years ago there was a Bahai bumper sticker that read, "Human Rights are God Given Rights". But now that sexual preference is considered a human right by many countries along with the United Nations, you don't see this bumper sticker any more. Over the years having known a number of gay Bahais, both male and female, who have struggled with their issues of sexual identity, most have ended up leaving the Bahai Faith because in it they found no sense of spiritual refuge. Instead most encountered a lot of mean spirited behaviour of self righteous Bahais of which unfortunately, there are more than a few. Then there is another group of Bahais who marry into relationships with other gay Bahais of the opposite sex. They do this to "pass" as straight for various reasons and they also struggle with the inherent conflicts of being homosexual in the Bahai Faith. It is all very sad for these human beings and I have discovered that there is little compassion found in our communities for these people. I cannot imagine that this is what Baha'u'llah had in mind nor how Abdul Baha would want us to treat these children of God. I am sure that some of the Bahais will comfort themselves with Bahai scripture as a way of justifying their behaviour. But it shouldn't take scripture to love all of human kind without exception. Bill __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-697342-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
