The Baha'i Studies Listserv I would rather like you to use liberal and progressive interchangeably. All progressives are liberal, but not all liberals are progressives. Progressive is a subset of liberal, not equivalent with liberal. Conservatives, libertarians, and social democrats are liberals as well, not just progressives.
I only used the word liberal, because Wikipedia uses liberal in the widest sense, not just as a code word for progressive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_religion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalist_Association Sent from my iPad On Apr 24, 2013, at 14:16, Don Calkins <don59...@gmail.com> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv > You seem to be intent on categorizing the Faith. It's not going to work. > > Why is the Faith referred to as a "liberal" or "progressive" group? Because > when Abdu'l-Baha was here 100 years ago and emphasized what are now commonly > referred to as the Baha'i Principles (all 12 or 15 or however many), most of > them were the ideas espoused by secular liberals. > > The assumption was made that the Faith adapted/adopted these ideas from the > liberal elements of society around them. This led to a further assumption > that as these ideas evolved and new ideas adopted by liberal and progressive > thinkers, that the Faith would likewise adopt them also. > > There is an element of commonality that is little discussed among Baha'is > which it has in common w/ many liberals - the resolution of the old debate > between absolutism and relativism. The Faith is more openly relativistic > than many religious groups, but it must be remembered that there are certain > laws and principles that can not be abrogated before the advent of the next > Manifestation. How these laws and principles are implemented can vary > greatly, thus giving an air of relativism, but the principles themselves are > sacrosanct, absolute. > > Don C > > On Apr 24, 2013, at 12:06 01PM, Stephen Kent Gray wrote: > >> Liberal religion is a religious tradition which embraces the theological >> diversity of a congregation rather than a single creed, authority, or >> writing. Because it may draw resources from many traditions, it cannot >> normally be characterized as Christian, Jewish, or any particular religious >> faith. > > > ----------- > It doesn't matter whether the sun shines if you never go outside. > > > > __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-699033-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@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
