Ian, At 05:33 PM 10/3/2005, you wrote: >>If a so-called 'Baha'i liberation theology' cannot provide or exemplify unity >>of thought and action, it will soon become part of the problem that >>Baha'u'llah came to solve rather than a solution.<<
Does unity of thought and action require that everyone has the same views and uses the same approaches? That is not my understanding of the concept. >>Perhaps it is better to realise that the Baha'i Faith *is* a liberation >>theology as it stands. To be sure, this aspect needs further explication, but >>the foundations are already in the Writings and the guidance of the Universal >>House of Justice.<< "Liberation theology" is just a term, and it depends on how you define it. However, if you are saying that liberation from injustice, oppression, racism, sexism, militant nationalism, corporate capitalism, etc. are important themes in the Baha'i primary sources, including the letters by (and on behalf of) the Universal House of Justice, I would agree with you. >>There are certainly 'sides' in some of the activities in which a Baha'i >>liberation theology could be involved. Like it or not, Baha'i activists >>would find themselves 'marching' side-by-side with - and providing tacit >>support and/or legitimacy to - anarchists both violent and non-violent, >>various kinds of communists, extreme nationalists and fascists and worse - >>as has happened at anti-globalization marches and other kinds of >>demonstrations for various causes.<< As I said earlier in this thread, I am not advocating any form of partisan political activity. On the other hand, I would not want to place communists (at least Trotskyites) in the same category as fascists and extreme nationalists. I also believe that corporate capitalism and other forms of (what I would consider to be) state-sponsored terrorism are much more problematic than Stalinism (however much I may disagree with Stalin's bastardization of Marx's views). >>We may not want to be identified with such people but if we walk with them we >>will be.<< I am not sure where you got the idea that I am suggesting what you wrote. >>Whether you or anyone else thinks Marxism hasn't been discredited doesn' >>really matter. The facts are clear: with the exception of Cuba (whose >>national anthem is "Row, row, row your boat [to Miami]"), all countries that >>tried Marxism as the basis of society and economics either have abandoned it >>or are in the process of doing so.<< I was no great supporter of the Stalinist and post-Stalinist USSR or of post-Maoist China (even prior to its consolidation into the WTO). However, I frankly see corporate capitalism and its state sponsors to be much more dangerous. At least some of them, both state and corporate actors, have, in the last 4 years, become involved in two destructive wars in Asia, and I feel I have good reason to be concerned over the future. >>Their experience and their actions speak louder than any theoretical flights >>of fancy by those who have never experienced Marxism in real life.<< Well, Stalinism is Stalinism, not Marxism. >>As for the notion that there are many Baha'i faiths, we have already >>discussed this once before and I can only repeat my position: there is only >>one Baha'i Faith and many understandings/versions of it.<< IMO, you are responding to the terminology as *you*, not as I, would use it. When I say there are many Baha'i faiths (small "f"), it is precisely the "many understandings/versions of it" that I have in mind. >>IOW, the Writings embody the perfect model of the Baha'i Faith and >>(ultimately) the Universal House of Justice ensures that all local and >>personal versions harmonise with that perfect model. Calling these local and >>individual versions Baha'i faiths (with a small 'f') simply confuses the >>issue.<< I may be confusing in the contexts of some "Baha'i faiths," but not in my own. ;-) Via moderna, Mark A. Foster . http://markfoster.net ... [a] word is ... a universal. - William of Ockham Structurization Tech: http://tech.structurization.com The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. 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