I'm not sure where the conversation is headed. I'm trying to see if it
is possible to come up with a formulation which is an accurate
description of the Bahai attitude on this subject.
For most religions, there is a common set of values which are "good
things" and which should be maximized as much as people in society
and in our lives. But when these various good things compete,
different religions may prioritize the values differently.
For example, in the Jain faith, the sanctity of all life is valued
very highly.. to the point that religious Jains might carry around
special brooms so that they don't accidentally step on a bug when they
walk. It would be fair to say that most other religions don't
necessarily put the same value on life.
In a similar way, I know of one Sufi tariqat where a specific
requirement of joining that order is to never ever lie. But in Islam
in general there is the explicit idea in Islamic law that lying is
permitted in certain cases, for example, when it is required to save a
life.
Since the Bahai faith comes out of Islam, combined with Persian
cultural attitudes, it sort of takes this idea of permissible lies and
runs with it. [And one can look at Susan's paper on hikmat and
dissimulation or The Practice of Taqiyyah (Dissimulation)
in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions by Sepehr Manuchehri for more
detailed discussions]
In each paper there are examples of specific behaviors by specific
groups of people (for example a group of Jews who became Bahais and
joined the Presbyterian Church) and you might dismiss that as the
action of individual Bahais, but their behavior is rooted in and
justified by certain Bahai concepts.
Or consider Abdul-Baha's example in SAQ of the doctor who lies to his
patient in order to give him hope of a cure...
So just as in any non-pacifist religion the sanctity of life is not
valued in the same radical way that it is seen in the Jain faith,
telling the candid unvarnished truth is not the highest value in the
Bahai faith.
That's not to say that Bahais are generally dishonest, or that Bahais
like to lie, or anything of that nature. But there are more potential
justifications for bending the truth in the Bahai
value system.
-Gilberto
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