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Peace,
Interestingly, I have been reading *The Covenant of Baha'u'llah* by Adib
Taherzadeh recently, and he recounts some fascinating history about this
subject. I think anyone can "prove" any position by taking things out of
context. Not being a Baha'i, I don't really have a dog in this fight, but I
have observed that every time a new "era" of the faith began, some of the
most devoted Baha'is changed and began to oppose the new leader - such as
when 'Abdu'l-Baha was appointed to be the successor of Baha'u'llah. When
'Abdu'l-Baha was alive, his partisans were fierce loyalists to him against
the followers of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, but when he ('Abdu'l-Baha) died, some
of those fierce loyalists changed and began to oppose Shoghi Effendi. When
Shoghi Effendi was alive, his partisans were fierce loyalists to him
against the various opposition groups, but when he (Shoghi Effendi) died,
some of his fierce loyalists changed and began to oppose the Universal
House of Justice. The irony is that some of these people would have had
nothing to do with each other when they were Baha'is in "good standing",
but once they began to oppose the most recent Head of the religion, they
began to make alliances with the very people whom they used to so fiercely
oppose. It reminds me of the saying, "war makes strange bed fellows."
2011/10/30 Mark A. Foster, Ph.D. <ow...@markalanfoster.com>
> The Baha'i Studies Listserv
>
> I added the following paragraphs to my "Five Kingdoms Model" book today.
> Comments would be welcome:
>
> Ruth White was one of the so-called ʿAbduʾl-Bahá Baháʾís. For many of
> them, the leadership of Shoghi Effendi, a Westernized young man with an
> Oxford degree, was unacceptable. Instead of a turban, like ʿAbduʾl-Bahá,
> Shoghi Effendi wore a fez (Turkish, fes). Because the ʿAbduʾl-Bahá Baháʾís
> were attached to appearances, some of them drifted away. White, however,
> went further. She rejected the Will and Testament of ʿAbduʾl-Bahá, the
> document which appointed Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Cause of God, by
> demanding for its handwriting to be analyzed.
>
> Well, Ruth White had it backwards. The Baháʾí Faith does not work that
> way. Individual believers do not get to make demands upon the Head of the
> Faith. White broke the Baháʾí Covenant and went on to become a disciple of
> the Zoroastrian gurū, Meher Baba (Persian, Mihr Bābā, lovingkindness
> father). Interestingly, ʿAbduʾl-Bahá Himself was not an ʿAbduʾl-Bahá
> Baháʾí. He Himself chose the name, ʿAbduʾl-Bahá (Servant of Bahá), in a
> genuine, not a false, humility. As Perfect Exemplar, He should have been
> Ruth White’s own example. Baháʾís are followers of Baháʾuʾlláh, not
> ʿAbduʾl-Bahá.
>
> http://fivekingdoms.bahaifaith.info/
>
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