tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36589951902822656502024-03-05T13:37:45.598-05:00Baha'i the WaySkeptical Notes from the Most Smokable LeafPriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-44401741291072926602011-12-31T19:39:00.002-05:002011-12-31T19:46:18.186-05:00Fame at Last — Wealth Coming Soon, I Choose to BelieveLook, look! I’m in a book! Disability and Religious Diversity: Cross-Cultural and Interreligious Perspectives, edited by Darla Schumm and Michael Stoltzfus, recently out from Palgrave Macmillan. My essay is Chapter 2, “Whatever the Sacrifice: Illness and Authority in the Baha’i Faith.”
After a brief introduction, I tell the intertwined stories of my long illness and my journey into and out Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-64610554457436083032010-06-22T10:49:00.009-04:002011-04-13T08:52:02.745-04:00"The watchword in all cases is humility." —UHJ 2010I hope to offer downloadable audio in future, but for now I can only direct you to the play button. This audio contains fifteen minutes and eleven seconds of talk talk talk in which I examine the 1992 Ridvan message of the UHJ by the standard of their 2010 admonition that "care should be exercised to avoid overstating the Baha'i experience," and that "the friends should should guard againstPriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-50555061784738340662010-01-07T15:47:00.004-05:002010-01-08T08:25:22.705-05:00Has the Baha'i Community Changed Dramatically in the Last Few Years?A of couple friends have reported to me that it has. I listen to and believe them. Different things are happening. Yet I'm puzzled. I read The American Baha’i and letters from the House and NSA, I look at blogs by Baha’is, I read of the actions of the House, I read or skim talks by prominent Baha’is—honestly, none of it seems particularly different. Maybe repackaged—Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-60323687104286070072009-09-29T17:34:00.036-04:002010-01-07T15:49:45.121-05:00Watch It!
One of these days I will get an essay finished for Baha'i the Way. One of these days. In the meantime...
Continuing my series on good things Baha'is are doing, here is a beautiful video about a project in Cambodia. I can't actually see it on my screen embedded here (I have an old system). So if you can't see it either follow this link to YouTube.
While we're Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-90401767254558906052009-06-19T06:06:00.008-04:002009-06-20T11:15:59.953-04:00ONE — or eighty, depending on how you look at itEighty dancers suspended from the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge. Check out the wild and ambitious upcoming work of Baha'i choreographer Aly Rose. http://www.human-architecture.org/WhatisOne.phpThe project can also be found on Facebook. And Ms. Rose's profile at the Baha'i Association for the Arts website can be found here.Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-63391783467558231472009-05-20T15:11:00.005-04:002010-01-11T13:23:41.708-05:00After so much loss, should they be punished too?Baha’is in Iran have been having a rough time. Imprisonment, house raids, business closures, denial of education, accusations of treason. Plus the history of executions keeps visions of much worse on the minds of those concerned. Updates on the situation can be found at the Baha’i World News Service. The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights is also a good source.
As the Baha’i community asks thePriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-62602857873181663802009-05-05T16:28:00.010-04:002009-05-05T21:15:53.952-04:00International Environment Forum — Baha'i InspiredWell, I haven't rooted around in their materials yet, but this looks like a good undertaking. I am glad to see it. You can see it too by following the link below. Phrases like "civilization building" and "ever-advancing civilization," common these days in Baha'i discourse, make me a wee bit nervous without more specifics. Civilization, so far, has a very mixed record and may yet destroy us. SoPriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-32047875905256450472009-03-26T17:00:00.008-04:002009-03-26T18:03:30.618-04:00Blessed Note: Text in bold is from the pen of Baha’u’llah and is often recited as a prayer by Baha’is. Other notes appear in the first comment.Blessed is the spot, The cream sauce on your lapel, the stain on your underwear, the pimple on your nose, the melanoma on your back, the mark at the end of your last sentence,and the house, the house of blues, and the house of cards; the White House, built by Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-14618171889972377902009-03-09T09:39:00.000-04:002009-03-09T15:05:10.219-04:00Boo! --- I’m B’ack.I’m not exactly sure in what capacity I’m back, but hold on and we’ll find out. I hope to resume posting sporadic essays, and I hereby give myself permission to post tid-bits of interest as I find them. No more tyrannizing myself with the idea that only long, crisp prose is worthy of this venue.In general the response to Baha’i the Way has been lovely, and I have been seriously impressed by thePriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-31153058764302296662008-09-26T15:40:00.006-04:002008-09-26T16:17:57.978-04:00Peace Be With YouI’m taking a break from Baha’i the Way, maybe retiring altogether. For now we’ll call it a sabbatical of uncertain duration. I have lots more to say and about ten posts in some stage of development. I haven’t posted anything yet on some of the issues I care about most. But I may be done with my personal need to re-examine the Baha’i Faith, and I’m trying to simplify my life. I will be activePriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-74929266833105734972008-08-05T09:00:00.003-04:002008-12-10T20:02:16.802-05:00He Was the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of His Country; She Was My Best Friend.Note: This very long post is a very short version of the story it tells. I hope some people will give it a real read.Let me tell you a story about an American woman not named Margit, and a man not named Baz, from a country here not named—call it Fland, short for far-away land. I will use their not-names to protect her. The protection he needs can only be found in a secure, humane prison—or in Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-57346491465731926502008-05-03T11:21:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:17.583-05:00For the anonymous commenter who suggested, "Someone should give Abdul Baha's palm reading."Click on the images to see them enlarged. The text in the last image is by R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram.I love the idea of a regular Baha'i feature in the International Psychic Gazette.Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-34853412895138234412008-04-29T20:14:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:18.078-05:00Let the Renaissance BeginHe is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the Center and Pivot of Bahá'u'lláh's peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Bahá'í ideal, the incarnation of every Bahá'í virtue . . . Shoghi Effendi, The World Order Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-2910935738857790382008-04-16T13:45:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:18.207-05:00The Mind of the Big Lesson-Plan MakerWarning: Heavy Irony AheadThe God of progressive revelation is shockingly inept. He sends Jesus, His messenger and a perfect mirror of His divinity, with instructions exactly appropriate for the needs of humanity at that time and for the next seven or so centuries but neglects to emphasize the importance of getting the message written down. Instead, the guy wanders around the countryside Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-71438827827229885062008-01-27T10:49:00.001-05:002008-12-10T20:02:18.376-05:00Positive? Negative?My college Baha’i club was something of a haven for certain members of the local Baha’i community. One woman had memorized a prayer which she said at every opportunity. It was something like, “O, God, make me so meek and such a nothing that no difficulty perturbs me in the slightest . . .” You know, that sort of thing, though of course in much more elaborate language. The line that got me badPriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-58761016662435202632008-01-16T19:39:00.000-05:002008-12-10T20:02:23.859-05:00Minus the Facial HairIt's winter in Vermont.It's what you call beautiful.Out every window . . .bathroom,kitchen,living room,and from the driveway.On cold insomniac nights the wind rushes through the clear cut across our road to howl in the trees on our hillside, while I shuffle about the 55 degree house unable to build a fire (we heat with wood), unwilling to wake Larry. Every time I catch a glimpse of myself in thePriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-11825190428771466942007-12-12T20:10:00.000-05:002008-12-10T20:02:24.113-05:00Hey, It’s Masá’il!My favorite month in the Baha’i calendar! I think the month named “Questions” should be a nineteen-day extravaganza of inquiry. If Questions is an attribute or name of God, then it seems improper for Baha’is to keep their questions tucked away. What would happen if during this month all Baha’is looked inside, into the shadowy corners of their minds and hearts, and coaxed out all unspoken Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-428694389072980342007-11-30T19:57:00.000-05:002008-12-10T20:02:24.702-05:00Wait a Momen: Part 2 with Preface(Part 1 here.)Preface. Oh, poopy—I’m all out of sync with the goings-on in Baha’i cyberspace. While I procrastinated on posting Part 2 of “Wait a Momen,” word of Moojan Momen’s latest article in the academic journal Religion, “Marginality and Apostasy in the Baha’i Community,” hit the Internet and has created quite a stir in some corners, with good reason. You can read the abstract here. He Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-74842764306917517462007-11-11T08:46:00.001-05:002009-06-16T12:44:40.312-04:00Wait a Momen: Part 1A change is happening in the Baha’i world. Moojan Momen says it’s a necessary, right, and good change of culture. Or, rather, he says the Universal House of Justice says it’s a change of culture, and Moojan Momen confirms this is so. He says a bunch of other stuff too; you can read Momen’s essay “A Change of Culture” here. But what has me up off my couch of heedlessness to call across the Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-11831343522161851702007-10-02T20:32:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:24.958-05:00Where’s the God?Once upon a time—about sixteen years ago—I read with intense longing the accounts in The American Baha’i of the amazing numbers of Baha’is in India. I had little desire to visit Haifa but much to experience the swarm of believers I envisioned from these reports. So when I was short-term pioneering in southeast Asia I took my opportunity to fly to Delhi.After my months of service, a sludge of Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-43471461791365673202007-08-18T10:11:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:25.101-05:00Unity—As We See ItOn January 9, 1985, the Rev. Tom Hansen, a Unitarian Universalist minister—I do not use his real name—wrote to the spiritual assembly of the Bahá’ís of Wilmette, Illinois, to express his feelings of frustration and offense. First he had been invited to read at a World Religion Day service at the Bahá’í House of Worship. Later he was told that his reading selection was not acceptable and that, Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-40960373555528788152007-07-16T18:02:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:25.329-05:00I'm a Little WorriedQuite a few friends and acquaintances from my Bahá’í past still don’t know I’ve withdrawn from the Faith. I haven’t withheld anything from them; we are just out of touch. The ones who matter the most to me are in Indonesia. I went there as a high-school exchange student before I’d ever heard of the Faith and went back on a year off from college to do service with the Bahá’í community. Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-30175333287871447972007-06-28T19:00:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:25.535-05:00Evident and Confirmed ConfusionTwo unconscious assumptions underlie most Bahá’í declarations of the harmony of science and religion. One is that other religions would have to change their beliefs to accept this principle, and the other is that the Bahá’í Faith does not, because it is by definition in harmony with science. Yet, without knowing it, the happy souls that habitually deliver to their interlocutors the sloganized Priscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995190282265650.post-21588853893991181182007-06-13T10:44:00.000-04:002008-12-10T20:02:28.106-05:00Sing, Sing a SongI once won a prize in an Indonesian beauty contest. Yes, I walked the catwalk with my face caked up beyond recognition and my hair sprayed and gelled to a smooth, crisp absurdity. The wide band around my waist, which rose to a sharp point between my breasts, was the sole fashion innovation of my get-up; my gratitude for that additional indignity goes to the host sister for whom I agreed to playPriscillahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417812260334969884noreply@blogger.com2