True Bahá'í

Response to Dr Maneck re activation of 2nd International Bahai Council

by Jeffrey Goldberg

Dr. Susan Maneck, an internet mouthpiece for the sans-Guardian Baha'is now occupying Haifa/Wilmette, on talk.religion.bahai, had this to say to challenge Joel B. Marangella's claim to the Guardianship:

"I'm more interested in the fact that these [court] documents prove that Second International Baha'i Council was in fact never activated for Joel himself admits it was never convened and never met. Yet his claim to Guardianship rests upon the false pretense that it was activated. Somehow that point is being studiously ignored.  I'm sure that the Soghomonians will pick up on it eventually. They probably already know this, but having a sworn deposition from Joel himself admitting this to be the case  would probably prove valuable."

It is inexplicable why a sans-Guardian Bahai is defending Jacque Sohomonian's claim to the Guardianship.  Nevertheless, I will respond to the allegations here.

On the third Guardian's web site is an article entitled MY ACCESSION TO THE GUARDIANSHIP, A SUMMARY OF THE TRUE FACTS, in which he states:

"Not only misinformation, but a deplorable lack of information has been posted on Bahá'í newsgroups, from time to time, questioning the validity of my accession to the Guardianship of the Bahá'í Faith. It has been obvious that those who have posted this information have either never read my Proclamation, under date of 12 November 1969, or have purposely chosen to ignore the facts presented therein for reasons of their own."  http://www.bahai-guardian.com/accession.html

Clearly Dr. Maneck's charge is one of the misinformed postings on the newsgroup, but I am glad because it gives me the opportunity to again explain to the internet audience interested in these things about the truth of Joel B. Marangella's claim to the Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.

The article [ at http://www.bahai-guardian.com/accession.html] goes on to explain how Mason Remey appointed Marangella in writing to be the third Guardian of the Faith, and confirmed that appointment by appointing him to be the President of the Second International Baha'i Council, which was the same manner that Shoghi Effendi had used to appoint Remey.

Marangella then explains his reaction when Remey told him to ACTIVATE the Council:

"In 1965 Mason Remey specifically instructed me, to my great surprise, to immediately activate the International Bahá'í Council under my Presidency. I felt certain that the believers who had accepted Mason Remey's Guardianship on the basis of his Presidency of the first International Bahá'í Council, appointed by Shoghi Effendi, would certainly realize that Mason Remey's instructions to activate the second International Bahá'í Council would have caused great consternation and incredulity on my part. For, it was obvious that if the instructions of Mason Remey to activate the Council were carried out implicitly according to his instructions, it would inevitably and automatically result in his abdication of the Guardianship and my accession to the Guardianship, coincident with that activation."

He then goes on to explain how he had attempted to "circumvent" the actual activation of the Council by saying that it would be convened in the future and that Marangella would only assign individual tasks.  Marangella did this because he did not want to face the prospect that Remey had abdicated.

Marangella writes:

"However, there was a vital distinction, which I failed to perceive at the time, in my assigning such tasks to individual Council members, and the tasks that Shoghi Effendi had assigned, from time to time, to individual members of the Council that he had appointed, and one that I had been unable to avoid in my assignment of such tasks to members of an activated Council. This distinction lay in the fact that, in the case of the International Bahá'í Council appointed by Shoghi Effendi, it was he who had assigned tasks to individual members during the remaining years of his ministry, and not Mason Remey, who, although being the President of this supreme Council, had never been instructed by Shoghi Effendi during his ministry to convene it as an actively functioning body or had been authorized to assign any tasks to its members. Furthermore, when Shoghi Effendi had assigned individual tasks to Council members he would have undoubtedly transmitted his instructions through the intermediary of his "chosen liaison" with the Council, Rúhíyyih Khánum (as specified in his message of 8 March 1952)."

The Orthdodox Baha'is have never stated that the Second IBC ever convened as a body, or that convening physically as a body was necessary for activation.  Indeed the Third IBC is now active, with the third Guardian as its head, even though the body has never physically gathered for a meeting. 

An activated body is one that conducts business, with the Guardian as its head. In the case of both the 2nd IBC and the 3rd IBC, it was Marangella who directed the activities of the IBC.  They both were activated, conducting business, with the Guardian as its head.

The third Guardian's web site: http://www.bahai-guardian.com/
The third IBC's web site: http://www.bahaisorthodox.com/ibc/

True Faith vs. Blind Faith

By Megan Kathleen Olsen

Only through true doubt can one achieve true faith. Blind faith is a result of fear and laziness. Blind faith has no power, because it was not achieved through the individual search for knowledge and truth. How can one who has blind faith have true conviction, if they have not received true answers through the asking of their own questions? The only belief a person of blind faith has is a belief in comfort and community.

To achieve true faith, one must surrender to true doubt. Doubt of the certainties of existence. Doubt of all beliefs one has been told by family, friends, church officials, and society. Doubt of one’s own perceptions and realities. Only after one has been “cleansed” (if you will) of all rules, laws, beliefs, and agreements which are forced upon every human being from the day they were born, are they free to question without fear, guilt, or shame and find the answers they were meant to find.

A religious establishment like the Heterodox Baha’i Faith [that is, those Baha'is currently occupying Haifa and Wilmette] only has power in numbers. It’s a false kind of power. Their “faith” is based on perceived history, sense of community, threat of ex-communication, and blatant lies. They do not have a Universal House of Justice, but a Universal House of Cards. Under the slightest pressure of the truth which will one day present itself to all, their house of cards will crumble.

The Heterodox have attacked us not out of spite but out of fear. For all their power in numbers, they can never defeat the power we have in the truth. We are an indestructible wall built from our consistent defeat over adversity; a wall the Heterodox community will eventually break itself against. We have all come to the Orthodox Baha’i Faith because we have faced true doubt instead of running from it. We have faced that doubt and found truth faith on our own terms. It has brought us a freedom and a power no one can take from us. Not other Baha’is. Not a court of law. Not the world before which we stand and seek to alter forever.

WHO IS A COVENANT BREAKER?

A covenant breaker is a Baha'i who fully understands and grasps the significance of the Covenant and recognizes the Center of the Cause, the Living Guardian, but who rejects and betrays the living Guardian for compelling personal reasons.

The Bahá'í Writings teach that covenant breaking is a spiritual disease and the Writings are replete with warnings about the great harm that will come to the Cause unless Bahá'ís everywhere are vigilant about avoiding them.

But exactly what is a covenant breaker, how does a Bahá'í become one, and what can we do to make sure that we do not fall under their influence?

For a full explanation of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, read the article What does He want you to do as a community?  For a complete discussion of how the Center of the Cause was rejected by most Bahá'ís, read the article on The Great Violation.

It is important to distinguish between persons whom have broken the Covenant and others whom have been merely misled away from the Covenant.

COVENANT BREAKER

A covenant breaker is a Baha'i who fully understands and grasps the significance of the Covenant and recognizes the Center of the Cause, the Living Guardian. However, he knowingly and purposefully betrays the Center of the Cause due to personal and selfish concerns or pursuits. This condition is born of an arrogance that leads the wayward Baha'i into believing that he or she has a better approach than what has been put forth by the Will of God. The covenant breaker believes that he or she knows better or has a compelling personal reason to reject and betray the Center of the Cause.

Covenant breaking is a spiritual disease, highly contagious and compared by 'Abdu'l-Baha to the physical affliction of leprosy and that is why it has now assumed epidemic proportions in the Baha'i world since the passing of Shoghi Effendi. If we consider that the institutions of the Baha'i Administrative Order had been healthy living organisms during the ministry of the first Guardian, it was only, following his death in 1957, that this deadly infection of violation first attacked the immune system of one of these living organisms of the Faith, i.e. the Hands of the Cause, who in turn infected the other organisms such as Baha'i assemblies and through them the contagion was spread worldwide to most of the believers in the Faith. This infection had spread in this way very quickly throughout the Faith.  Only, Shoghi Effendi's appointed successor, the Head of the Faith, "Center of the Cause" and "the sacred and youthful branch, the guardian of the Cause of God" alone remained immune to this infection as he was  "under the care and protection of the Abha Beauty".

It was not long, however before some of the institutions and believers who had received a spiritual antitoxin, in the form of the second Guardian's writings, recognized the virulence of this spiritual poison and became impervious to it, with the result that certain Baha'i organs, such as the National Spiritual Assembly of France, the Local Spiritual Assembly of Lucknow, India and some of the faithful believers in United States, Europe, Iran, India and Pakistan became immune to its effect. However the now affected and deformed cells of the immune system of the bogus UHJ presently headquartered in Haifa developed into an apparently incurable big spiritual tumor, which caused this thoroughly diseased body, in turn, to further infect all parts of the body of the Faith and paralyze all sense of understanding and logic on the part of most of the believers. That is how this tragic violation of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah happened. But the good news is that soon the Divine physician will inevitably extract the big tumor described above and its spiritual claws. Then the Faith will become healthy again.

Certainly everybody must take this warning very seriously:

"We have a fixed time for you, O peoples. If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every direction. How severe, indeed, is the chastisement with which your Lord will then chastise you!"

            (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 214)

 

MISLED BELIEVER

A misled believer, on the other hand, does not have knowledge but comes under the influence of a covenant breaker and blindly accepts whatever he or she has to say. This is not covenant breaking. This condition arises from a shallowness of belief---a lack of faith. These misled and faithless believers must not be shunned. Instead they must be lovingly nurtured and deepened until their faith goes deeper in the Centre of Cause.

WHAT IS FAITHFULNESS TO COVENANT

Faithfulness to the Covenant should be understood as a spiritual process and journey. In order for a Bahá'í to properly take this journey, he or she must deepen in the Writings, become a sincere and independent investigator of Truth, and become a True Seeker. Bahá'u'lláh came to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. If one is to be a true Bahá'í, one must recognize and obey the Guardian. To do this, one must grow spiritually until there is the capacity to see and accept the Center of the Cause. It is not enough to remain on the surface of the Ocean of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation. He requires a deeper understanding and acceptance of the Faith. The independent investigation of Truth is our spiritual obligation.

TRUE SEEKER

A True Seeker does not have pre-conceived notions of what he or she will accept. The True Seeker knows what Truth is. All else is error and has no meaning or existence. Thus, the True Seeker will go wherever the Truth may lead. When a deaf, dumb, and blind Bahá'í awakens, True Faith is born and the wayward Bahá'í awakens to the truths of the Covenant. In other words, a deepened Bahá'í is a Bahá'í that has recognized the living Guardian of the Faith and obeys him.

There is a community of deepened Bahá'ís who remain completely unkown to the larger group of "blind, deaf, and dumb" Bahá'ís (those who have not yet been enlightened with the truth of the Covenant). Only those believers who remain faithful to the Center of the Cause--- the living Guardian of the Cause-- can be said to be True Baha'is. They understand that God really meant everything uttered from the mouths of Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu´l-Bahá. They accept that the Bahá'í Revelation is a blueprint for God's Plan for our society. This blueprint must be followed exactly. It is not acceptable to deviate at all from the Plan established by God Himself.

To be True Bahá'ís, it is required that we be fully prepared to render instant, exact, and complete obedience to the Center of the Cause.

When we have become deepened in the Bahá'í Revelation, and we have sincere, unyielding and complete faith in the Truth, we no longer have anything to fear. We have no doubt about our position. There is nobody to convince or convert. We simply stand for the Truth with full knowledge that the Truth will prevail and will be victorious.

Covenant breakers and the misled shallow believers who follow them are not characterized by the peaceful and fearless traits of the True Bahá'ís. Because they have no Faith, they respond with fear and frustration, and the urgent desire to proselytize and convert others to their position. They have great fear that something will go wrong and that the Bahá'í Revelation will come to naught. Since they don't really accept the validity of the Bahá'í Revelation, they have doubts about it. They desire to make changes and to improve it. They want to substitute their own judgment for the Will of God. They attack and fear anybody who challenges their belief system because they are not so sure about it themselves. The more converts they can find, the better they feel that they are on the right course. If they can find leaders to guide them, they can let go of their fear and simply be a follower without question.

All Bahá'ís must come into the Light. It is time for Bahá'ís everywhere to begin their spiritual journey back to the shade of the Tree of the Covenant. Know that God is, and that all of His attributes, such as Love, Knowledge, and Glory, are the only things that really exist. All else is falsehood. Our job is to turn to Bahá'u'lláh, render instant, exact, and complete obedience to the Third Guardian, Joel B. Marangella and allow God's attributes to shine within our souls.

Be assured that the gates are always open for those who learn to understand the lineage of the Covenant as prescribed by Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, and embrace the current Center of that Covenant, the living Third Guardian, Joel B. Marangella. Those who do so will be welcomed with open arms into the fold of the True Baha'i Faith, the Orthodox Baha'i Faith.

 Compiled By

Hand of the Cause Y.H. Taylor

 

Join the battle against the rulers of the darkness of this world

The battle between the forces of good and evil, the Army of Light and the minions of the dark, rages on in the world and in the hearts and minds of men and women around the globe.  It is essential for Baha'is to understand this, and to choose correctly on which side they will fight.

There is a movement in the world by the forces of darkness to consolidate power, and to move power and resources from the weak and vulnerable masses to the strong and powerful elite.  The struggle between good and evil, justice and tyranny, decency and depravity, has been going on for countless centuries, but in this day the battle is coming to a head. Now is the time to fight and resist this evil with the more powerful forces of truth and love. There are so few soldiers in this Army of Light so that none of us can afford to be negligent or dilatory in our duty to fight.

Know your enemy! All of us are pawns in this battle that is being waged "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12.

How dangerous it is for modern humanity to forget this concept of a higher battle being waged between powers and forces in the spiritual world. To be conscious that this battle is raging on is necessary for us so that we do not fall victim to doing the bidding of the wrong side. Almost all of humanity, the rulers, leaders and politicians, the influential and the elite are well-meaning people and believe they are acting properly.  They believe they are doing the right thing under the circumstances, even while they murder and plunder and engage in the darkest behavior imaginable.  It is precisely because they have allowed themselves to be ruled by the dark forces, that their behavior is so wrongful even while they believe it is right.

Your life is either ruled by God, or it is not. Either you serve God or you are the plaything of Satan.  This is the ultimate question all of us must consider.  Our enemy is not our fellow human beings. We must love them and not even consider them our enemies no matter how evil their actions towards us might be.  Rather our enemies are the spiritual forces of darkness that rule them.  These enemies, the demons, principalities and powers, all must be vigorously and whole-heartedly resisted with the power of God.

The Cause of God is the very Army of Light of which I speak.  Every person who considers himself or herself to be a follower of Baha'u'llah must examine whether or not he or she has joined the battle on the side of Light or of darkness.  Those of who you who find yourselves serving the headless UHJ now occupying Haifa must relinquish your allegience to that headless monster, the beast of Revelation. Cease your support of its evil opposition to the Guardian of the Cause of God. Question its insistence upon your blind surrender to its authority. Investigate the verities of the Baha'i Revelation. Study the Writings.  Become a true Bahai! Come under the guidance and leadership of the Center of the Covenant! Time is short, but it is still not too late to return to the true Cause of God.

"O ye loved ones of God! In this, the Bahá'í dispensation, God's Cause is spirit unalloyed. His Cause belongeth not to the material world. It cometh neither for strife nor war, nor for acts of mischief or of shame; it is neither for quarrelling with other Faiths, nor for conflicts with the nations. Its only army is the love of God, its only joy the clear wine of His knowledge, its only battle the expounding of the Truth; its one crusade is against the insistent self, the evil promptings of the human heart. Its victory is to submit and yield, and to be selfless is its everlasting glory. In brief, it is spirit upon spirit...." Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 256.

Jeffrey

AN APPEAL FROM THE ORTHODOX BAHA'IS OF INDIA TO ALL THE LOVERS OF JUSTICE

In this period of strife, India is privileged to be a light to the world, the Torchbearer of a message of universal brotherhood. Indian culture possesses the capacity for rejuvenation, and can without loss of continuity bring about a spiritual change. Indian people, though somewhat slow-going, have the strength and vitality of youth and so have preserved their basic human instinct for love of the truth. Their instinct reacts infallibly to the impact of realities. They are capable of effecting changes, not by imposition nor by intimidation, but by the process of education, a spiritual refining.

A part of this Indian Culture is the Orthodox Baha'is of India residing in every nook and corner of this country.

The Orthodox Baha'is are indeed cornered about the harassment meted out to our fellow believers in United States due to an imposed court case on them, on the pretext that they have no right to be called as Baha'is. [To see the court documents, click here: http://trueseeker.typepad.com/true_seeker/court_case.html]

In India there are a number of Christians, Hindus and the Muslims religious denominations, all calling them Christians, Hindus and Muslims. But this is unprecedented in the history of the Faiths that a Bahai denomination has taken the help of Court to silence the other Bahai denominations.

We, the Orthodox Baha'is, believe that:

Bahaullah was the Prophet founder of the Bahai Faith, He appointed His eldest son Abdul Baha as the Center of his Covenant. Abdul Baha, on His passing appointed His Grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as the first Guardian of the Bahai Faith according to the Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Baha. After the passing of the first Guardian, Charles Mason Remey, referred to by ‘Abdu’l-Baha as His spiritual son and who had been appointed by Shoghi Effendi as the President of the International Bahá’í Council, assumed responsibility as the second Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. Later on, Charles Mason Remy appointed Joel B. Marangella as the third Guardian of the Bahai Faith, according to the Will and Testament of Abdul Baha which very clearly states that it is incumbent upon Guardian to appoint another Guardian in his life time.

The Orthodox Bahá’í also believes that:

1. The Guardianship is an integral part of the Bahai Faith and that any organization calling itself the Bahá’í Faith without a living Guardian as the "sacred head", is nothing more than a man-made organization, subject to corruption.

2. The State of Guardianship is the supermost thing upon Earth, for the Guardians are God’s lieutenants upon earth. That which concerns the mystery of the Guardian’s power is not lawful to be disputed. 

3. The Guardian ought to have no equal in his realm because this would nullify the rule that an equal cannot have authority over his equals. Still less ought he to have a superior or anyone more powerful than he, for he would then be below his own deputies and it is impossible that inferiors should be equal to the Supreme.

4. The Supremacy of the Guardian in spiritual matters is absolute under God. Substantially he is the "AQDAS" in the sense that he can neither be removed nor held responsible and has ultimate authority over the rest of the hierarchy, which his deputies have not. The Guardian has full power to create Hands of the Cause and can do so without any of the customary forms of election.

5. The unique power possessed by the Guardian alone, is, therefore a "divine right". It confers a peculiar superiority, a power of revision and supervision over all other forms of authority whether ecclesiastical or secular. In substance, the Guardian alone is the head of the entire legal system, not, indeed, as a universal executive but as a court of final authority, which functions not in absentia but by presence. It is evident that it is impossible to invest the community or even the Hands of the Cause, with the supreme authority, which is the divine prerogative of the Guardian.

6. The sans-Guardian organization (currently in occupation of Haifa) have repudiated the major provisions of the ‘Divine Charter’ bequeathed by the ‘Architect of the Administrative Order’ by removing the ‘Center of the Cause,’ the ‘expounder of the Word of God’ and the ‘sacred head and the distinguished member for life’ of the Universal House of Justice" i.e., the living Guardian.

We also believe that:

1. Anyone who believes in Bahaullah has a right to be called as a Bahai.

2. We also believe that if the Christians, Hindus Muslims etc wish to call themselves as Bahais, it will be HONOR to us and not CONTEMPT.

3. We Orthodox Bahais in India believe that the matter of Faith cannot be legalized. Every individual is free to follow a set of beliefs and the others should respect his belief and not follow the policy of imposition, intimidation and harassment.

4.We Orthodox Bahais in India feel that American judicial system is being subjected to “PRESSURE TESTING” by the sans-Guardian organization.

Therefore, We, Orthodox Bahais of India, appeal to all “LOVERS OF JUSTICE” all across the globe to condemn the action taken by the sans-Guardian Bahai organization in following the policy of imposition, intimidation and harassment against the true Bahai Faith.

by Provisional National Bahai Council of the Orthodox Baha'is of India

http://www.bahaisorthodox.com/

Those who call themselves Baha'is are blatantly in opposition of the true Faith of God

We read the in the Bible 1 Peter 3:12/14

"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled".

We suffer for being righteous and faithful to the Covenant. There is a price which must be paid and we are not afraid of their terror and we are tough enough.

Eternal life and nearness to God has a price that needs to be paid in this world.  You can't pay it in the next world.

Baha'u'llah says:

"Since the affectionate and faithful believers are as the aghsan (branches) and the leaves of this Holy Tree, therefore whatever (hostility and injuries) falls on the Mighty Stock; it will occur to the aghsan (branches), twigs and leaves as well, this is how in every age these tragedies and nuisances have been and will be for the lovers of the Beauty of All-Glorious."
(Al'vah-i-Moba'rakeh, p.343)  (Ma'idiy-i-Asmani. Vol 4, p.42)

So we must not be surprised.

Covenant breaking is a spiritual disease, highly contagious and compared by 'Abdu'l-Baha to the physical affliction of leprosy and that is why it has now assumed epidemic proportions in the Baha'i world since the passing of Shoghi Effendi. If we consider that the institutions of the Baha'i Administrative Order had been healthy living organisms during the ministry of the first Guardian, it was only, following his death in 1957, that this deadly infection of violation first attacked the immune system of one of these living organisms of the Faith, i.e. the Hands of the Cause, who in turn infected the other organisms such as Baha'i assemblies and through them the contagion was spread worldwide to most of the believers in the Faith. This infection had spread in this way very quickly throughout the Faith.  Only, Shoghi Effendi's appointed successor, the Head of the Faith, "Center of the Cause" and "the sacred and youthful branch, the guardian of the Cause of God" alone remained immune to this infection as he was  "under the care and protection of the Abha Beauty".

It was not long, however before some of the institutions and believers who had received a spiritual antitoxin, in the form of the second Guardian's writings, recognized the virulence of this spiritual poison and became impervious to it, with the result that certain Baha'i organs, such as the National Spiritual Assembly of France, the Local Spiritual Assembly of Lucknow, India and some of the faithful believers in United States, Europe, Iran, India and Pakistan became immune to its effect. However the now effected and deformed cells of the immune system of the bogus UHJ in Haifa developed into an apparently incurable big spiritual tumor, which caused this thoroughly diseased body, in turn, to further infect all parts of the body of the Faith and paralyze all sense of understanding and logic on the part of most of the believers. That is how this tragic violation of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah happened. But the good news is that soon the Divine physician will inevitably extract the big tumor described above and its spiritual claws. Then the Faith will become healthy again.

Certainly everybody must take this warning very seriously:

"We have a fixed time for you, O peoples. If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every direction. How severe, indeed, is the chastisement with which your Lord will then chastise you!"

             (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 214)

Although I personally have no regret for what they have done to me, my regret is to see how many of those who call themselves Baha'is are blatantly in opposition of the true Faith of God.

Meantime I have to correct a misunderstanding. My wife was told that had to separate from me immediately and seek divorce.  She immediately separated but she did not ask for a divorce. They put her in a difficult situation where she had to choose between continued association with her daughters and two little angels (our granddaughters) or me, which was a very painful decision for her to make.

Nosrat