Reform Bahai Faith Forum

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Reform Bahai Faith Forum
http://reformbahai.org/forum/


"To be a Bahai simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood." -- Abdu'l-Baha

The Reform Bahai Faith affirms the universal spiritual and moral principles taught in all of the great religious traditions. Similar to Mahayana Buddhism and the Buddha's Example of compassion, Reform Bahais believe the Example set by Abdul-Baha during his travels to Europe and the United States in the early 20th century, an Example of universal love and brotherhood, was perhaps his greatest Teaching. As Abdul-Baha often suggested, far from having the exclusive truth and the fanaticism to which that notion has so often led, Reform Bahais look to what is universal in the world's religious experience, and include prayers and meditations from other religions in their private and community worship, listen to and learn from God's other religions.

The Reform Bahai Faith, known during Abdul-Baha's time as the Bahai Movement or Cause, is not an organization, but a way of life.

The Reform Bahai Faith is an independent denomination that reforms Baha'u'llah's Dispensation and offers humanity His Teachings in the universal Interpretation of Abdul-Baha. Reform Bahais follow Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant: http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.html

See the Reform Bahai Faith website for further details: http://www.reformbahai.org

NECESSARY POLICY:

This Bahai discussion forum is for members of the Reform Bahai Faith and people of *goodwill* interested in exploring Reform Bahai or just curious. The Reform Bahai Faith Forum is closed to members of the Wilmette-Haifan Baha'i Faith. Members of other Baha'i denominations are welcome. Acceptance of this Registration Agreement constitutes that you are not a member of the Baha'i denomination located in Haifa, Israel.

Disrespecting and denouncing other Bahais as "covenant breakers," essentially the Shiite practice of "takfir," violates the civil rights of the individual as well as the teachings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha. It will not be allowed or tolerated in this Forum. For details see the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the Baha'is of Wilmette, Illinois, November 23, 2010: http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?caseno=08-2306&submit=showdkt&yr=08&num=2306

Baha'i Lawsuit Articles from The Chicago Tribune

Judge: Baha'i believers can call themselves Baha'i Chicago BreakingNews November 23, 2010
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/judge-bahai-believers-can-call-themselves-bahai.html

Orthodox believers can keep calling themselves Baha'i, court says. November 25, 2010 By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter.
http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/federal-appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-splinter-bahai-group.html

Federal appeals court rules in favor of splinter Baha'i group
November 25, 2010 8:12 PM
http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/federal-appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-splinter-bahai-group.html


Chicago Tribune. Baha'i rift. Baha'is upset with Orthodox Baha'i Faith
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-05-18/news/0905170216_1_orthodox-community-rift-jesus-and-muhammad

Comments posted in response to The Chicago Tribune: 

http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/Chicago_Tribune.html 

Personal Reflections on the Baha'i lawsuits

The lawyer that represented the Orthodox Baha'i Faith before Judge St. Eve has just posted an insightful reflection on the implications of the US Federal Courts ruling. I share it here for those who might find it interesting and informative about how the Wilmette-Haifan Baha'i Faith actually behaves behind the backs of its largely innocent and gullible followers, deceived and brainwashed into despising and violating the principles of the US Constitution:

"The Wilmette NSA remains a threat to the First Amendment unless it gives up its mania for squelching the religious freedoms of those who disagree with it. It is my hope and wish that the Wilmette NSA will finally realize that you cannot enforce unity with a court order. The NSA simply must tolerate the existence of other groups of Bahá'í at least in the United States or it runs the risk of forever ruining the name of the Faith making synonymous the word "Bahá'í" and "enemy of freedom of speech and religion."

Jeffery Goldberg, Personal Reflections on the Baha'i lawsuits in US Federal Courts from 2006 to 2011. April 29, 2011
http://www.truebahai.com/2011/04/personal-reflections.html

Opinion of US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals

7th Cir: Public online 08-2306 case documents as PDF and oral argument MP3
Opinion in case# 08-2306, Judge Sykes:

"When a district judge takes  sides in a religious schism, purports to decide matters of spiritual succession, and excludes dissenters from using the  name, symbols, and marks of the faith (as distinct from the name and marks of a church) [boldface added], the First Amendment line  appears to have been crossed."  
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?caseno=08-2306&submit=showdkt&yr=08&n\ um=2306 

Or download Opinion as PDF in one click


p 7: False finding of "fact" by Judge Austin in 1966

p 13: "...civil authorities may not make judgments about religious controversies when deciding church property disputes.  Kedroff, 344 U.S. at 116. (The church-autonomy principle recognized in Watson “must now be said to have federal  constitutional protection as a part of the free exercise of religion against state interference.”)."
  "Building on Kedroff, the Supreme Court held in Presbyterian Church that “the First Amendment severely circumscribes  the role that civil courts may play in resolving church property disputes.”

p 14-15: "Considered in light of these First Amendment limitations on the court’s authority, certain aspects of the 1966  injunction are troubling. The decree declares that “there is only one Baha’i Faith,” that Shoghi Effendi was its last Guardian and none has come since, and the National Spiritual  Assembly was its representative and “highest authority” in the United States and was “entitled to exclusive use of the  marks  and symbols of the Faith,” including the exclusive use of the word “Bahá’í.” Declarations of this sort push the  boundaries of the court’s authority under Kedroff and Presbyterian Church. In church property disputes (trademark suits  obviously qualify), the First Amendment limits the sphere in which civil courts may operate. When a district judge takes  sides in a religious schism, purports to decide matters of spiritual succession, and excludes dissenters from using the  name, symbols, and marks of the faith (as distinct from the name and marks of a church) [boldface added], the First Amendment line  appears to have been crossed."

p 17: "’It is a principle of general application in Anglo-American jurisprudence that one is not
bound by a judgment in personam in a litigation in which he is not designated as a party or to which he has not been  made a party by service of process.’ ”"

p 20: The court expands on and concludes that the parties were simply not in privity with the 1966 flawed decision by  Judge Austin.


NOTE WELL: "a church," i.e., the Court clearly states, as a matter of incontestable historical fact, that the Wilmette nsa merely constitutes one of many interpretations of the Baha'i Faith.