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

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

From
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?caseno=08-2306&submit=showdkt&yr=08&num=2306

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Public Access to Oral Argument recordings, Opinions, Unpublished Orders, and other selected case materials

View or Download Documents

08-2306 : Nat'l Spiritual v. Nat'l Spiritual Case Type: Civil ; Nature of Suit: Oth Stat Act-federal Question

If the document you are looking for is not in this system, keep in mind that most documents for 2008 and later cases are now located in the CMECF system.

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Doc	Uploaded	Filed	Description
2	02/20/2009	02/20/2009	Oral Argument
3	11/23/2010	11/23/2010	Opinion (SYKES)

NOTE WELL, "a church," 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Haifan Baha'i

Opinion of US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Case No. 08-2306 - November 23, 2010
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/US_7th_Circuit_Court_of_Appeals_11-23-2010.html


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." 

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.

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The root of the problem with the Wilmette, Haifan interpretation of the Baha'u'llah's Teachings is that it leaves out Abdul-Baha's actual 1912 Authentic Covenant, substituting the spurious will and testament forged by Shoghi Effendi's family in 1921. 

The Bahai Faith can be Reformed but only by returning to the Interpretation clearly outlined by Abdul-Baha in Europe and America prior to his death. The evidence and record of his Interpretation has been preserved in the Star of the West for anyone willing to read with an independent mind, free of the decades of deception and brainwashing into blind belief administered by the Haifans. 

Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith

The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith. Baha'u'llah & Abdul-Baha. 
148 pages. $2.99 With a new Introduction and the original 1912 Foreword. Reform Bahai Press, 2008. 148 pages. Hardcover: 
ISBN-13: 9780967042138 - ISBN-10:0967042135. $19.99. Paperback: ISBN-13: 9780967042107 ISBN-10: 0967042100. $11.99. 


Ebook Edition 2010 9780982677803. 
Kindle or ePub format 
http://books.fglaysher.com/Universal-Principles-of-the-Reform-Bahai-Faith-9780982677803.htm


The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith collects many of the early writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha, published in the West, seeking to restore and preserve their vision of the oneness of God, humanity, and all religions. In addition to all of the 1912 Universal Principles of the Bahai Movement, the book includes Baha'u'llah's Arabic Hidden Words, selections known as the Spiritof the  Age, an address by Abdul-Baha at the Friends' Meeting House in London in 1913, and many Bahai prayers for community and individual worship and meditation. 


Though beginning in 2004, the Reform Bahai Faith traces its origin to the early Bahais Ruth White, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, and Julie Chanler, who sought to preserve the Teachings of Abdul-Baha after his passing in 1921. They and other early American Bahais understood the Bahai Faith was being turned into an oppressive organization, under what the British Museum document expert Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell judged to be a fraudulent will and testament. Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Bahai Faith, believed in and taught a moderate, universal religion, grounded in a separation of church and state, not a theocracy, and members of the Reform Bahai Faith seek to recover and renew that universal, pluralistic vision for all humanity. 


-- 
Reform Bahai Faith 
Rochester, Michigan USA 
http://www.ReformBahai.org 


About the Reform Bahai Faith 
http://www.reformbahai.org/about.html 


Abdu'l-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant 
http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.html 


An Analysis of Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant 
http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant_comments.html