I ran across this article titled "Uphill Pilgrimage: Unenrolled Baha'is face a long road to Haifa". It's on the site for the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. It's a bit old, written in 2005 -- and the source material is even older. For the information on me, Jason Anthony used my "leaving the faith" story on my website.
I still get comments on that, as if it were written yesterday, instead of nearly nine years ago. Jason also makes the common mistake of thinking I left because of local conditions -- I didn't actually, but I spent so much time in that essay complaining about them that a lot of people have that impression. I'd have put up with local conditions indefinitly, perhaps as an enrolled inactive Baha'i, if I hadn't come across the larger issues. I sometimes ask myself, though, what I would have done with those larger issues, if I had been very happy with my local community . . . Motives can sometimes be very complex, and reasons for an action can't always be boiled down to a single thing. Oftentimes the "reason" is more of a final straw, which obscures the whole story.
The rest of the information appears to have been taken from Talisman posts, probably from 2000 or so, when I was still very emotional about the situation.
Nevertheless, I think the article was fair and well done. It was nice to see an outsider's viewpoint on the position of unenrolled Baha'is.
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2 comments:
Why Israeli government is not allowing us (Bahai's) to teach this beautiful faith of Baha'u'llah in their country? We does not teach anything other than what is Judaism, but in its more purer and modern form? Teaching is our faith and we cannot stop it even if the government does not allow us. We MUST teach in the Holy land, we MUST teach christians, muslims, jews or anybody residing in any corner of the world, including the HOLY LAND. Just Teaching and teaching and teaching. We must know that JEWS are the most deserving people, because they denied so many manifestations of God. Please visit this blog to read more about teaching in the HOLY LAND.
http://jewbahais.blogspot.com
Just commented on another post, but I did find your website---very interesting as a person newly interested in the faith.
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