Category Archives: Bahá’í

My religion of birth

The Big Merge

by kaweah

In the interest of simplifying my life, I have begun to merge my three websites into one.

In the process, some of the content of my old Bahá’í site Idol Chatter will be abandoned, but what I consider worthwhile has been retained, however Bahá’í content is not linked as prominently as it was before.

As it is, this site includes ninety posts on the Bahá’í Faith. The ancient FBI (Forum for Bahá’í Investigations) site will be available indefinitely, however, I don’t intend to link it to a menu.

The other site that I am merging into kaweah.com is my proof-of-concept Robinson Jeffers site, the Inhumanist. I plan to spend more time enhancing and cleaning up this content, but I don’t have time to manage a separate site indefinitely.

I apologize for all the inconvenience of broken links, lost content, and broken image links. I’ve already cleaned up much of the mess, and I plan to do more in the future.

I expect the two old sites to be available until the end of 2023.

I’ve still got it.

by kaweah

Well this statistical curiosity of mine somehow switched on email notifications for my old, much-neglected reddit account, so I received a notice from reddit concerning the passing of Dr. Farzam Arbab. I clicked the link, saw a few comments, and added my own:

A little while later, I received a second notification, which led to this:

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Glory Days

by kaweah

Bahá’ís around the world are presently celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of one of their two founding prophets. On such an auspicious occasion, it is perhaps meet and seemly to bring thyself to account—so to speak.

When I left the Bahá’í Faith in May 1988, things looked pretty good for “the Faith,” though some folks could see the moon of fundamentalism on the rise. Still, on the up-side, resurgent persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran had given the the Faith a new burst of media exposure. That majestic Lotus Temple had recently been completed, and the Bahá’í firmament still had its stars, though they may have been fading.

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The Terraces on Lake Constance

by kaweah

During all the time that Shoghi Effendi spent in Switzerland, I wonder whether he ever ventured out to Mainau, a famous garden island on Lake Constance (just over the German border). Mainau is famous for a variety of features, one of which is a water staircase lined with cypresses. One quick look at the staircase is likely to remind any Bahá’í of the grand terraces on Mount Carmel.

Mainau's Water Staircase
Mainau’s Water Staircase

© 2018 Dan Jensen

Membership: Window to the Soul

by kaweah

Look what I just found in the garage!

Once upon a time I was 25 years old and I tried to resign quietly from the religion I’d been born into—and formally “declared” myself into. I’m not sure that my declaration, at the mature age of fifteen, amounted to more than saying “yes” to my parents, but sure, I was a believer—just as I’d been a believer when I was five. I don’t remember being particularly interested in religion at the time.

By the time I resigned, or requested to do so, I’d been around the Bahá’í block, so to speak. I’d studied the Bahá’í religion intensely, studied Arabic, served on a Local Spiritual Assembly, participated in several mass teaching projects in four states, and served at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. I knew a thing or two about the Bahá’í religion, but I hadn’t believed in it at all for more than two years, and I was watching a Bahá’í leader in my local community behaving quite badly, so I was moved to mail in my resignation.

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The Dawn-Breakers of the Alamo

by kaweah

Remember the Alamo?

While recently looking for images for a video project featuring the poem “Dawn” by California poet Robinson Jeffers, I came upon the painting “Dawn at the Alamo,” a rather imaginative and partisan depiction of the fall of the Alamo.

For those readers who aren’t familiar with the story, a band of Anglo-American Texans, apparently disregarding the urgings of their general Sam Houston, holed up in a Spanish mission after taking a Mexican town. They were doomed from the start. Major General Houston had no interest in holding the town, regarding it a strategic liability. The defense of the town did little or nothing for the cause of Texan independence, rather more likely harmed it—at least tactically, yet the defenders of the Alamo are remembered as martyrs of the cause, probably because they had to be remembered as such. They fought bravely, probably knowing that General Santa Anna, a bloodthirsty tyrant by all accounts, had no intention of sparing the lives of any of them. Continue reading →

The Guardian’s Guardian?

by kaweah

You may be familiar with some of the more startling things said about homosexuality in the Bahá’í writings. If not, here’s a sampling:

Homosexuality is highly condemned … (6 October 1956)

… through the advice and help of doctors, through a strong and determined effort, and through prayer, a soul can overcome this handicap. … it is forbidden by Bahá’u’lláh, … (26 March 1950)

… [the homosexual] must mend his ways, if necessary consult doctors, and make every effort to overcome this affliction, which is corruptive for him and bad for the Cause. If after a period of probation you do not see an improvement, he should have his voting rights taken away. (20 June 1953)

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The Triumph of the Cause

by kaweah

The Party represents unity of will, which precludes all factionalism and division of authority in the Party.

Joseph Stalin, The Foundations of Leninism
Chapter VIII: The Party

The unification of our country, the unity of our people and the unity of our various nationalities — these are the basic guarantees of the sure triumph of our cause.

Mao Zedong, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
February 27, 1957, 1st pocket ed., pp. 1-2.

©2017 Kaweah (Dan Jensen)

Door-to-Door Campaigning in the 21st Century

by kaweah

You know those people who knock on your door to introduce you to God? That used to be me. I have knocked on doors in the San Joaquin Valley of California, Los Angeles, South Carolina, North Carolina, and even on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota. I did it to “teach” the Bahá’í Faith, as recently as the mid 1980s. I’d been told a few years ago that Bahá’ís don’t go door-to-door anymore, but apparently that is not entirely true.

I recently heard that Bahá’ís in the Pacific Northwest had been running door-to-door “expansion campaigns” (a rather aggressive form of what Bahá’ís call “direct teaching”) as recently as two years ago, so I went out into Googlespace to see what I could scare up. There is ample evidence that Bahá’ís in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State were knocking on doors in the years 2008–2010. I have also found videos about “direct teaching” from 2011, but I don’t see much in the years since then.

I think this activity was prompted by the Universal House of Justice in the wake of the 2007-8 Global Financial Crisis. Bahá’ís, like some other religious groups, beam with anticipation at the first rumor of crisis. The failures of others are their reassurance that they have the answer and that the world will soon come begging for help.

In the following video, a poster board street map is presented during a 2009 planning session during what was called the “17th Intensive Baha’i Program of Growth.”

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