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Category: Alison Marshall's Column
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Created: Saturday, 29 July 2006 03:34
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Published: Saturday, 29 July 2006 03:34
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Written by Alison Marshall
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Hits: 5145
I have made a podcast of this blog entry, which you can download. It's 20 minutes long.
{mgmediabot}http://whoisbahaullah.com/blog/wp-podcasts/conflict.mp3|||{/mgmediabot}
The music used in the podcast is by Kevin MacLeod and is taken from the site incompetech.com, which contains royalty-free music. The file used here is "Awaiting Return", which is found in the New Age Piano section. It is a piano derivative of Holst's "Thaxted".
I had made a rule with myself that I would not talk about politics on my blog. The rule that Baha'is should not get involved in divisive politics is a wise one in my view. It took me ages to fathom Abdu'l-Baha's wisdom that if two people argued about something, then both were wrong. I assume that this principle is based on Baha'u'llah's principle that, in this day, conflict and contention are categorically forbidden. It helped when I saw that there was an important difference between 'disagreeing' and 'arguing'. You can politely disagree with someone. You see Baha'u'llah doing this in the Iqan, when he patiently suggests to narrow-minded divines that there is another way of looking at things. But that is a far cry from getting on your high horse and sustaining an argument. That is morally wrong because it entwines us and others in self and passion. Winning and seeking an advantage over others becomes the order of the day, and not simply uncovering the truth and seeking answers.
{josquote}Put bluntly, I didn't recognise the Administration's right to get it wrong.{/josquote}
Something like this characterised the way I used to think about, and deal with, the Baha'i administration. I thought they had strayed from the straight path (and still do), but back then I thought it was important to go on about this in a bid to demonstrate that I was right and provoke change. Put bluntly, I didn't recognise the Administration's right to get it wrong. There was, and is, so much at stake for the future of humanity. But that's the world stage God has provided for us, to demonstrate, in the way we live our lives, who we really are spiritually. If members of the administration choose to make bad decisions when so much is at stake, then the Lord has supplied them with the stage on which their actions will condemn them beyond question.
Read more: Thoughts on the Israel/Lebanon conflict
