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Category: Controversies
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Created: Tuesday, 24 June 2008 20:34
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Published: Tuesday, 24 June 2008 20:27
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Written by Umm Yasmin, Dervish
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Hits: 4531
I was trawling through old archives looking for something, when I came across a whole bunch of letters I’d written. They are, I guess, an anatomy of my “apostasy” from the Baha’is.
November 16th, 1998
Dear Members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United Kingdom,
I am writing in regard to the recent National Spiritual Assembly’s “Spirit and Form” seminar being hosted by Local Spiritual Assemblies throughout the United Kingdom.
First let me congratulate the Assembly’s endeavors to fully implement the instructions of the Universal House of Justice in improving the practice of its financial affairs and safeguarding the assets of the Faith, as well as imparting this knowledge to the body of Local Spiritual Assemblies and believers under its jurisdiction. I heartily welcome this seminar as a sign of the continuing maturation of the institutions of the administrative order of the Blessed Beauty.
I recently attended one such seminar hosted by the Local Spiritual Assembly of S— in which the National Spiritual Assembly’s Treasurer Mrs C— W— instructed the participants that it was the National Spiritual Assembly’s desire to abolish the use of “Fund boxes” at Nineteen Day Feasts.
My concern is not with the use of the actual Fund boxes themselves, but that I believe such a policy would practically remove the ability for believers to contribute small sums of money anonymously, conflicting with the Guardian’s instructions in this matter.
{josquote}...may Baha’is still donate funds anonymously, and if so how?{/josquote}
As Mrs W— rightly pointed out, the Baha’i Faith is perhaps the only religion in the world in which non-adherents are forbidden from contributing funds. Given this fact, it is a logical extension that fund-receiving institutions must make sure all monies come from Baha’i sources. Thus, the only vehicle of which I am aware that Baha’is may contribute anonymously, is by using a receptacle provided at the Nineteen Day Feast: by virtue of the fact that only Baha’is may attend. Removing Fund boxes makes giving anonymously unattainable.
{Test command}
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