Posted by Jim Habegger (207.94.48.75) on August 15, 2003 at 18:03:48:

In Reply to: Re: Repression of ideas? posted by PatK on August 13, 2003 at 20:28:19:

Pat, I'm organizing my thoughts about women on the Universal House of Justice, and when I'm ready I'll post them here. Right now my purpose is to clear up what might be a misunderstanding about the status of messages from the Universal House of Justice, in the conduct of scholarship.

I don't think that views apparently endorsed by the Universal House of Justice in its messages, are meant to restrict what views can be promoted in the conduct of Baha'i scholarship. I think it's an abuse of those messages, and contrary to Baha'u'llah's purposes, for people to hesitate to promote views that they think are contrary to those of the Universal House of Justice, or to present counterarguments to the reasoning in its messages. I think it introduces something into the conduct of scholarship that will seriously impede our progress.

If a person thinks it's contrary to Baha'u'llah's purposes to exclude women from the Universal House of Justice, or that Mason Remy was really the second guardian, I think she has as much responsibility to promote that view, as she does to promote any other, and I don't think that would automatically disqualify her from membership.

To demonstrate that, I intend to help some people promote views that seem contrary to those of the Universal House of Justice, and to keep the assistants of my auxiliary board members informed of what I'm doing. If I'm struck by lightning, or disqualified from membership, or investigated as a potential covenant breaker, then we'll know I was wrong. If not, then maybe we can free the conduct of Baha'i scholarship from the suffocating effects of some people's interpretations of the response of the Universal House of Justice to the campaign of internal opposition.

Jim

this topic is closed - post at bahai-library.com/forum