Bahá`í/Homosexuality

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Expert: - 10/6/2010


Question
What is the position of the Reform Bahai Faith on homosexuality? The
Haifan Bahai Faith seems to think it is wrong. It this the same position for
the reform movement?

Answer
Thank you for asking your question.

Often people use the word "homosexuality" as though it meant or included only one phenomenon. Yet there are many biological and psychological  states that can be involved for some individuals.

The only reference in the Bahai Writings to homosexuality is actually to pederasty, "liwat," wherein Baha'u'llah condemns the abuse and exploitation of children. That's the only clear prohibition in the Bahai Writings referring to sexuality.

Many Bahais of various Bahai denominations have speculated from that passage and beyond it regarding sexuality, often arguing by analogy. Other Bahais look to prevailing thoughts and ideas in modern society.

Abdul-Baha does, however, often speak eloquently and extensively about the importance of marriage and children:

"Marriage is a holy institution and much encouraged in this blessed cause." Abdul-Baha in London.

"The marriage of the Bahais means that both man and woman must become spiritually and physically united, so that they may have eternal unity throughout all the divine worlds and improve the spiritual life of
each other. This is Bahai matrimony." Tablets of Abdul-Baha v2, 325.
http://www.reformbahai.org/Marriage_Children.html

Sexuality, however one might define it, is profoundly powerful and complex for human beings. What's important to the Reform Bahai Faith is to acknowledge that the Bahai Writings do not address directly many of the current concerns of contemporary sexual and cultural politics.

Abdul-Baha teaches that the individual conscience must be respected, loved, and welcomed to the community. It's largely for the individual to decide these matters for him or herself, in the light of the Bahai Writings, and not the place of the community to judge and exclude them.

There can never be one easy solution for the wide range of people that God has created. We are all "tests" for each other.

Bahai regards.

Bahá`í

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Frederick Glaysher

Expertise

I've been a member of the Reform Bahai Faith since 1976, have published in the Bahai journal World Order, and served in several Bahai communities throughout the United States. Having read extensively in the Bahai writings for over thirty years and having had university coursework in religious studies and theology, I can confidently address issues of cultural, historical, and spiritual importance to Bahais and other interested people of various religious and secular outlook.

Experience

As a member of the Reform Bahai Faith and one of the founders of the Usenet discussion group talk.religion.bahai, I have been intimately involved in the issues of free speech and conscience within the Bahai Faith since 1996, if not longer. http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship

Organizations
Reform Bahai Faith http://www.reformbahai.org

Publications
I am also the editor or author of two books on the Bahai teachings. The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith. Baha'u'llah & Abdu'l-Baha. With a new Introduction and the original 1912 Foreword. Hardcover: ISBN: 9780967042138 148 pages. Reform Bahai Press, 2008. Letters from the American Desert: Signposts of a Journey, A Vision. ISBN: 9780967042114. Preface. 172 pages. 2008. In Letters from the American Desert, Glaysher reflects on the cultural, political, and religious history of Western and non-Western civilizations, pondering the dilemmas of postmodernity, in a compelling struggle for spiritual knowledge and truth. Fully cognizant of the relativism and nihilism of modern life, Glaysher finds a deeper meaning and purpose for the individual and the world community in the writings and global vision of Baha’u’llah, as expressed in the Reform Bahai Faith. Confronting the antinomies of the soul, grounded in the dialectic, Glaysher explores a path beyond the postmodern desert. Alluding to Martin Luther and W. B. Yeats at All Souls Chapel, Glaysher calls Reform Bahais and others to consider the universal, moderate form of the Bahai Teachings as interpreted by Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son, who had spoken throughout the West in Europe, England, and the United States from 1911 to 1913. Abdu’l-Baha’s message of the oneness of God, all religions, and humankind holds out a new hope and vision for a world in spiritual and global crisis. Far from a theocracy, the Reform Bahai Faith envisions a modest separation of church and state as the will of God, in harmony and balance with universal peace, in a global age of pluralism, where religious belief is a distinctive mark of the individual, not collective, communal identity. Printed books and eBooks available via links at http://www.fglaysher.com/order_books.html

Education/Credentials
MA, University of Michigan, English, 1981 BGS, University of Michigan, English, Biblical Studies, Islam, 1980 Ten years teaching, at the university and college level, English, Rhetoric, American literature, non-Western literature, World Religions, and other courses.

Awards and Honors
A Fulbright-Hays scholar to China in 1994, I studied at Beijing University, the Buddhist Mogao Caves on the old Silk Road, and elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. While a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar in 1995 on India, I further explored the conflicts between the traditional regional civilizations of Islamic and Hindu cultures and modernity. I have been an outspoken advocate of the United Nations and was an accredited participant at the UN Millennium Forum (2000).

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