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Bahá`í/Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant

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Expert: - 6/7/2010


Question
If Abdu'l-Baha's covenant address in 1912 was the real deal, why had it been suoppressed? Why'd God let that happen?

Answer
Thanks for your question.

Unfortunately, religious history is replete with examples of similar things happening. The "Donation of Constantine" was one of the most flagrant instances of a falsified document being used to acquire worldly control over Christians. Similarly, there are many denominations of Buddhism and interpretations of Islam. So, one shouldn't be surprised that analogous things have happened in the Bahai Faith. It was suppressed, as such instances like this always are, because some of the followers of the religion wanted to obtain power and control, creating oppressive institutions and organizations, thinking of themselves, instead of the teachings and guidance of the manifestation.

What is important is that Abdul-Baha's Authentic Covenant of 1912 was delivered publicly in New York, the City of the Covenant, which is why New York came to be known as the City of the Covenant among early Bahais. As Baha'u'llah's appointed Center of his own Covenant, Abdul-Baha authoritatively brought his father's Teachings into the modern, Western world, giving them an Interpretation that was widely known by early Bahais and recorded in such extant publications as the Star of the West.

It's difficult to know or understand why God permits such things to happen. Why give humanity a revelation of His Will and then allow it to be seemingly subverted? I believe the answer in many religions has been that it is a test of the believers, whether they follow the light, or the lamp, what pretends to be a lamp, but in reality is an individual's or a group's smoke screen. Those who love the light, not the lamp, find it incumbent upon them to prove it. Such seems to be the pattern of religious history.

Let's hope and trust that the Bahai Light is not yet put out, but merely beginning to rally from its occultation.



Reform Bahai Faith
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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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