Baha'i Faith is a cause of dislike, hatred and division

Larry Rowe, who was a member of the Haifa-based Baha'i Faith organization for 35 years, posted the following message on the talk.religion.bahai discussion group, explaining his decision to resign his membership in the Baha'i Faith:

Subject: Withdrawal accepted !
From: Heather Carr-Rowe
Date: July 14 2005, 5:14 p.m.
URL: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/talk.religion.bahai/msg/68f3c6944365159e?hl=en&

Hello all,

My request to withdraw from the Baha'i Faith with the understanding that I am withdrawing because: ' the Baha'i Faith as it currently exists meets the requirement of Abdu'l-Baha' of a religion which has become " a cause of dislike, hatred and division ", that it would be better for me " to be without it." That " to withdraw from such a religion would be be without a truly religious act. " ', has been accepted.

Follows are the letter from my N.S.A. and my letter to them.

It appears that faith in Baha'u'llah is now officially secondary to faith in The Ununiversal House of Justice, and that it is now a religious act to withdraw from the Baha'i Faith as it is currently being mislead by that Ununiversal House of Justice.

All the best!

There is only us, we are them, ' as one soul '.

Yours Larry

----- Original Message -----
From: Secretariat
To: r...@northwestel.net
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 1:33 PM
Subject: 32415 - Your email letter of 18 March 2005

Message:

13 July 2005 / 1 Words 162

Mr. Larry Rowe,

Dear Mr. Rowe,

The National Spiritual Assembly has received your email message of 18 March 2005, raising the matter of your withdrawal from the Faith, and expressing your opinion that "it would be better for me to be without it". Membership in the Baha'i community is a voluntary act, and an individual is also free to leave voluntarily. Your withdrawal from membership is accepted.

Cordially,

Judy L. Filson, Assistant Secretary

----- Original Message -----
From: Heather Carr-Rowe
To: Secretariat
Cc: secretar...@bwc.org
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 12:27 AM
Subject: Withdrawal

Dear Judy, all members of the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly, all members of The Universal House of Justice.

I came across Words of Abdu'l-Baha's today. It is with a great sadness and heaviness of heart that I find that They apply fully to the Baha'i Faith as it is currently being mislead by The Universal House of Justice today. It would be better for The Universal House to change Its name to The Ununiversal House, for clearly They are leading the people of Baha' away from God's Universality and imposing a religion of earthly limitations, a lesser unity, a religion of Their Own making, not of Baha'u'llah's or God's.

I will withdraw from the Baha'i Faith on this understanding and this understanding alone : that since the Baha'i Faith as it currently exists meets the requirement of Abdu'l-Baha' of a religion which has become " a cause of dislike, hatred and division ", that it would be better for me " to be without it." That " to withdraw from such a religion would be be a truly religious act. "

This is the only basis on which I can withdraw from the Baha'i Faith.

I have seen all that Abdu'l-Baha' has referred to in His Words, which the above quotes are taken from, reflected in the Baha'i Faith today. The Baha'i Faith that I joined thirty five years ago has changed, and not for the better. There was a time when it was a cause of love and unity, I know I shared in that love and unity. The Universal House of Justice has "interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician." "They have imagined their friend an enemy." They have traded that love and unity for suspicion and disunity.

I mentioned other signs that God has seen fit to share with me, I will now share one more of them with you.

In this dream I am suspended above the ruins of the buildings of the Arc. The marble columns and blocks are fallen, strewn awry. Baha'u'llah walks from out of the distance and stands below me amongst the ruins. He begins to communicate with me directly from His Mind to mine. As He does I begin to slowly rise above the ruins. As I rise I begin to accelerate until I am fully out of the earth's atmosphere and can see the whole planet. What He communicated to me is, for now, between He and I.

I have seen the fulfillment of that dream in a figurative sense, the neglect and actions of The Universal House of Justice have brought the Arc to ruin.

The Baha'i Faith in the current condition in which it exists, because of The Universal House of Justice's seeking to reinstate former religious practices which Baha'u'llah Himself removed, in Abdu'l-Baha's Words : " is no religion."

It spite of these facts and the many confirmations of conscience, sign and Word, I can not now and will never recant my faith in Baha'u'llah; rather, those confirmations: Baha'u'llah's Words, my conscience, those signs - the dream of Baha'u'llah's Taj and His tent, the dream of the Arc in ruins, have verified for me that what was shown in those signs-dreams has unfortunately, because of The Universal House of Justice's neglect, already come to pass.

There is a way back though, a way back to God's Universality.

This would require that the Universal House of Justice openly admit, to the entire community of Baha', It's errors, It's neglect; and for It to take those steps that are necessary to reverse the damage which has been done to the Cause through those errors and neglect.

It's errors, in It's treatment of It's coreligionists Alison Marshall and Michael McKenny. It's neglect, in allowing the natural spectrum of cognitive styles expressed in the community of Baha', conservative through liberal, to become an excuse for seeing friends as enemies, for seeing friends as an "internal opposition", as an excuse for disunity, an excuse for seeing two where there is only one.

There is one thing that you should all, most clearly, understand. If You accept my withdrawal on the basis on which that I am offering it I will still remain a worshiper "of the appearance of the universal Manifestation".

I stand by my belief in the Universal Manifestation of Baha'u'llah, in His pivotal Teaching of the oneness of humanity, I thus cannot but regard all people 'as one soul', which of course includes all of you on the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly, all of you who are members of The Universal House of Justice, as well as Alison and Michael of course. The division You have drawn between Yourselves and them is non existent.This false division is beneath the dignity of Baha'u'llah's Teachings; beneath the manner in which we should all treat one another, a manner befitting of the truth that we are all ' as one soul'.

There is a way back for You, it is a sign of God's mercy that It is offered once again to You, that It is openly offered to us all : " recognize that their purpose ( Scriptures) is that all men shall be regarded as one soul, so that the seal bearing the words "The Kingdom shall be God's" may be stamped on every heart, and the light of Divine bounty, of grace, and mercy may envelop all mankind.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 260)

If You fail to avail Yourselves of this mercy the Mantle of the Cause will pass to others, of this have no doubt whatsoever.

There is only us, we are them, as one soul.

All the best on this fast!

Yours Larry

"Religion should unite all hearts and cause wars and disputes to vanish from the face of the earth, give birth to spirituality, and bring life and light to each heart. If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division, it were better to be without it, and to withdraw from such a religion would be a truly religious act. For it is clear that the purpose of a remedy is to cure; but if the remedy should only aggravate the complaint it had better be left alone. Any religion which is not a cause of love and unity is no religion. All the holy prophets were as doctors to the soul; they gave prescriptions for the healing of mankind; thus any remedy that causes disease does not come from the great and supreme Physician."

~ Abdu'l-Baha' ~

Former Baha'is and Ex-Baha'i Christians: Selected Testimonials

Bahai-Faith.com -- The Baha'i Faith: An Ex-Baha'i Christian View

Bahai-Faith.com founded November 2002. This page last updated July 14, 2005.