We have unsealed the choice cyanide kool-aid!

I had to laugh out loud over the recent admission by a sans-Guardian Bahai in the talk.religion.bahai newsgroup who insisted that Baha'u'llah revealed the "stifling rules and regulations" enforced by the Bahai organization currently occupying Haifa and Wilmette.

Anyone with familiarity with that organization knows that their religion consists of a series of endless edicts about what one can or cannot think, do or say in every conceivable situation.  They pump out book after book of "guidance" to tell their faithful flock how they are supposed to think and behave about everything for the sake of "unity."  If perchance there is some area of their lives not covered by their stifling rules and regulations, there is only one thing to do about it. Not sure which shade of lipstick to use?  Is it OK for unmarried persons to kiss? With or without tongue?  Shoot off a letter to God's supposed representative on this earth, their so-called Universal House of Justice and ask them to please tell me what to do, what to say, what to believe. 

Of course, you can't have stifling rules and regulations without stifling ENFORCEMENT.  Luckily, there is a unified community of single-minded busybodies to get the job done.  The non-stop job of the Bahai busybodies is to make sure that nobody is breaking any of the stifling rules and regulations and to punish those who do, so that their precious Faith will not fall into disrepute:

Busybody 1: "What time did Jane come home last night?" 
Busybody 2: "Did she even come home? She was on a date and never came home at all!"
Busybody 1; "Who is she sleeping with? We need to have a talk with her and remind her that she will risk losing her (gasp) voting rights!"
Busybody 2:  "LuAnne never goes out on dates.  I wonder if she is at home masturbating? The UHJ said that was definitely not allowed."
Busybody 1:  "I wonder how we can find out?  We need to spy on her for the sake of the community."
Busybody 2:   "Is John drinking again?  Peter saw him in a bar the other night." 
Busybody 1:  "Oh really, what was Peter doing in a bar?"
Busybody 2:  "Good point.  I better report him to the LSA."

Am I exaggerating?  Perhaps.  But I have seen this kind of mind-boggling interference with people's lives when I was a cult member of this Bahai community.

But you know I have read up quite a bit on the Bahai Revelation over the years and frankly I cannot remember reading in the words of the founding figures of this Faith the remotest reference to the need for a Bahai community to organize for the purpose of spying upon and enforcing the personal "laws" of the Faith.

Baha'u'llah had this to say about His rules and regulations:

"Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power. To this beareth witness that which the Pen of Revelation hath revealed. Meditate upon this, O men of insight!"  Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 21

Let's meditate upon this for a moment.  He did not say that He wanted you to drink the cyanide-laced kool-aid of sicko cultists.  He said it was the choice Wine.  Note the capital letters.  I think that has something to do with God-intoxication and not a network of busybodies making sure everybody is doing the right thing, saying the right thing, and thinking the right thoughts. 

There is an idea. God intoxication.  That is, a soul in connection with the Beloved.  Mystic intercourse with the Holy Spirit.  Remember that spiritual stuff?

Could it be that the personal laws of the Bahai revelation are guidelines for leading a spiritual life that each person needs to internalize within his or her own life? 

Could it be that the purpose of the Bahai revelation is the spiritual growth of the entire community by each member of that community fighting his or her own spiritual battles?

Could it be that the role of the community and its administrative institutions is to foster and facilitate this growth and not to promulgate and enforce stifing rules and regulations that lord over the individual members?

I think it could be. 

The thing that really amazes me is that there so many individuals who are willing to allow others to impose external control over their minds and bodies.  Why don't they wake up?