Hats off to the Chicago Tribune for finally exposing to the public the outrageous legal action by the NSA against a small group of the Orthodox Baha'is who are fighting for their First Amendment freedoms to practice their religion and speak out about it.
The article is here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bahai-18-may18,0,6239589.story
The article fails to mention that the Wilmette NSA lost its case against the Orthodox Baha'is and has it under appeal. It incorrectly implies that the OBF accept Mason Remey because Shoghi Effendi called him son. That is not OBF belief. Rather, the OBF believe that Shoghi Effendi appointed Mason Remey as second Guardian when he named him the "President" of the then embryonic Universal House of Justice called the International Baha'i Council. Also, the last sentence of the article was falsely attributed to Mr. Stockman when that statement was made by me. I was the one who said that: "It's not our desire to convert people. It's our desire to put our material out there for people to know what the truth is and decide themselves."
The article does make it clear to the world what the NSA is trying to do against the OBF, so I am thankful for that.
Regardless of how one stands on the controversy between the Orthodox Baha'is and the "mainstream" ones, most people cannot understand why the NSA with its "millions" of members cannot tolerate a small group of people who identify themselves as and sincerely believe they are Baha'is, by using the term "Orthodox Baha'is" to distinguish themselves from the "mainstream" group.
The truth is that this is an outrageous court aggression against the Orthodox Baha'is.
Jeffrey
Thank you for posting this clarification related to the the Tribune article. the Orthodox Baha'is are fortunate that the Tribune reporter had the courage to research, write, and do whatever it took in order to get her piece published.
It is interesting that, according to the article, the Wilmette group declined to comment about the matter. However, they no doubt advised the reporter that Robert Stockman might be available to offer some thoughts on behalf of the mainstream Baha'is; thus, he became their spokesman.
Posted by: David Maxwell | May 19, 2009 at 07:08 AM
I'm with NSA on this one... you guys need to find a TRUE religion and your "beliefs" should be categorized under cult!!!
Posted by: Eric | May 20, 2009 at 05:35 AM