Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00637)

In a message dated 5/24/05 7:34:50 AM Central Daylight Time, 
kpauljohnson@yahoo.com writes:

<< (Like you, I won't call Baha'u'llah evil. 
But have no such reticence about the Bab-- maybe it's because I'm a 
librarian but this business of burning of unbeliever books is way way 
over the top, irredeemable.)
>>

Whoops, I'm in trouble.

Many years ago I suggested that the Wheaton Study Center become a lodge 
(before they got called "branches" and name itself the Caliph Omar Lodge because we 
met in the Olcott Library. The joke was that when anyone asked me why, I 
would say because he burned the Library of Alexandria (again) around 750 CE.

Of course I was joking.

Learning about the Bahai's was a real surprise for me. Before you created 
your short lived list a few years back, I figured that Bahai's were sort of like 
Theosophists with weirdly named leaders and better architecture. Hoo Ha!!!! 
Was I ever wrong. And then, to make matters worse (though I'm not quite sure 
for whom) I learned that a literally deranged ex-girlfriend of mine from 30 
years ago was a ex-Bahai (the Bahai have my sympathies on that one! It was the 
ending of our relationship that got me into the TS!) and she had even fewer 
good things to say about them than she has to say about me. I mean, she became 
a Roman Catholic and considered it an improvement!!!!!

I'm not sure if the analysis is totally translateable to the TS. After all, 
Theosophists may attack authors but they rarely advocate killing them and I 
know of few incidents where those of us who depart from the party line have been 
physically assaulted though the arguments can get rather noisy causing the 
neighbors to call the police.

Still, on the whole, a very good little article. Thanks. It made me almost 
wish I had been a Bahai. Being a heretic in that bunch would have had some 
meaning.

Chuck the Heretic