I have tried to keep from wading into this issue, but I came across a Facebook comment by another Bahai that precisely expresses my feelings on this, and more eloquently than I could have done in my own words. Ive copied and pasted it below with permission from the commenter: While I have great sympathy for Ms. Kelly and generally agree with her stance on women, I can also see the other side of this. The LDS church is sort of being cast as the bad guy here, but they are doing what they believe to be the right thing. The Mormon teachings are what they are. They are purported to be of divine origin--I myself do not believe this, but Mormons do, and I respect their right to do so. I mean, thats why theyre Mormons, right? So if you believe in the divine origins of your faith and its scripture, do you not then accept the doctrines set forth in these scriptures? If you truly believe that the scriptures are from All-Knowing God, then if you disagree with them, youre wrong. When you agitate for change in the churchs fundamental scriptural doctrines, you are, in effect, disagreeing with God. If you do not believe or at least accept the teachings as divinely ordained and as such unchangeable (at least by you), then you are not really a Mormon. Why would you want to stay a Mormon but change the fundamental verities of the Mormon faith? It is clearly a patriarchal religion in which women are barred from certain positions and are subject to certain rules. If you dont like that, if you believe that this is not of God, dont be a Mormon. If you believe something is truly of God, you fit yourself to its shape; you do not mold it to agree with you. I speak as a Bahai, as a believer in the divine nature of our Founders and Writings. There are things in our doctrines that I find puzzling and even troubling, but I attribute that to my own finite understanding, not to any flaw or failing of the Teachings. I can see how a non-believer might perceive something as wrong or flawed, and how they might see my compliance with such Teachings as misguided or as a sort of brainwashing, but I once I accepted Bahaullah as Gods Messenger to humanity, I accepted everything He had to say, whether or not I like or understand it. If I want to change Bahaullahs laws, then I am essentially positioning myself as knowing better than He what God wants and intends for us. If I do this, why be a Bahai? I am sorry to go on at such length, and I hope I have made myself clear here. I have a lot of respect and sympathy for all the players in this drama. I realize that this could be misunderstood, but I want to make sure people understand a salient point about true religion, and that is its divine origins and nature and our own capacity to understand it as limited. Questioning some tenet or other is fine--why, how, who? But it is one thing to say, I dont like or understand this so I am going to look into it further and see what I can make of it. That is healthy and when done sincerely, with an open mind and sincere heart, can be extremely illuminating, revealing previously unsuspected truths, uplifting and refining our perceptions and sensibilities. It is another to say, I disagree with this so I am going to try to impose my own agenda, no matter how well intentioned and high-minded that agenda may be. Even though I believe Ms. Kellys intentions are good, and as I said, I generally agree with her opinion on women and leadership, I am not a Mormon. She is (was). My deepest gratitude to the commenter for sharing her thoughts on this difficult issue and allowing me to share them on my page.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:18:18 +0000
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