Planet Bahá'í

Years ago I used to see with some frequency a bumper sticker that read, "Christians are not perfect, just forgiven." I couldn't help but think that a lot of people might find the wording rather haughty, as if to say, "Ha ha, I'm forgiven and you're not!" Not that I suppose people sticking said bumper sticker on their bumpers remotely thought of that possibility of course.

It should go without saying that, like the rest of humanity, religious people are not perfect. As a youth, I remember the associate pastor of my church once commenting that it can be very difficult for clergy, because congregations tend to look up to them and expect them to be morally and spiritually better than everyone else, when in fact they are simply just like everyone else. Their distinction is chiefly that they are trained to do a particular job, just as a welder or a teacher or a software developer is trained to do a particular job.

So if religious leaders are pretty much like everyone else, why would we expect the rank-and-file of a religion—any religion—to necessarily be morally or spiritually better than anyone else? Of course, the followers of a religion have a calling to strive each day to become better than they were before, and those who succeed in this calling do achieve a relatively higher state of moral and spiritual development. Jesus called His followers to perfection, and Bahá'u'lláh likewise called His followers to acquire perfections. Indeed, 'Abdu'l-Bahá directly said that Bahá'ís should strive to not be "just like everyone else":

I desire distinction for you. The Bahá'ís must be distinguished from others of humanity. But this distinction must not depend upon wealth -- that they should become more affluent than other people. I do not desire for you financial distinction. It is not an ordinary distinction I desire; not scientific, commercial, industrial distinction. For you I desire spiritual distinction -- that is, you must become eminent and distinguished in morals. In the love of God you must become distinguished from all else. You must become distinguished for loving humanity, for unity and accord, for love and justice. In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the human world -- for faithfulness and sincerity, for justice and fidelity, for firmness and steadfastness, for philanthropic deeds and service to the human world, for love toward every human being, for unity and accord with all people, for removing prejudices and promoting international peace. Finally, you must become distinguished for heavenly illumination and for acquiring the bestowals of God. I desire this distinction for you. This must be the point of distinction among you.

('Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 190)

This goal is before us, and one hopes that we are all working towards it. Yet we are nevertheless all human, just like everyone else on the planet, and moreover we have all grown up surrounded to one degree or another by all of the problems afflicting humanity. These problems cannot help but leave a mark on us, and most of us will spend a lifetime struggling to overcome them, heal from them, and move on. Even then, we may be left with a few scars.

So it often happens that we become aware of Bahá'ís who have "issues," and sometimes downright serious issues. These issues range from personality quirks that unsettle or even disrupt communities to serious psychological and behavioral problems that may require professional treatment. Recently in the Planet Bahá'í Forum, a member posted a message about how their encounter with a handful of Bahá'ís with serious behavioral problems nearly drove them away from the Faith. (I've linked to this discussion at the end of this article.)

Why do we react this way to imperfection? We know full well, if we have bothered to look around the world just a little bit, that it often happens that people who do great things also have great problems, and that people with great problems can nevertheless do great things. Although this may seem contradictory on the surface, in reality it simply is a sign of human complexity. Long ago one of my coworkers came to the office in the morning and said to me, "Today's the anniversary of John Lennon's death. Now we're going to have to listen to his music all day long." At first I wondered why this was a problem. John was a brilliant songwriter, even though his brilliance sometimes veered off into the bizarre. (But brilliance does that with some frequency!) Then I realized it was because my colleague was a conservative Christian, and he objected to John's moral and religious views. As a result, he was unable to accept the good things he had done.

Black-and-white thinking, in other words. But the world is not black and white. It's an incredible range of colors.

This is why the Bahá'í teachings state that as individuals we must learn to overlook the faults of others and focus instead on their good qualities. Everyone is going to manifest some flaws, some faults, and many of us will manifest some pretty serious ones. We can't let that get in the way of recognizing that everyone also has good in them. We are made in God's image, so there must be good in every single one of us. We can only develop that good by making it our focus. Moreover, ultimately we can only develop our communities by developing our individual spiritual qualities and in unity applying them to the issues of our communities. Shoghi Effendi addressed this on various occasions, such as here:

You must not make the great mistake of judging our Faith by one community which obviously needs to study and obey the Bahá'í teachings. Human frailties and peculiarities can be a great test. But the only way, or perhaps I should say the first and best way, to remedy such situations, is to oneself do what is right. One soul can be the cause of the spiritual illumination of a continent. Now that you have seen, and remedied, a great fault in your own life, now that you see more clearly what is lacking in your own community, there is nothing to prevent you from arising and showing such an example, such a love and spirit of service, as to enkindle the hearts of your fellow Bahá'ís.

(from a letter dated 30 September 1949 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer)

I feel it's important to make a distinction here between overlooking the faults of others and turning a blind eye towards truly serious behavioral issues. Clearly if someone is abusing others, that abuse needs to be stopped. It would be injustice to allow it to continue. 'Abdu'l-Bahá notes that society has an obligation to protect its members, and within the Bahá'í Faith there are administrative channels for dealing with serious issues. In the context of a small community, as many Bahá'í communities are at the present, this distinction can sometimes seem fuzzy. But Shoghi Effendi set forth the difference very clearly:

There is a tendency to mix up the function of the Administration and try to apply it in individual relationships, which is abortive, because the Assembly is a nascent House of Justice and is supported to administer according to the Teachings, the affairs of the community. But individuals toward each other are governed by love, unity, forgiveness and sin-covering eye. Once the friends grasp this they will get along much better, but they keep playing Spiritual Assembly to each other and expect the Assembly to behave like an individual... "

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, October 5, 1950)

In other words, in our individual relationships we must be ready to overlook and forgive all manner of imperfections, but if we feel that a situation is serious enough to warrant it, then we should lay it before the proper authority—usually a Local Spiritual Assembly in the case of a problem in the Bahá'í community.

Undoubtedly Bahá'ís, individuals as well as communities, have a long way to go before they can claim to be even remotely approaching the lofty goals Bahá'u'lláh has set before us. In the meantime, let's try to develop the good in ourselves and look for the good in each other, and remember that even though we all have our flaws, we are nevertheless made in God's image and are loved by Him, one and all.

Even John Lennon is.

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out?

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

(The Beatles, "Revolution", Lennon-McCartney; appeared in various forms on The Beatles [aka The White Album, released November 1968] and as the flip side of the single "Hey Jude".)