Oh dear......... As far as I know, nobody ever tried to debate about Bahai (in my time here), and arthra's posts to remind of feasts and other activities were interesting.... always left in peace........ until the thread about unfair judgements/sentences upon three ladies in Iran.
And now Juan Cole's very clear ideas are to be criticise...... To be absolutely clear about the piece of Cole's that has been shown, here is a statement that was produced by the Bahai bosses in the past:-
‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah,’ a letter that is entirely devoted to explaining the principles underlying the Bahai Administrative Order,
'He thinks your question is well put: what the Guardian was referring to was the theocratic systems, such as the Catholic Church and the Caliphate, which are not divinely given as systems, but man-made, and yet, being partly derived from the teachings of Christ and Muḥammad are in a sense theocracies. The Bahai theocracy, on the contrary, is both divinely ordained as a system and, of course, based on the teachings of the Prophet Himself '.
" Inasmuch as the Order of Bahá’u’lláh is an integral part of the divine Revelation that He, as a Manifestation of God, has given us, one could say that this Order is essentially theocratic, but inasmuch as it is entirely devoid of any kind of clergy or priesthood, it is not at all a "theocracy" in the sense in which the term is generally used and understood. (Universal House of Justice"
The Baha’i Commonwealth of the future, of which this vast Administrative Order is the sole framework, is, both in theory and practice, not only unique in the entire history of political institutions, ..............................
If any wish to see the whole piece, I'll show it, but it's big.
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