With Bows of Gratefulness to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States:

Once again on Facebook and other venues, there have been a number of interesting discussions about GLBT people and their incorporation in the Bahá’í Faith. 

Unfortunately nothing is new – the conservatives continue to point out to those of us who already know that the writings say this or that, and appear to have free reign to spew their nonsense (essentially reminding us that we are not welcome). Though they will never really say so, because hiding their disgraceful homophobia behind a wall of the Sacred Writings, appears to give them power and weight. Instead they increasingly engage readers in the same tired discourse related to why the Faith cannot change (which I interpret why they do not want it to change). Meanwhile most of us GLBT folks, friends and family try to engage in other possibilities, trying to show that many other religious communities have found a way to ignore the very same teachings, and are welcoming GLBT people. But alas…

All of this has allowed me to recognize the “wisdom” of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States in removing my rights as a Bahá’í. In some unintended way, they have given me the opportunity to speak out fearlessly (what do I have to loose now?); investigate alternative truths and embrace Buddhism; to really come to question the need for organized religion at all; and even for the first time in my life question the actual existence of god him/herself…

This officially sanctioned homophobia by the Bahá’í leadership and majority of the Bahá’ís themselves, was for me, the final nail in the coffin  --no women on the UHJ was a major one, birth control, length of your hair, and some other weird and funky rules the Aqdas appears to be ready to implement -- that until then I was willing to forgo, and I like others accepted the official answer for etc… but now seeing that the shunning of science, reason and any sense of compassion for GLBT people is official, my concerns for all sorts of other oddities in the Faith opened up.  And the Faith looks like a cult or at best, silly, irrelevant and terribly sad…

To be honest, before having been defrocked, I was probably headed this way anyway… I had pretty much had it with the Bahá’ís in my community. I had made a couple of visits to the Shrines in Israel to pray and reflect and was treated coldly. Their officially sanctioned homophobia accelerated a process that I rather think was underway within anyway. So ian a funny way, their disgraceful act of showing me the door only allowed me to escape their cage.  A Fulbright research trip to Nepal and encounter with the Sacramento Buddhist Mediation Group confirmed what I was looking for -- a home, a refuge a sangha, that no Bahá’í Community has ever offered me. 

Removing my status as a member of the Bahá’í community unless I undergo some sort of treatment and divorce my husband, I think was intended to be a form of punishment for being a happy, open, and honest gay man.  But I rather think it has had the opposite effect, it has liberated me, made hundreds of people I know and love turn away from a religion that once held such promise, that once was held up to be progressive, loving and tolerant, and has shown the world that the Faith actually is no better than many of the other homophobic religions or cults it seeks to compete with.

So it is I offer bows of gratefulness to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States; may they liberate more and more people as time goes on!

Namaste!