And some day I am bitter:
Product Details
- Paperback: 134 pages
- Publisher: Blurb.com; 1st edition (November 15, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 160725526X
- ISBN-13: 978-1607255260
- Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,699,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Editorial Reviews
Review
Nancy Ellen Walker's first novel manuscript was 'inadvertently
destroyed" some decades back by a Baha'i reviewer who condemned it for
saying the Baha'i Faith's founder was "awesome." It started her thinking
about the poet-god Baha'u'llah and the metaphor he created for his
life: a prisoner and an exile. Today, that metaphor is strong in the
Baha'i community, and Baha'i administration itself has taken on the role
of pash and sultan. It drives its members into corridors of fear and
submission to denial of conscience while presenting front populated by
Ph.D.s and professionals who woo government and media for
respectability. Emerging from the Baha'i organization was like
getting a very slow divorce. It was challenged by Baha'i administrators
who employed tactics of secrecy, silence, and slander to remove her from
the community. Ultimately, Ms.Walker sees g Baha'i world administration
(which begins in your neighborhood) as an attempt by Western Baha'is to
imitate Sharia law - even though Islam regards the Baha'i Faith as a
poseur religion. The opportunities for slavish worship and for
unquestioned control of the worshipper's conscience thrive in this
'religion' that forbids its members to read material of its many
"enemies" - those who stand for the right to read their own history, and
worship as their conscience dictates. The Baha'i Faith has evolved
in less than 200 years from the musings of a a disgruntled
poet-aristocrat to an organization that is ready to claim kinship and
supremacy over all other world religions. Ms.Walker finds its mighty
claims and aims are the result of a long Perisan family feud that has
squandered its resources to build a garden park on Mount Carmel and
attempt control of the writings of its central and peripheral figures.
The gravity and solemnity demanded by the Baha'is towards almost
anything 'Baha'i' is the target of this book. Ms.Walker exposes with
wit, satire, essay and images the futility of a few people to organize
mankind into a collective. Thanks to the Internet she has explored
the big empty spaces in Baha'i history. She tackled the 'forbidden'
texts and sorted out the history Baha'is are forbidden to examine on
pain of excommunication. What she found was real men and women who,
whatever they thought of God, had very human needs, fears, and desires,
and made very human choices to achieve their ends. Ms.Walker shows
that the Baha'is have never refused to dress their heroes in something
more than a human can bear, and it is the raiment they end up
worshipping. The real founder, the man Husayn Ali, his sons, his family -
are quite forgotten. This book brings them down from Mt.Carmel so we
can see them as people just like us. One of the Baha'i catch phrases
is "We Are One." Well, we ARE one, when we see each others' humanity and
divinity without distinction. At such times it is impossible to mount
character attacks and excommunication proceedings against anyone. We are
one. This is the message of " Baha'i - A Field Guide to the Faith" by
MrDonut. And why MrDonut? MrDonut is a companion cat who lends his
name to the author in the same way Baha'is lend titles to real people:
for distance, for removal of ego, for affection. --MrDonut
About the Author
A late-blooming Bennington girl. Believes in pounding a guitar , blowing harmonicas, and looking for new keys with the local acoustic players. Always book-crazy. Looked deeply into many places for that Self and found it while committed to making her parents' last years some of their best. Now settling comfortably into Tao, sometimes called a state of grace. Her first published book 'Bahai A Field Guide to the Faith' is big medicine for a drooping soul. Her first novel manuscript was 'inadvertently destroyed" some decades back by a Baha'i reviewerwho objected to associating the word "awesome" with "Baha'u'llah", even though Mr.Baha'u'llah referred to himself in terms not unlike it. The Zen of it started her thinking about the poet-god Baha'u'llah and the metaphor he created for his life: a prisoner and an exile. Emerging from the Baha'i organization was like getting a very slow divorce, made easier by the fact that she was both officially shunned and unofficially excommunicated. Finally she was free to read the forbidden Things! She sees the vast and far-reaching Baha'i world administration (which begins in your neighborhood) ultimately as an attempt by Western Baha'is to imitate Sharia law - even though Islam regards the Baha'i Faith as a poseur religion. She sees the Baha'i Faith as an article of genuine human evolution, from a disgruntled aristocrat's musings to an organization that is ready to claim kinship and supremacy over all other world religions. She finds its mighty claims and aims are the result of a long Perisan family feud that has squandered its resources to build a garden park on Mount Carmel and attempt to bring under its control the lovers of the writings of its central and peripheral figures.
Found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160725526X/ref=kinw_rke_tl_1
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