Modern Religious Cults and MovementsAtkins, Gaius Glenn
Religion
Modern Religious Cults and Movements
Atkins, Gaius Glenn
Christian Science; New Thought; Religion; Spiritual healing
During the greater part of his life Baha'u'llah was either an exile or a
prisoner. From 1868 until his death in 1892 he was confined with seventy
of his followers in the penal colony of Acca on the Mediterranean coast.
Meanwhile the faith which centered about him changed character; he was
no longer a gate or herald, he was himself a "manifestation of God"
with authority to change all earlier teaching. He really universalized
the movement. Beneath his touch religion becomes practical, ethical,
less mystic, more universal. He was possessed by a passion for universal
peace and brotherhood. He addressed letters to the crowned heads of
Europe asking them to cooperate in peace movements. It has been
suggested that the Czar of Russia was influenced thereby and that we may
thus trace back to Baha'u'llah the peace movement which preceded the
war.
Pilgrims came and went and through their enthusiasms the movement
spread. After his death there was the renewal of disputes as to the
proper succession and consequent schisms. The power came finally into
the hands of Abdul-Baha who was kept under supervision by the Turkish
government until 1908. He was freed by the declaration of the New
Constitution and carried on thereafter with real power a worldwide
propaganda. He had an unusual and winning personality, spoke fluently in
Persian, Arabic and Turkish and more nearly than any man of his time
filled the ideal role of an Eastern prophet. He died in November, 1921,
and was buried on Mt. Carmel--with its memories of Elijah and
millenniums of history--his praises literally being sung by a most
catholic group of Mohammedans, Jews and Eastern Christians.
_The Temple of Unity_
Bahaism as it is held in America to-day is distilled out of the writings
and teachings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha. Naturally enough, in the
popularization of it its contradictions have been reconciled and its
subtleties disregarded. What is left fits into a variety of forms and is
in line with a great range of idealism. The twelve basic principles of
Bahaism as announced in its popular literature are:
The Oneness of Mankind.
Independent investigations of truth.
The Foundation of all religions is one.
Religion must be the cause of unity.
Religion must be in accord with science and reason.
Equality between men and women.
Prejudice of all kinds must be forgotten.
Universal Peace.
Universal Education.
Solution of the economic problem.
An international auxiliary language.
An international tribunal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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