@Deckard,
Deckard;167452 wrote:I think Buddhism and the Dalai Lllama will have more success than the Baha'i. It just bothers me that the UN has given this obscure 19th century faith recognition. Does that mean that the UN recognizes as some final prophet? It's just weird. The sacred texts of the Baha'i that I have found online are all translated into "thees" and "thous" to make it sound more impressive. But it was written in the 19th century so all the "thees" and "thous" seem terribly ironic. Maybe the original Arabic doesn't sound as silly. But the question remains how the heck did Baha'i get that recognition from the UN. Perhaps it was a matter of the UN needing some religion to support so as not to seem too secular, (or too socialist?) or since many member countries are very religious some facet of the UN ought to reflect that and thus balance the secular with religious. That makes some sense ... so some committee of UN people searched around until someone found the obscure19th century Persian cult leader and said "Aha! This will work! We can use this!"
History moves in mysterious ways. The UN may have done for Baha'i what Constantine did for Christianity and perhaps some years down the road with the help of a charismatic leader Baha'i will really catch on. Still, it's just weird enough to annoy me and maybe even me off the UN entirely; it's a fly in the ointment. I would like it better if the UN just severed all its special ties with the Baha'i. Nothing against the Baha'i. It seems like a real neato religion right up there with Mormonism and Scientology.
Actually, the relationship is much different than you portray it: The Baha'i Faith
supports the efforts of the United Nations to bring peace to the world and to find solutions to the world's problems. The Baha'i revelation is all about bringing humanity together in peace, so there are many Baha'is who put a lot of thought and research into how this might be accomplished. The document I mention in the OP was
"issued by the Baha'i International Community for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development". It is not that "the UN recognizes
as some final prophet," as you suggest. Rather, the Baha'i Faith, a vital and rapidly growing religion, agrees with many of the principles on which the UN was founded, and so make an effort to contribute to the highest goals of the UN.
If you can get past the "thees and thous", you might find some real wisdom in the Baha'i writings.
---------- Post added 05-23-2010 at 12:39 AM ----------
Deckard;167436 wrote:Even if we never joined the League of Nations, Woodrow Wilson laid down its founding principles. The UN headquarters is in New York. The relationship between the US and the UN is more complicated than you make it out to be. The echo chamber of the far right may go on and on how the UN is a useless organization that only gets in the way but overall I think the US relationship with the UN is not so simple. Overall the US is rather like a young man who recognizes that his relationship with a young woman is very important to him but still has some serious commitment issues.
I like your analogy here.
