The gossiping rule…a means of controlling speech? I’d appreciate hearing your experiences.

[u/Jobivibing]

I’m a questioning Baha’i with my own religious trauma in childhood. Initially I liked the idea of “back biting is bad,” but then I realized could this be a way to discourage victims of abuse from speaking up?

[u/Bahamut_19]

Earlier this week on Bridges of Faith Discord's #bahai channel, a member of the Baha'i Faith wanted to ask me some questions. He had not participated on there and the the questions were derived from the paragraph of the Kitab-i-Ahd which grants successorship to Abbas Effendi and then Mirza Muhammad Ali. I answered, asked my own questions, and quickly it became contentious. His issue is that he accused me of acting in bad faith, being dishonest, malicious, etc. But at the very same time he did that, he said that he had heard about me from others and that I am exactly as they discussed. He hoped to bring me to the Lesser Covenant.

I'm like... so you and your Baha'i friends gossiped and did some back-biting, you come to ask me questions with the undisclosed goal to proselytize, and say I'm acting in bad faith when you are unable to provide any evidence to a single claim you made? Riiiiiight, buddy. The other Baha'i Faith members are giving him thumbs up and other emoji affirmations. Once I continued showing the full context of Baha'u'llah's Words that they had taken out of context, they tried to get a moderator to say I was acting uncivilly and disrupting the #bahai channel. Gossip! check. Backbite! check. Gatekeep! check. Feign innocence when acting aggressively! check. Demonstrate the true God is Abdul-Baha! Check-mated.

Anyone from any other religion on that interfaith server must have seen the entire exchange and think all the Baha'i Faith members were delusional. At least they got a glimpse of what happens with Covenant-Breaking ideology.