Attempting to read about Bahá'í views on politics and economy, there seems to be a bit of a history of the Guardians having really lib takes, up to and including labeling communism as a "false god". Bahá'ís tend to be pretty deferent to the state authorities they live under, and also refuse to engage in party politics, which to me feels sort of yehhhh but also ehhhh. These Bahá'í policies feel like they probably have origins as survival strategies, when Bahá'ís have this history of persecution.
There are Bahá'ís who self-describe as Marxist, but these are few in number and are apparently ridiculed as oxymoronic; as a whole Bahá'ís seem to actively reject materialism as "satanic" and antithetical to their spirituality, and the notion of class warfare is seen by many Bahá'ís as a "divisive" view of humanity, and hence goes against the faith's teachings.
Simultaneously, Bahá'ís do seem to have some respect for Marxism, acknowledging parallels in the histories of Bahá'í Faith and Marxism, as well as recognizing the similarities of values held by Marxists and Bahá'ís, such as universal brotherhood; some Bahá'ís do acknowledge that their views of Marxism are colored by living in a liberal society, and are therefore more willing to actually engage with Marxist theory, to learn from it without embracing it wholeheartedly; and some of the common Bahá'í takes on politics are pretty decent in an apparently "stopped clock" kind of way.
So basically, I want to know: does anyone here have experiences with teaching Bahá'ís about Marxist ideas? Are there any organizations for Bahá'í Marxists? Have any of you met or interacted with any Marxist Bahá'ís? How do we feel about Bahá'ís in general, reconciling the Bahá'í Faith with Marxism in the same way as there are Marxists of other religions? Is this reconciliation possible? Is it worthwhile?
They’re not compatible. But who cares? If you believe in supernatural entities or powers or whatever concepts, I don’t care as long as you realize that power grows from the barrel of the gun, and food, housing, health, and employment must come first in relation to helping people, and only then do we have the luxury to explore the “secrets” or “truth” of life.
All gods and entities have placed you on this world to live in it, deal with it, and take care of it because it’s pretty clear none of them are interested in intervening on a mass scale.
All religion and politics are contradictory, even internally. There is no reason why you cannot have politically and spiritually contradicting beliefs as long as you’re aware of them and try to minimize them as you work towards the goal. And if you can’t minimize them? Like… not a big deal for 99% of the people unless you’re some theologian advisor to the council of elders and bishops.
Well, obviously there's the "opium of the masses" thing, the tension between materialist Marxism and idealist religion - I just mean that there are Marxists who are Muslims, who are Christians, who practice Judaism, et cetera, and there are Marxist movements that mobilize the masses of deeply religious societies.
Probably some things to note in the histories of those movements that make it more successful for Marxists to organize the religious. Are the religious folks being persecuted by some other political/military power? Are they able to comfortably feed and house their communities? Without buy in to within the societies they live in, seems like it would be an easier sell.
It's insanely difficult to not let my view of American Christianity's excesses taint my view of all religion. That said, we're talking about something so deeply rooted in human history that statistically someone somewhere of any given faith has had to reconcile their beliefs with socialism - and i'm sure plenty of them have done a good enough job to get by.
Latin American liberation theology suffered cot death, and black liberation theologians like James H. Cone are obviously not Marxists much less Marxist-Leninists.
From The Basic Viewpoint and Policy on the Religious Question during Our Country's Socialist Period:
IX. Communist Party Members and Religion; Relations with Religious Ethnic Minorities The fact that our Party proclaims and implements a policy of freedom of religious belief does not, of course, mean that Communist Party members can freely believe in religion. The policy of freedom of religious belief is directed toward the citizens of our country; it is not applicable to Party members. Unlike the average citizen, the Party member belongs to a Marxist political party, and there can be no doubt at all that s/he must be an atheist and not a theist. Our Party has clearly stated on many previous occasions: A Communist Party member cannot be a religious believer; s/he cannot take part in religious activities. Any member who persists in going against this proscription should be told to leave the Party. This proscription is altogether correct, and, as far as the Party as a whole is concerned, its implementation should be insisted on in the future. The present question concerns the implementation of this proscription among those ethnic minorities whose people are basically all religious believers. Here, implementation must follow the actual circumstances, and so make use of proper measures, not oversimplifying matters. We must realize that although a considerable number of Communist Party members among these ethnic minorities loyally implement the Party line, do positive work for the Party, and obey its discipline, they cannot completely shake off all religious influence. Party organizations should in no way simply cast these Party members aside, but should patiently and meticulously carry out ideological work while taking measures to develop more fully their positive political activism, helping them gradually to acquire a dialectical and historical materialist worldview and to gradually shake off the fetters of a religious ideology.
Huh, I hadn't heard of the Bahá'í before. Sound like an interesting crowd.
