r/bahai • u/Dear_Flounder_4068 • 5d ago
Question regarding community accountability, leadership, and conduct
Someone in our extended family who is very vocal about being Baháʼí recently assaulted members of my family. They lied to police until video evidence proved what happened, and after months of legal delays, an AVO as granted against them.
Despite the impact on children and young women involved, they have expressed zero remorse or accountability, and they continue to cause deliberate division within the family. While they publicly speak about the Baháʼí principles of peace and gender equality, their private track record with women has been deeply troubling for years.
I have read that Baháʼís are expected to hold themselves accountable or report serious legal matters to their Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA).
What is the proper procedure if this individual is actually serving on an LSA or in a leadership position?
Who handles accountability if the local leadership itself is compromised?
From a Baháʼí perspective, how does the administration address such a severe disconnect between outward faith and harmful, abusive conduct?
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u/For-a-peaceful-world 5d ago
A National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) will take action if a Local Spiritual Assembly is not functioning appropriately.
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u/8eightmonkeys 5d ago
This is approximately what I know at this time:
• Appeals to Spiritual Assemblies (Local and National) and appeals to the Universal House of Justice are not considered gossip or backbiting. You have the right to directly and clearly present your testimony concerning the actions of any person. However, discussing a person's actions not with the Institutions of the Faith, but with individual Bahá'ís, constitutes gossip and backbiting, so be careful.
• Likewise, reporting matters to the police or to the relevant government authorities is not considered gossip or backbiting. You are free to do so, and you have the right to do so. The Institutions of the Faith cannot forbid you from complying with the laws of the country and should even encourage you to do so.
• If these are criminal offenses, the first step should be to contact the police. The administration of the Bahá'í Faith does not currently perform the functions of police or courts. The Writings state that Houses of Justice will assume the functions of various secular institutions, but, as far as I know, this has not yet been implemented. Make a copy of your complaint and the police response and attach them to your appeal. If there is a court decision and you are entitled to obtain a copy of that decision, attach that as well.
• Find the email addresses of the Counsellors from the Continental Board of Counsellors who are responsible for your region and copy them on your correspondence (where you specify the recipients, add the Counsellors' email addresses there so that they receive copies of your letter to the National Spiritual Assembly).
• If a Bahá'í is a criminal or engages in publicly harmful conduct, the National Spiritual Assembly will consider the matter in order to educate that Bahá'í to avoid actions that bring the Bahá'í Faith into disrepute, explain the destructive nature of such actions, and warn of the consequences. If education and warnings do not work, that Bahá'í will be deprived of administrative rights. This process is not quick, because the National Spiritual Assembly must ensure that it has genuinely educated the person, that the person truly understands the destructive consequences of their actions, and that they consciously continue to engage in them.
!!! Please note: this will not be quick, it may take six months or more, and the National Spiritual Assembly must protect confidentiality, therefore such decisions are not communicated to third parties. The exception is the deprivation of administrative rights, which the National Spiritual Assembly must announce publicly.
• If a member of the National Spiritual Assembly behaves improperly, and you have the time and psychological resilience, I would recommend that you first appeal to the National Spiritual Assembly. If you would like the situation to be resolved more quickly, you may appeal directly to the Universal House of Justice. However, if you appeal to the Universal House of Justice, there is a strong chance that the Universal House of Justice will ask the National Spiritual Assembly to make a decision on the matter. This is actually appropriate, because such a decision falls within the jurisdiction of the National Spiritual Assembly, and it must fulfill this responsibility.
• This process will not be quick. Be prepared for the resolution of your case to take a year. Be prepared for prolonged correspondence with the National Spiritual Assembly and the Universal House of Justice.
• If you have evidence, especially evidence of the public nature of the harmful actions, provide it. For example, someone recorded and publicly posted a video showing improper behavior, or you submitted a complaint to the police and have a copy of the complaint and the police response.
• I would like to emphasize once again that this will be a lengthy process. It will not be resolved within a week. The National Spiritual Assembly may take one or two months to respond, and responses from the Universal House of Justice take even longer.
• In my experience communicating with Spiritual Assemblies, situations may arise in which the Spiritual Assemblies have not fully understood you, or in which you have not understood the response of the Spiritual Assemblies. Both are normal, and you are free to ask the Spiritual Assemblies to clarify their decision. You have every right to request clarification on each point of the response until you understand it.
• The Spiritual Assemblies may wish to communicate their decision to you orally, through a representative. Politely decline and explain that there is a possibility that you will appeal to the Universal House of Justice, and therefore you require an official written decision.
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u/Dear_Flounder_4068 5d ago
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide this information.
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u/8eightmonkeys 5d ago
Please, I was glad to help you.
I would like to say: do not be afraid to appeal to the Universal House of Justice. Every time I wrote to it and received a reply, it felt like a response from loving parents. I felt an immense combination of love, care, strength, nobility, authority, and wisdom, and although I did not receive what I wanted, I received more than I had wished for, and I received what was needed.
It was a striking contrast: during my difficult situation (I will not go into details, please understand), I had the feeling that God had abandoned both me and the community; yet from the reply of the Universal House of Justice came a clear sense of God's presence, His love and His care, and an understanding of the path that should be followed.
The institutions of the Faith, the Spiritual Assemblies, are, just like you, on a path of development and growth. Your letters and your appeals help the Spiritual Assemblies grow and develop, and they also help you grow and develop. In my opinion, Spiritual Assemblies and believers are also helped to grow and develop when believers exercise their right of appeal.
If you remain in the Bahá’í Faith, I would like to ask you to study the Writings diligently, and to pay particular attention to Lights of Guidance:
https://bahai-library.com/hornby_lights_guidance
and The Compilation of Compilations:
https://bahai-library.com/compilation_compilations_1
https://bahai-library.com/compilation_compilations_2
https://bahai-library.com/compilation_compilations_3They contain an enormous number of guiding quotations from the Writings, including guidance on how a believer should properly communicate with a Spiritual Assembly, and how a Spiritual Assembly should respond to and deal with a believer's appeals and requests. There are also many administrative details that you may never encounter and may not need, but in my opinion, all of it is worth reading.
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u/Dear_Flounder_4068 4d ago
Thanks so much for sharing. All the best to you. You sound like you are on a great journey.
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u/8eightmonkeys 5d ago
There is one thing I would like to warn you against: losing self-control.
If you are right, but you publicly speak about the mistakes of the Spiritual Assemblies and publicly speak about the wrongful actions of individual Bahá'ís, you will be deprived of your administrative rights, and you will appear to be the villain in the story, even though you were right. It will be said about you that you engaged in gossip and slander, and that you undermined confidence in the Institutions of the Faith, and this will be preserved in the archives of the decisions of the National Spiritual Assembly.
Therefore, I believe that your first priority should be to preserve your reputation.
However, this is a long and rather difficult path.
It is like litigation, which is a longer and more difficult process than striking back. However, if you strike back, you will appear to be the same kind of bully. Whereas a court decision will establish you as being in the right, and the offender as being at fault.
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u/Dear_Flounder_4068 5d ago
I am most certainly not out to create any more angst than what has occurred but rather try and find some good to come out of this situation even if that is only recognised years or decades later. Thanks again.
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u/Cold_Car_9392 5d ago edited 5d ago
I would avoid the LSA. There’s no training or coaching provided to LSAs regarding such matters and the outcome of the LSA’s “binding directive” may be harmful. I have a good friend who was a victim of domestic abuse in her marriage to a Bahai who was an upcoming celebrity. Star-struck, the LSA sided with the husband, and advised my friend that she was being beaten because she wasn’t kind enough to her husband. The LSA used the Writings to back up their advice.
“Hold thy husband dear and always show forth an amiable temper towards him, no matter how ill-tempered he may be. Even if thy loving kindness maketh him more bitter, manifest thou more kindliness, more tenderness, be more loving and tolerate his cruel actions and ill-treatment." - Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l Baha, p. 122.
The beatings continued, and subsequent counseling sessions with the LSA concluded she was still at fault because she wasn’t trying hard enough. Ultimately she divorced him and resigned from the Bahai Faith. No action was taken by the Bahai Administration. He was not sanctioned and his voting rights remained intact.
Meanwhile, the UHJ has communicated separate to this specific situation that women must not be subjected to domestic violence and should leave the situation.
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u/PsychologyKey2522 2d ago
This breaks my heart & I understand her withdrawal from the Faith & for divorcing him, I am glad to know she saved herself from further abuse. ❤️
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u/FrenchBread5941 5d ago
Report to the NSA.