Month: September 2019

With this post, we continue our exploration of the Gospels of Jesus and their relationship with the Revelation of Baha’u’llah. 

One of the common themes in our modern social discourse is the question of moral standards and how people relate to them and to others in light of them.  In many traditional societies, right behavior was defined clearly, and people were taught these standards in their home, in their places of worship, in schools, and other social groups. A significant aspect of modern life has been the general break with those traditional standards with a greater focus on an individual’s freedom to express themselves in whatever way they would like.  Religion is sometimes portrayed as “conservative”, “authoritarian”, or even frankly oppressive.  The idea of following a “religious law” or adhering to high moral standards seems “old fashioned” and out of step with modern secular realities.  These considerations have turned off whole generations of people from religion, especially youth and young adults.  When people are exploring religion, one of the first things they want to know is how the faith fits along the spectrum from “liberal” to “conservative”, usually as it relates to the standards of moral behavior, particularly those involving sex. 

Undoubtedly, as our society has moved away from the revelations of the past, there has developed a spectrum among people and institutions in relation to traditional values-  those who either still adhere to traditional values, to those who find them meaningful but wish to “update” them, to those who reject them completely.  Protestant Christianity, in particular, has increasingly splintered itself along this spectrum, of what is considered “conservative” vs “liberal”.  It’s tempting to try and put Baha’u’llah’s revelation in this same paradigm, and judge it as one would other more traditional religions and sects of religions, but doing so severely limits one’s perspective on what Baha’u’llah has brought into the world.  Moreover, the spectrum does not even fit with the Gospels themselves, when we read them with an open mind and heart.  Indeed, both revelations, that of Christ and Baha’u’llah, challenge the very idea of a “liberal/conservative” spectrum in the first place. 

When we read the Gospels of Jesus Christ, we see that He was opposed primarily by a traditional religious structure focused on “right behavior” as defined by traditional Jewish law.  Jesus challenged that structure profoundly- first by the very fact that He claimed to be able to alter it, but also by the ways in which He expressed we should relate to divine standards in the first place.  Jesus intentionally flouted these traditional standards by associating himself with those regarded as outcasts from the traditional structures- “tax collectors”, “sinners”, and prostitutes.  He was active on the Sabbath day, the traditional day of rest, and stated it was He was Lord of the Sabbath- that is- the one who makes the laws as opposed to following them. In one passage, He and his disciples had broken the strict rules of eating in a certain manner and were challenged by the priests, to which He responded – “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach…What comes out of a person defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come- sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”.

 It’s clear from this passage and others that Jesus enjoined a high standard of personal morality, but that doesn’t mean that he condoned having a judgmental attitude about morality.  Indeed, there are just as many passages in which he promotes a certain attitude – a “spirit”- of generosity, magnanimity, and love for others.  He said that “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…”.  In the face of the hypocrisy of rich people and priests, he stated his love for the poor and downtrodden. In one instance, he watched as people made offerings at the temple, where many rich people “threw in large amounts”, but he highlighted “a poor widow who came in and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents”.  Jesus said- “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on.”

He told them the essence of belief was to love others-

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. ’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Though He called them to high standards of personal morality, he taught them not to judge others– Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you…Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

As one reads these passages, it becomes evident that Jesus did not take a “cookbook” approach to human virtue.  Virtue was a balance of high standards of personal morality, but also a spirit of love, detachment, generosity, and a non-judgmental attitude at all times. Indeed, this “spiritual” aspect of Christ’s message was one of the main things that made it so revolutionary, powerful, and attractive to the many generations that followed.  Christ taught us that religious standards and laws, when divorced from the spirit that animates them, could and indeed did become oppressive to people. He was responding to a situation in which that had occurred in His time.  But the answer wasn’t to throw out or ignore appropriate moral standards, but to animate them with love, humility, and a true spirit of service.  Without the “love of God”, those standards were just empty shells.

So was Jesus a liberal or a conservative? The answer is that He transcended all such categories- and He expected us to do the same. In the next post in this series, we will further explore these ideas as they are expressed in Baha’u’llah’s Revelation.