En moderna religio tutmonda, aparte tia sen pastrara elito, sed en kiu ja abundas ne-elektitaj estroj en, kiel ekzemple (a) Bahaa Esperanto-Ligo (b) Kontinentaj Konsilantaroj, kune kun iliaj Helpdirektoraroj kaj ankaŭ iliaj teamanoj tra multaj regionoj (anglalingve: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institution_of_the_Counsellors ) kaj en (c) centoj da bahaaj centroj amaso da kunlaborantoj, ĉu salajrigitoj ĉu volontuloj (d) tra la mondo influhavaj akademiuloj, kaj (e) eble la plej konataj, kaj definitive ne-balotitaj estroj bahaaj, t.e. la proprietuloj de enormaj ne-oficialaj bahaaj blogoj en kiuj ili ofte forbaras komentojn pri Esperanto bonvenigante tamen jesemajn samkredanojn kies funkcioj kaj karieroj baziĝas je la lingvo de Ŝekspiro, jen kun ega bedaŭro mi identigas la plejan problemon aktualan en la bahaa komunumo: Inter multaj (kaj mutaj!) bahaanoj, ĉu ordinaruloj, ĉu Domanoj en Ĥajfo (kiel unuopaj sekvantoj de Baha'u'llah) kies elstara principo fundamenta de ĉiuj komune agnoskata estas 'sendependa enketado pri la vero por si mem’ por ke mal- aperu malveraĵoj, staras pruvite kaj registrite akuzo nerefutebla koncerne ne-plenumatan devon en oficialaj bahaaj tekstoj rilate esploradon kaj promocion de la lingvo-principo, inkluzivante pri Esperanto en kia ajn rolo, malambiguan obligacion, pri kiu vi pritaksu gekaraj: https://www.bandeeducation.com/la-principo-de-universala-help-lingvo https://www.bandeeducation.com/bahaanoj-konsultenda-estas-la-helplingva-principo (La denaska lingvo de la unusola baha-esperantista estro en la anglosfero estas la rumana. Vortigis tiu kanadano bedaŭrinde nenion en la montreala UK ĉar li estis for, sed mi vetus la lastan cendon, se bahaanoj rajtus vet-spekulacii, ke Reĝino Maria de Rumanio, mem bahaa esperantisto, spirite helpis esperantigi lin.) Kaj do la damaĝo daŭras, en la senco (1) ke la nombro da bahaaj esperantistoj triste ŝrumpis al nura 300 el la ok miliona bahaanaro kaj (2) ke elde la germana NSA la kerna baha-esperantisto ne petos, jam longan tempon, oficialan ĝisdatigon pri antikva instrukcio fare de la Universala Domo de Justeco (Ĥajfo) per kiu Bahaa Esperanto-Ligo kiel institucio ne rajtas ekpaŝi por esperantigi bahaanojn: https://www.bandeeducation.com/malhonora-skandalo-1974 kaj (3) ke nova eseo en kiu la esperantisteco de Baha'u'llah evidentiĝas (nesurprizige?) estas ignorata de la anglalingva bahaanaro sed (paradokse!) ankaŭ de la BELanaro https://www.bandeeducation.com/hypocrisy-in-religion kaj (4) ke en sia ĉijara jubilea broŝuro* BEL misinformas la esperantistaron per la propra (tiel maltaŭga!) interpretado de kion vortigis la bahaa Gardanto al sia sekretario pri Esperanto. Per misgvida atentigo pri t.n. nenia devo studi ĝin (malkiel ofte instrukciis Abdul Baha!) bazita je iuj leteroj en la nomo de Shoghi Effendi al iuj unuopuloj pri manko de obligacio instrui ĝin, la sekretario de BEL anoncas studadon kaj promocion de Esperanto ne deviga flanke de bahaanoj: https://bahaiforums.com/t/media-release-an-expos%C3%89-on-religion-an-illicit-cover-up.25655/ Vidu:# 18, Septembro 14, 2023. Ĉu samkiale, Bernhard ne petis ĝisdatigon de Ĥajfo ke BEL ne rajtas promocii Esperanton inter bahaanoj? 

Maria de Saksio-Koburgo kaj Gotao, reĝino de Rumanio. Maria de Rumanio - Vikipedio (wikipedia.org) Konata inter esperantistoj estas la bahaaneco de reĝino Maria, kaj ŝia renomo tiagrade ke en 1926 Novjorkanoj dotis ŝin per Parado Ticker Tape https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1OXYcbPIJs&ab_channel=kamasis Eble vi tamen ne scias, kara samideano, ke ŝi kaj la plej elstara bahaa ĉampiono, usonanino Martha Root de Pitsburgo, interamikiĝis kaj interŝanĝis Esperanto-donacojn ĉar ambau estis esperantistoj.

Por lamente bedaŭri la nunan dezerton baha-esperantan, konsekvence de nescieco, kiu en si mem, almenaŭ kiel portempa fenomeno, ne estas peko sed entute ne akcepteblas en ajna gvidanto alparolanta la publikon, jen en la ‘diabla’ angla lingvo pruvaĵoj pri devoj en du-paĝa faldfolio: https://www.bandeeducation.com/the-principle-of-a-universal-auxiliary-language Aŭ alternative vi bonvolu mem pritaksi, intence malhelpan, aŭ, facilanime ne-informitan aliron, fare de bahaaj gvidantoj en Aŭstralio, Britio, Kanado, Novzelando kaj Usono. * Pro malnobla malengaĝiĝo ĉe preskaŭ ĉiuj miaj samreligianoj - en la anglosfero - pro memevidenta neglekto de la baza bahaa principo de plena kaj travidebla konsultado, apenaŭ unu animo el la ok miliona bahaanaro rekonas la pruvitan esperantistecon de la Fondinto, Baha’u’llah. Ho, ve! Oni tamen, laŭ mi, ne precipe kulpigu la ordinaran kredanton. Bahaaj verkistoj kaj intelektuloj jam de jar-dekoj kaŝe- malkaŝe en famaj verkoj pri bahaismo # laŭdas la anglan kaj tra 2023 ignoras dulingvan tezon en kiu kristalklare evidentiĝas por-Esperanto invito al profesoro Browne (Kembriĝo) fare de Baha'u'llah mem en 1890: https://www.bandeeducation.com/baha-u-llah-was-an-esperantist (Pardonon pro tio ke fotografaĵo de barono Rosen portempe ne anstataŭas pasportan foteton de Baha'u'llah; ĝi restas de mia ret-mastro erare alŝutita kaj ial li ne respondas al miaj petoj forviŝi ĝin. # J Ferraby, J Huddleston pri la angla: https://pauldesailly.gumroad.com/l/gDehr From Babel to Baha’i p.62.

* HYPOCRISY IN RELIGION (bandeeducation.com) Vidu 3 alineojn antaŭ la bildo de Dante Alighieri: ‘Bahaaj gefratoj! Kon…’ 

Oni do apenaŭ miru legi el la plumo de profesoro Charters en la alkroĉita dokumento en ĝia antaŭlasta alineo saĝe kaj afable formulitan lastatempan admonon aŭ riproĉon de anglo-parolantaj gvidantoj bahaaj kiujn mi plejparte skribe kontraŭis ĝentile sed forte pli ol tridek jarojn - ankorau sen ajna sukceso:

‘Dankon pro inkluzivi min inter tiuj, kiuj ricevas vian gazetaran komunikilon. Klare gravas daŭre atentigi la konkludojn de la [bahaaj] fondintoj pri Esperanto, pro la logiko de tiu elekto super la angla. Mi pensas, ke mi rakontis al vi pri la tempo, kiam mi iris al malferma bahaa kunveno en Bloomington, Indianao, kiam tie estis mi diplomito, kaj la parolanto estis la Ĝenerala Sekretario de la fido en Usono. Tiutempe lia pozicio estis ke decido ne estis farita pri internacia lingvo, kaj ke ekde la tempo de la fondintoj la uzo de la angla tra la mondo disvolviĝis tiagrade ke ĝi estis verŝajne pli logika elekto kiel universala lingvo de komunikado en kaj ekster la kredo. Do mi komprenas, pri kio vi traktas.’ [emfazo de PD.] 

* BAHA’I FORUMS: September 14th, 2023: https://bahaiforums.com/t/media-release-an-expos%C3%89-on-religion-an-illicit-cover-up.25655/ #18 

Alone in the Anglosphere Baha’i Forums welcomes whistleblowers’ dissenting views aired civilly and truthfully! 

And so, it's time, to deal now with a damaging misapprehension * (others will follow later if you like) published officially in the name of the Baha'i Esperanto League (BEL) as it commemorates its fiftieth jubilee in 2023. The most articulate and polyglottal influencer on the international auxlang, the secretary of the Baha'i Esperanto League, a long-term officer of the Faith stationed in Frankfurt (Main) at the National Spiritual Assembly of Germany. Bernhard Westerhoff and I, compartmentalize our differences, and as you'd expect of individual followers of Baha'u'llah, we remain friends, albeit I resigned in protest from BEL several years ago because it, as an appointed entity, won't countenance any appeal to a decision taken by the House, shortly after BEL's formation, to the effect that the latter, as a Baha'i institution, may not encourage Baha'is to study Esperanto: AN IGNOBLE SCANDAL & 1974 "While individual Bahá'í Esperantists are, of course, free to encourage their fellow Bahá'ís to study Esperanto this should not be an activity of the Bahaa Esperanto-Ligo…” UHJ, 1974. Though unable to fathom the rationale behind Haifa's guidance in light of Abdul Baha's many forcible calls on all Baha'is in authoritative texts and also in less important Baha'i materials, to study and to spread Esperanto, I recognize Haifa's authority as Head of the Faith and I obeyed by not taking up an invitation to serve on BEL's board and by resigning from BEL, not in a fit of pique, but because BEL's secretary rules out appealing a decision 49 years old. No esperantist I know can fathom why a Baha'i institution named the Baha'i Esperanto League may not encourage Baha'is to study Esperanto, given that the House itself on occasion has done so in its institutional correspondence to the friends and that Shoghi Effendi did so frequently. Nevertheless, Baha'is and esperantists remain friends such that I’m often invited to talk about the Baha'i Faith at Esperanto events. 

Of great import ergo is what's aired on BEL's website in defence of maintaining the status quo that BEL may not encourage Baha'is to study Esperanto and in relation to official letters in Shoghi Effendi's name that in one way or another prima facie check Esperanto's use and utility among Baha'is. Incidentally, for BEL's 50th anniversary statement none of Abdul Baha's musts, interpreted officially by Shoghi Effendi as "repeated and emphatic admonitions", appear, while no fewer than six Baha'i extracts are presented out of context and with little explaining that seem at first reading to check Esperanto. ( BTW, all six extracts are debunked at length in this exposé: FROM BABEL TO BAHÁ’Í (FB2B) Each and all of the checks aired on BEL's website are misapprehended by its appointed Baha'i leaders, are proven to have been misconstrued by them and by many Baha'i academics in the Anglosphere, and yet proper consultation has not ensued. (Dissenting input is aired only on this splendid Baha'i site, Bahai Forums!) On the other hand, evidence, too abundant as to be more than adumbrated here, is available on various platforms run by the esperantists and by this writer that identifies for what it is BEL's misleading compilation of excerpts selectively chosen with little explanation or context vis-à-vis the Guardian's letters to individual believers. To take just one example of these misapprehensions, * which to the average reader present as incongruencies in the Baha'i Faith and as contradictions between Abdul Baha and Shoghi Effendi, Bernhard, despite his good intentions and good English, seems oblivious of the gulf between studying Esperanto and teaching it. From among a plethora of institutional documents on the auxlang principle this prominent and misapprehended excerpt is emphasized, among other equally misinterpreted or misunderstood letters of the Guardian to individuals, that appear in BEL'S 50th Jubilee brochure. See BEL's rubric: Bahá’í beliefs on world unity and world language: 50th jubilee - BEL - Bahaa Esperanto-Ligo

* “Regarding the teaching of Esperanto: the Guardian [Shoghi Effendi] thoroughly appreciates the efforts you [an individual believer] are exerting for the spread of this language … He wishes me, however, to bring to your attention the fact that neither Bahá’u’lláh nor ‘Abdu’l-Bahá did specifically state that Esperanto would certainly become the international auxiliary language of the future, neither did they enjoin its teaching upon the believers. What ‘Abdu’l-Bahá chiefly did was to highly praise it, and to reveal its possibilities. The teaching of Esperanto is, therefore, not a command or an obligation in the sense that praying is, for instance.”                      .

Bernhard and the team at BEL, along with all experienced Baha'is, have no trouble comprehending the huge gulf in effort vis-a-vis studying the Faith as distinct from teaching the Faith. When consultation is shut down one must expect appointed and over-worked individuals labouring in what can turn into a hothouse environment of religious institutions to come up occasionally with untenable positions that bewilder the true believer's perspective. For those investigating the Baha'i religion, and for enemies of the Faith, that Abdul Baha instructed all Baha'is in the imperative and in the superlative to study Esperanto as a religious incumbency, as chronicled in authoritative Baha'i texts - plural, but that Shoghi Effendi, the sole inerrant interpreter of His writings, doesn't get it and doesn't agree with Abdul Baha, presents to the public as more than bewildering; it's entirely shocking and in this case damaging. No! Truth is one! The Master and the Guardian concurred but BEL unilaterally chooses to emphasize out of context Shoghi Effendi's guidance to an individual that teaching Esperanto isn't enjoined in the sense that prayer is. The Master and the Guardian on such a crucial but simple matter as our duty as individuals to study Esperanto never contradicted one another. That the latter never misunderstood the former on the Esperanto question and never denied his grandfather's musts is proved but one needs to investigate a little for oneself. For example, by Shoghi Effendi officially via his secretary, October 1925: “Now with utmost vigour you should make a supreme effort to teach and encourage the spread of Esperanto for it has assumed great importance, and occupy yourself in the translation of the Writings – in particular the important, general Tablets – forwarding them to this servant so that they may be published.” Shoghi Effendi officially via his secretary, October 1944: “The Bahá’ís have been encouraged by both Abdul Baha and the Guardian to learn Esperanto…we should certainly continue to co-operate with its members, learn to speak it, and translate Bahá’í literature into it.” Shoghi Effendi via his secretary officially, August 1935: “…Shoghi Effendi, as you know, has been invariably encouraging the believers, both in the East and in the West, to make an intensive study of that language (Esperanto), and to consider it as an important medium for the spread of the Cause in international circles. He has been specially urging the friends to have the Cause well represented in all Esperanto Congresses and associations…” Shoghi Effendi via his secretary officially, August 1928: “He (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) says that Esperanto will spread and even went so far as to encourage all the friends (Bahá’ís) who possibly can to study it.”

For Baha'i to think that the Guardian was at odds with what he himself has interpreted in his authoritative understanding of the Master's "repeated and emphatic admonitions" that all Baha'is as individual followers of Baha'u'llah must study Esperanto, based merely on equivocal letters to individuals that for all we know are primarily addressing the inquirer's attitude to prayer or the like, is delusional. BEL's selective posting of Baha'i texts is a travesty. My own brief and incomplete compilation presented here today surely gives you food for thought as to how damaging in the extreme it is to confuse non-Baha'is based on such flimsy evidence presented by BEL in comparison to letters highly in favour of Esperanto written by Shoghi Effendi himself, and to a much wider audience to boot, when, as in just one example, to interpret Abdul Baha's promptings of the Baha'is to study Esperanto, he took up his own pen, as distinct from what a secretary composed for him, and asked Martha Root to read it aloud to 905 delegates at the opening ceremony of the 19th World Esperanto Congress, Danzig, on the occasion of Esperanto’s 40th jubilee, 1927: “as the result of the repeated and emphatic admonitions of Abdul Baha, his many followers…are strenuously and enthusiastically engaged in the study and teaching of Esperanto…”. Presciently his own locution, Bernhard, is to study it AND teach it too.  Again! The Master and the Guardian never contradicted one another. And, if you'd care to investigate properly, even in BEL's suboptimal selecting of Baha'i quotes the open minded will find without exception that Abdul Baha and Shoghi Effendi always praised Esperaanto! In closing, no wonder, few esperantists engage the Faith! In no small measure we Baha'is collectively have set a poor example that urgently needs to be set right, not least for the sake of the Baha'i community itself! Officially in the name of Shoghi Effendi via his secretary, 30th January 1926: "With Esperanto the case is different as it is an easy language in both its written and spoken forms. Were the friends to learn this language the result would be to engender a greater feeling of love and unity amongst them and to facilitate the promotion of the Teachings revealed for the New Age by the Glorious King. Exert your utmost endeavor, then, in this praiseworthy undertaking, so that you may be instrumental in scattering abroad the fragrances of God’s Manifestation and that you may impart joy and gladness to the hearts of the friends.”