Oneness and Equality

Oneness and Equality

By John Taylor; 2006 July 12

Let us return today to the Oneness of God as manifested in the principle of equality of the sexes. The "Great Being" selection from the Tablet to Maqsud that seems most applicable is the following:

"The Great Being saith: One word may be likened unto fire, another unto light, and the influence which both exert is manifest in the world. Therefore an enlightened man of wisdom should primarily speak with words as mild as milk, that the children of men may be nurtured and edified thereby and may attain the ultimate goal of human existence which is the station of true understanding and nobility." (Tablets, 173)

It is impossible intelligently to discuss issues dealing with equality of the sexes without being well grounded in our universal reasons for being, our common service as human beings, man or woman. This Great Being statement does just that.

Let us rephrase what Baha'u'llah says in reverse order. The ultimate purpose of men and women in life is to understand and be noble. We exercise this in our capacity as collective trustees of the best of the past. One generation is a loving parent to the next, the "children of men." Our first duty is to edify and nurture the younger generation by carrying forward knowledge, both our own and that gained from our forebears, and by perpetuating in them nobility, the product of adoration and worship of God. This duty to teach requires that one be a "man of wisdom," which means following the demands of peace and oneness every step of the way,

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16, KJV)

Wise action is spread by example and by means of speech, always has, always will be. There are two basic kinds of speech, one like fire and the other like milk, and the "influence which both exert is manifest in the world." What does that mean? Here I must pass from paraphrase to interpretation, and reluctant as I am to do that, this is such a crucial cornerstone to understanding the whole passage that I see no way to avoid it.

So, I take "fiery" speech to mean destructive, arbitrary orders born of the anger and patriarchal attitudes rampant in a tyranny, and "milky" speech is the kind, supportive words that come out of the mouth of a son or daughter of God, that is, someone acutely aware that we all live in a theocracy. When Baha'u'llah says that their comparative difference is "manifest in the world," he evidently means that we can clearly see the results of abusive language in people's psyches. We witness the most spectacular results in those who live on milk exclusively, babies. Tiny infants respond and develop much quicker when spoken to in a kind voice, and when verbally abused they suffer long-term harm.

Babies are an especially good example because they do not understand the literal meaning of the words they hear. They can be and often are only nonsense sounds (baby talk). But babes are highly sensitive to the attitudes and feelings behind the speaker's words. Similarly, it has been observed that in political fora most people look to their leaders for reassurance, not for data or technical details, far less further lies and promises, they just long for a feeling that they are not struggling for brute survival, that their lives of quiet desperation are not in vain, that everything will turn out all right in the end. This feeling, ultimately, can only be satisfied by God, and it is the duty of a responsible leader to make this clear, not to try to mesmerize with ideology or false hopes.

"And those on whom ye call beside God cannot create anything, for they are themselves created. Dead, not living, nor can they perceive!" (Q16:20)

Meanwhile, the results of words of fire in politics are also not hard to understand. Mao, Stalin and Hitler made ample use of fiery words and dead ideology to seize political power, and the result was murder on a scale unheard of in history, in the hundreds of millions.

Another user of words of fire was John C. Calhoun, who through his writings almost single-handedly brought about the secession of the South and the subsequent American Civil War, by far the bloodiest in the history of that country's long involvement in wars. I heard an interesting anecdote about Calhoun on what is becoming my favorite television show, History Detectives. It seems that two Confederate soldiers were sitting in trenches and one remembered that he had seen the monument to Calhoun, topped by the great man riding a horse. The other said that he never saw that but that they had both seen the real monument to Calhoun's memory, the piles of dead, dismembered and bloating bodies heaped on high all around them. If that is so, if anybody is left after the next war, they should put up just such a monument to the speakers who, by words spoken or unspoken, contributed to its coming about. Not a glorious general mounted on a horse but a pile of corpses mounted by maundering mountebanks. A better definition of words of fire could not be had than what comes out of their mouths, words that go beyond expressing honest opinions, words whose only answer is writ in human blood.

That being said, I do not think that the Great Being is ruling out words of fire completely. We have all been in situations where a harsh word makes listeners sit up and take notice. When a building is on fire and a rapid, immediate evacuation is called for, words of milk are never effective or appropriate. His point seems to be only that words of milk work better most of the time, they are more in demand in a theocracy and spread more efficiently under conditions of peace and a united world.

This is where equality of the sexes comes into the equation. In a world where the demand for most speech most of the time is for words of milk, the role of women, especially as mothers, will be front and center. As it is now, motherhood is a handicap and detraction from a career. In a world oriented to peace the experience of raising a baby will be regarded as essential training for leadership. It will be asked: How can a leader speak words of milk to all of us if he or she has never even raised one child out of babyhood? A new kind of chivalry will come about; a man will be judged by his words of milk to women, women will be valued by their words of milk to men. A happy, successful marriage will be thought of as the consummation and reward of chivalrous behavior to the opposite sex. Here is how Immanuel Kant portrayed bliss born of duty,

"In fact, when the thinking man has conquered the temptations to vice, and is conscious of having done his (often hard) duty, he finds himself in a state of peace and satisfaction which may well be called happiness, in which virtue is her own reward." (Kant, Metaphysical Elements of Ethics)

Yes, I know, Kant chose to be a bachelor. But he did perceive that peace is the goal of all political activity, and the goal of peace is, yes, family. Consider what the House said in the Peace Message.

"The source of the optimism we feel is a vision transcending the cessation of war and the creation of agencies of international co-operation. Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage, but not, Baha'u'llah asserts, the ultimate goal of the social development of humanity. Beyond the initial armistice forced upon the world by the fear of nuclear holocaust ... the (goal is) unification of all the peoples of the world in one universal family."

Understanding the human race to be one huge family will have tremendous implications. The interests of family will not be marginalized they are rapidly being done in most nations. Family is not one pressure group among many, it is the root of everything human. In a theocracy it is the creative core, the nucleus for all social change. Being a partner in a successful, united marriage is necessary to learn how to work words of milk for change, both long and short term. Therefore, to have raised a vital, happy family will be regarded as a prime requisite for entering and rising in leadership roles, not only in politics but business, academics and other official posts.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com