Wilmette NSA's (Haifian Bahai) contempt motion FAILS against different sects of Bahá'ís

JUDGE ISSUES DECISION IN FAVOR OF ORTHODOX BAHA'IS

1 - ORTHODOX BAHAIS (MARANGELLA GROUP) RESPONSE

The Court has issued its decision in the court action brought by the Wilmette NSA. The Court has ruled in favor of the Orthodox Baha'is. To read the Court's decision, follow this link:

http://trueseeker.typepad.com/true_seeker/court_case.html

Judgment in favor of the Orthodox Baha’i Faith In a decision handed down by the United States District Court, the Orthodox Baha’i Faith was found not guilty of contempt charges levied against it by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States (Wilmette NSA). The injunction that the Orthodox Baha’i Faith was accused of violating, would have prohibited it from using the name Baha’i, meaning a follower of Baha’u’llah (as the name Christian refers to one who follows Christ.) The NSA, a national branch of the world organization with over 6 million members, brought the legal action against the Orthodox Baha’i Faith, whose membership, in contrast, numbers less than 50 in the United States, many of whom are life-long believers. As a result of the judge's finding, the Orthodox Baha'i Faith may continue to use the name Baha'i in identifying itself and may continue to teach its belief in the continuing Guardianship of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, a teaching in direct opposition to that taught by the NSA group. The Orthodox Baha’i Faith recognizes Joel B. Marangella as the rightful Living Guardian of the Baha’i Faith. The original injunction was issued over forty years ago to a now extinct rival body to the NSA. In her judgment, the Honorable Amy J. St Eve wrote: “[T]he chain of successorship lacks a link” ruling on April 23, 2008 after holding an evidentiary hearing last January 7, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois on the contempt motion brought by the NSA. Also cited in the case was the Baha’i Publishers Under the Provision of the Covenant, a completely separate organization from either of the other parties. They too were found not guilty. The complete opinion of the Court can be found on the internet:

http://trueseeker.typepad.com/true_seeker/court_case.html

Contact:
David Maxwell, PNBC Chairman
8924 Crest Ridge Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76179
817-279-3700

2 - REFORM BAHAI RESPONSE

US District Court rules against Haifan Baha'is

I've just read both the Opinion and Motion. Here are my highlights for anyone interested in avoiding a lot of the legalese, admittedly beyond my comprehesion:

Contempt Motion by Wilmette NSA & Response by Orthodox Bahá'í Faith

http://trueseeker.typepad.com/true_seeker/court_case.html
http://www.truebahai.com/court/139-opinion.pdf
http://www.truebahai.com/court/140-judgment.pdf

"[T]he chain of successorship lacks a link," wrote the Honorable Amy J. St Eve, United States District Court Judge, in her Judgment in favor of theChicago_trial_january_7_2008_006Orthodox Bahai Faith and the Baha'i Publishers Under the Provisions of the Covenant. The Court ruled on April 23, 2008 after holding an evidentiary hearing last January 7, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois on the contempt motion brought by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States (Wilmette NSA).

In her decision, the Court stated that: "the vast weight of the record (including credible testimony) reflects that there was a significant doctrinal rift on a critical tenet of each group's faith, and that the PNBC's membership varied materially from that of the NSA-UHG. The record further reflects a demonstrable lack of intent to violate the injunction, and that the PNBC was not created to avoid the effect of the injunction. Simply put, there is no substantial continuity between the NSA-UHG and the PNBC, and, as a result, Mr. Schlatter, Mr. Marangella, and the PNBC have not violated the injunction."

Excerpts:

p: 12
II. Application To The Court's Findings of Fact Applying the above-stated principles here, none of the Alleged Contemnors is in privity with the bound entity, and thus none has violated the injunction. In rendering this finding, the Court has carefully and deliberately weighed all of the evidence adduced at the hearing and otherwise submitted by the parties. The Court closely assessed the demeanor of each testifying witness, including his or her body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, mannerisms, and other factors indicative of credibility.

p. 27
Rather, the vast weight of the record (including credible testimony) reflects that there was a significant doctrinal rift on a critical tenet of each group's faith, and that the PNBC's membership varied materially from that of the NSA-UHG. The record further reflects a demonstrable lack of intent to violate the injunction, and that the PNBC was not created to avoid the effect of the injunction. Simply put, there is no substantial continuity between the NSA-UHG and the PNBC, and, as a result, Mr. Schlatter, Mr. Marangella, and the PNBC have not violated the injunction.

p. 31
After considering the full record in this case, the Court finds that SIBC and the BPUPC are not in privity with the NSA-UHG....

p. 32
CONCLUSION
For the above reasons, the Court finds that the Alleged Contemnors are not in privity with the NSA-UHG and, in turn, that they are not in contempt of the injunction.

Jugde Amy J. St. Eve
April 23, 2008

See also for further discussion:
http://groups.google.com/group/talk.religion.bahai/topics?hl=en&gvc=2

Frederick Glaysher
The Reform Bahai Faith
95 Theses - On Bahai Liberty - Articles - Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant
www.ReformBahai.org --

The Baha'i Faith & Religious Freedom of Conscience
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/

3 - BAHAI’S UNDER THE PROVISION OF COVENANT RESPONSE
Saturday, April 26th, 2008

Victory! Victory! Victory! Today, this Ridvan 2008, the Covenant-breakers have been defeated! These mainstream violators who are the willing and/or unwitting successors in interest to arch-Violator Ruhiyyih Khanum and the violating “Hands” of the Cause who usurped the Baha’i International shrines on Mt. Carmel (Israel) during their hostile takeover in 1960 have been trying unsuccessfully for 7 years in different venues such as the UN (WIPO) and the Federal Courts (7th Circuit) to shut down our websites and prevent us from publicly and openly teaching the Baha’i Covenant fulfilled: - that Baha’u’llah and His successors have come in fulfillment of prophecy seated upon the throne of King David; that this is the God Promised Kingdom of God on earth, that Jews, Christians and Muslims await according to the text of their scriptures; and His throne-line and genealogy of King David continues in the aghsan lineage of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha is the long awaited coming of the Kingship of the second coming of Christ – Baha’u’llah – in the potency of the everlasting Father (Is. 9:6-7; Jn 14:6) seated upon David’s throne that is to last forever.

Today, this Ridvan 2008, in the 7th circuit Federal Court of the United States of America they have sorely and uttered defeated, smashed, beaten, put down, trounced, thwarted, humiliated, their arguments “erased and effaced” according to the explicit prayer of none less than Baha’u’llah Himself!“Inasmuch as great differences and divergences of denominational belief had arisen throughout the past, every man with a new idea attributing it to God, Baha’u'llah desired that there should not be any ground or reason for disagreement among the Baha’is. Therefore, with His own pen He wrote the Book of His Covenant, addressing His relations and all people of the world, saying, ‘Verily, I have appointed One Who is the Center of My Covenant . All must obey Him; all must turn to Him; He is the Expounder of My Book, and He is informed of My purpose. All must turn to Him. Whatsoever He says is correct, for, verily, He knoweth the texts of My Book. Other than He, no one doth know My Book.’ The purpose of this statement is that there should never be discord and divergence among the Baha’is but that they should always be unified and agreed. In His prayers Baha’u'llah also said, ‘O God! Whosoever violates My Covenant, O God, humiliate him. Verily, whosoever violates My Covenant, O God, erase and efface him.’ (`Abdu’l-Baha: Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 322-323)

We rejoice, therefore, not in the defeat of the avowed enemies of the Cause - but rather in the Victory of God that our teaching effort continues – ALL FLAGS FLYING – publically and openly, vital, strong and true – to both text and testament – the Power of the Covenant alone sustaining us.Many personal sacrifices have been made by many be all along the way. These violators of the Covenant – having no respect for the freedom of religion, first amendment of the United States – are infamous in their destruction of families, repressions and atrocities of their great oppression levied against the people forbidding them to even discus the fact that the true Universal House of Justice (according to the explicit text of the Covenant – W&T, p. 15) must have the living descendent of King David as its president to distinguish it from fakes, frauds and imitations.

Haply in the shadow of our victory, this triumph of the Cause of God over its avowed and recalcitrant enemies, has overshadowed and sheltered all individuals and groups of people calling themselves “Baha’i” as well be set free from the spectre of the violation to continue to practice the faith and promote the Cause the way they understand it. This unique position of our Council (http://uhj.net “seven rites of the Baha’i faith”) has both amazed, astounded and baffled both our enemies and well-wishers alike! Thus the watchword of “Unity in diversity” has been proclaimed and upheld, and the truth of the words: “Say: ALL ARE CREATED BY GOD!” has been manifested to all the people of the world. The Unity of the believers has been preserved by adherence and loyalty to every single provision of the Will and testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.

These days of immanent war against Iran, world wide poverty and starvation looming, political corruption and intrigue assailing the governments of the world from within and from without, economic crisis and ruin threatening on every turn, estrangement of the cultures of the East and the West due to international “terror”; from out his gloom, only this Great Light of Hope – the Baha’i Peace Program – shines luminous above the horizon of the hearts of all humankind. Blessed and hopeful and happy are those that have seen this great light, and upon them in whom this light has shined!Simultaneous with the Chicago Earthquake epicentered at Mt. Carmel (Illinois) that shook the very foundations of the city of the midmost heart of the US, the ground-breaking Writ of Judge Amy St. Eve of the Federal Court sends forth the Judgment and ruling that the Baha’i’s Under the provisions of the Covenant, and the person of the current living Guardian, the great grandson of ‘Abdu’l-Baha are free to teach and proclaim the truth of the Baha’i Faith and truth of the Baha’i Covenant fulfilled: that ‘Abdu’l-Baha passed the throne of David to his aghsan-son Charles Mason Remey Aghsan, who passed this to his only son, Pepe, also an aghsan, and that Pepe then passed this on to his only aghsan-son, Neal Chase ben Jospeh Aghsan, the current living hereditary Guardian of the Baha’i Faith and President of the true Universal House of Justice of Baha’u’llah, established in the Rocky Mountains in America, that shall bring peace through justice to all the world.

Through the artifice and stratagem, these violators sought to hold the people to a 40 years old injunction placed in 1966 against the first American NSA that had originally accepted Mason Remey as ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s aghsan-son, before they turned against him. Through machinations from with and without, that first NSA was dissolved by ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s son himself, and several breakaway groups formed in its wake outside the provisions of the Covenant as the times of great confusion and testing continued to ravage the people enmeshed in the Baha’i world in the wake of the negative spiritual vortex set froth by Ruhiyyih Khanum and the Hands. In the midst of this maelstrom of violation, Knight of Baha’u’llah, Dr, Leland Jensen, separated himself and emerged as the great Baha’i teacher of the 20th century firm in the Covenant, ardent and resolute, and with the confirming support from on High, was able to point out that the aghsan lineage (the throne-line of King David from Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha known as “the BRANCH” – Zech. 3:8 KJV) was in fact continued unbroken in Mason and Pepe, the legal son and grandson of ‘Abdu’l-Baha respectively – “an adopted son has all the rights prerogatives of a natural son including the kingship” - and that the people were then free to form the true UHJ as set forth in the explicit text of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and the instructions and Jan. 9th, constitution of the IBC/UHJ set forth by Shoghi Effendi Rabanni. Thus has this Truth come as a great shaking issuing forth from Mt. Carmel in America and shaking the very foundations of the heartland of Chicago, Evanston and Wilmette which at this time is the mainstay seat of violation in the US – though many of the faithful reside their and promulgate the divine standard of the genealogy of Baha’u’llah (http://uhj.net) which we have made public for all freely since September, 2001, the year “Mustaghath” – He Who Is Invoked for Help – as prophesied in the Baha’i scared writ.

Now these signs and portents and things are not to condemnation but to save! Now is the sounding bell and time for all the people to investigate the truth of the claims of the Baha’i Faith, the foundation of its covenant in the sacred Will and Testament of ‘Abdul-Baha, and make their choice. They can come under the provisions of the covenant (http://uhj.net), jopin God’s heavely army – the 144,000 - or remain obstinate – and be replaced by others - as the catastrophe which is upon us now continues to escalate in both its timing and intensity. Thus with 1966 Injunction non-applicable to Our Cause and International Teaching Effort (“pro tantum brutum fulmen”) we now have a reprieve to continue teaching and growing and promulgating the Law of Universal Love, the Oneness of Humanity and Justice for All, that is at the very core and foundation of the teachings and Revelation of Baha’u’llah and is the animis and real spit incarnated in this now public and visible Order: the Kingdom of God (Davidic). Only the UHJ with the living Davidic King as it present is so fully contacted. Only this incarnation of the Cause of God – identified through its hereditary member – the “sign of God” (W&T, p. 11) is vouchsafed by the power of the Covenant to make a lasting and impressionable effect upon the world at large. For guidance, for truth, for unorganized religion: this organization alone – which is not a substitute for the faith – is so dedicated. God has today revealed His government for all the people of the world; it can only work established upon the foundation of true religion and true spirituality unorganized and unalloyed. The current living Guardian thus Guards it from becoming organized and prevents any clergy from forming. Take heed and warning! For those who have insight into these things -For the shadow of totalitarianism spiritual, material and otherwise, in this Day, still threatens the livelihood of all of humankind.May God’s Blessing and favors be showered amongst All on these Twelve days of Holy Ridvan, 2008.

On behalf of the Council and all the faithful and loyal workers at the World Center ,

Your servant,

Neal Chase ben Joseph Aghsan,
Guardian/President UHJ.

Read More: Cracks in the Covenant