Bibliography: #BIB21967

web link	bahai-library.com/bibliography/BIB21967
reference type	Journal Article
title	The Baha'i Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997
journal	Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (Washington, D.C.)
author	Cole, Juan R. I.
authority control	Juan Cole
year	1998
date	1998
issue	2
volume	37
abstract	"This empirical study details the history of control mechanisms employed by leaders of the Baha'i Faith in the United States to shape the discourse and behavior of adherents. It covers the use of prepublication censorship, other restricitons on free publication, informing, revocation of administrative rights, electoral restrictions, revocation of membership, threats of shunning, and shunning. It asks why the Baha'i leadership might wish to project a more liberal image of the religion than is warranted by its actual governance techniques. It concludes that this contradiction derives from conflicts within the Baha'i power elite, from concerns about image, from a desire to attract liberal converts, and from contradictions between the liberalism of the nineteenth -century scriptures and the authoritarian administrative ethos of the twentieth century. The article is based on two decades of participant observation, study of official literature and decision making, diaries and memoirs, participation in Baha'i electronic discussion forums in the 1990s, and private correspondence with adherents." Distorted analysis based upon hearsay and personal animus of a disaffected former Bahá'í.
language	English
keywords	CONTROVERSIAL; UNITED STATES; ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER; FREEDOM; CRITICISM
pages	234–248
Legal note	11.

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