Several years ago I made the mistake of attending a Cluster Reflection Gathering. The meeting was something like 5 hours and consisted boring discussions about the institute process, and they played an extremely boring video about the institute process called “Light to the World”. This gathering stands out in my mind as being one of the most boring meetings I have ever sat through in my life. But they promised pizza at the end so I kept telling myself it’s not too bad because at least I would be able to enjoy some pizza at the end.
The gathering came to its conclusion and then they started bringing out the pizzas. There were like 10 boxes. “Oh boy,” I told myself, “I hope one of these is a meat lover’s pizza”. I looked through the boxes, and 1 of them was a cheese pizza, and the other 9 we’re vegetarian. They made the pizzas all vegetarian so that “everyone could enjoy it”. Not me though, I only like the pizzas that have meat on them. I ended up just not eating anything there.
After going home I started thinking “Why is there so much vegetarian crap at Baha’i gatherings? The Baha’i writings don’t advocate vegetarianism do they?” But then to my horror I found this quote by Abdul Baha:
“What will be the food of the future?” “Fruit and grains. The time will come when meat will no longer be eaten. Medical science is only in its infancy, yet it has shown that our natural diet is that which grows out of the ground. The people will gradually develop up to the condition of this natural food.”
–Abdul Baha, in response to a question
After reading this I just kind of begrudgingly accepted that the Baha’i Faith advocates vegetarianism. But a few weeks later I found this quote by Baha’u’llah:
“Eat ye of that which God hath made lawful unto you and do not shun meat. God hath, as a token of His grace, granted you leave to partake thereof save during a brief period. He, verily, is the Mighty, the Beneficent. Forsake all that ye possess and hold fast unto that which God hath purposed”
After finding out Baha’u’llah said this, I became viscerally upset at Abdul Baha for teaching against this. I began to question if he was really infallible.
