July
19. On this date in 1986, "the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of the United States formally dissolved the Local Spiritual
Assembly (LSA) of the Baha'is of Los Angeles, then a community of some
1200 adult believers and among the larger urban Baha'i communities."
Juan Cole's article "Race, Immorality and Money in the American Baha'i Community: Impeaching the Los Angeles Spiritual Assembly",
published in the journal Religion, "analyses the dissolution of the
Baha'i local assembly of Los Angeles in 1986–88 by the National
Assembly. Official explanations for this move focused on lapses in
morality and administrative discipline, but local interviewees, as well
as some official pronouncements, suggest that the conflict had two
roots: the globalisation of the community and resultant ethnic conflict
among whites, African–Americans and newly immigrant Iranians; and
national/local conflicts over power and money. Low-information
elections, the unaccountability of elected officials, censorship and
difficulties in acknowledging social conflict were the causes of these
episodes in the Baha'i religion."
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