Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00317)

     Not long after its formation, the Baha'i discussion group
Talisman initiated a custom of self-introductions.  Everyone on
board at the time gave a one-para description of background and
interests, and newcomers were asked to do the same.  I wonder
if this might be worthwhile here to help us get along.
     Bazzer, are you an associate of the United Lodge of
Theosophists?  It might help me and others understand your
pronouncements about HPB's virginity, veracity, etc., and your
assertions about The Opposition, if we knew where you were
coming from Theosophically.
     When you argue that anyone who believes HPB to have been a
"fraud and a liar" should not be allowed to call him or herself
a Theosophist (and therefore, should not be accepted by other
Theosophists as one of "us") this has wide-ranging
implications.  Because what you are really saying is that ONLY
people who believe HPB never told a lie or did anything
fraudulent should be welcomed as Theosophists.  If the ULT
wants to set up such a ground rule, I would regretfully say,
"well, to each his own."  But I think it fair to ask "do you
acknowledge Olcott to have been a real Theosophist?"  Because he
surely didn't believe HPB to have been the paragon you portray
her as being.  And if your logic ends up rejecting Olcott as
not being a real Theosophist, doesn't this relate to the ULT
rejection of the entire TS as having been taken over by The
Opposition?  Should the majority of readers here on theos-l,
who belong to the Adyar TS, be told of your evaluation of that
organization, so as to know better where you are coming from?
     Thus far the list has been spared the trauma of outright
inter-organizational wrangling, with some Theosophists denying
that others are "real" Theosophists.  And I don't think many of
us welcome the initiation of such disparaging remarks.
But if they are going to appear, then it would be helpful to
have any hidden agendas unveiled so as to help us evaluate them.