Theos-Talk Archives (August 2003 Message tt00119)

Katinka Hesselink wrote:
> Still, one of the issues is how much freedom do individual sections 
> have? Do they have the right to only study and discuss Alice Bailey 
> for instance? Do they have the right to exclude people for wanting to 
> study HPB? Do they have the right (in short) to be sectarian?
Technically, they do NOT have the right to be sectarian; that would be 
a violation of the 1st Object. But the International Bylaws were not 
based on the President considering him or herself a spiritual leader, 
and gives the President the ability to unilaterally dissolve a section, 
without any requirement to give a reason, a power that is very open to 
abuse.

A Lodge or Section should not be excluded for allowing people from a 
specific religious background to be members. But they SHOULD be excluded 
for REFUSING to allow them.

> It used to be the case, in the time of Olcott and Blavatsky that 
> there were sections set up which were devoted to studying only one 
> aspect of the wisdom tradition. The Buddhist Society started as a 
> lodge in the TS, devoted to studying and spreading Buddhism. The same 
> was true for the organisation which was started by Anna Kingsford and 
> her coworker (I forget both the organisation that sprang from that 
> and the name of the co-worker). In The Netherlands there used to be a 
> lodge for artists only. Nobody used to mind that sort of specialism. 
The American Section has a rule that a Theosophist can only belong to a 
single Lodge. But they created a pseudo-Lodge: the so-called "National 
Lodge". I had discussed with John Algeo the possibilty of creating 
similar groups for specialized interests within the Theosophical Society 
a number of years back within the current bylaws.

The problem with specialized groups is lack of potential membership. If 
there are 4-5 Lodges in a city, there is not a problem with a Lodge 
becoming specialized. But if there is only one Lodge in a geographical 
area, and that Lodge is specialized, there are often not enough people 
to justify the creation of another Lodge, which means that anybody not 
interested in that particular specialty is screwed.

Bart




> But now each lodge is supposed to have the same broad outlook that 
> the society as a whole has. Which is impossible, because it either 
> means studying 'theosophical' literature only - or it means jumping 
> from one subject to another and never being able to dive into 
> something deeply. Now Buddhism for instance is a lifetime study, just 
> like Blavatskyan Theosophy is. So the insistence on lodges to be 
> unsectarian actually causes the TS to be sectarian. Only those 
> interested in so called theosophical literature can join. 
> And I think this started (in official policy that is) with Annie 
> Besant getting rid of Steiner on the grounds that the German Section 
> did not have the right to refuse members on religious grounds [that 
> is: being a member of the Order of the Star]. I used to agree that 
> Besant was right - freedom of thought was paramount in the TS. But he 
> didn't refuse them membership of the TS, nor did he prevent them from 
> setting up their own lodges and sections of the TS, in order to study 
> say what Krishnamurti wrote in those days. To be sure this is a 
> correct version of events, one would have to dive into the archives 
> at Adyar - I hope somebody takes up that project and gets permission 
> to do so. 
> Katinka
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Morten Nymann Olesen" <global-
> theosophy@a...> wrote:
>
> > Hi Bart and all,
> >
> > My views are just my views:
> >
> > When we talkm about Denmark - I have to say that my knowledge tells 
> me
>
> > different. I live in Denmark you know.
> > The reason why Denmark was excluded - was because of their heavy 
> leaning on
>
> > the teachings of Alice A. Bailey. But as I understand it - The 
> Theosophical
>
> > Society has changed its policies on the Alice A. Bailey issue 
> through the
>
> > years depending on who was sitting at the driverseats in different 
> sections.
>
> > True ?
> >
> >
> > from
> > M. Sufilight with peace...
>
>
>
>
>
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