IF REFORMS SUCCEED, ZOROASTRIANISM WILL DIE FROM WITHIN

Fellow Mazdayasni Zarathushtris,

Kudos to Mr. and Mrs Ichaporia for posting the following article by James Russell, exposing the *hidden agenda* of religion destruction behind the teachings of the Zoroastrian liberals and "converted" outsiders in North America:

"The food for your thoughts: FYI from a recent article by a former teacher of our dad at Columbia University, Prof. Dr. James Russell, now Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massauchusetts, any question you may have can be directed to Prof. Russell. Thank you."

Professor James Russell speaks:

" Reformists in the Zoroastrian community have exalted the Gathas in recent years, encouraging their study in formal groups and publishing newsletters and working papers on points of translation and commentary. In some respects this is quite understandable, and might be thought to be all good: these songs are, after all, the compositions, we can ascribe with certainty to Zarathushtra himself. They are at the center of the text of the Yasna, which is itself the liturgical literature of the ritual core of Zoroastrianism - the 'ijashne'.

" But the fact is the exaltation of the Gathas in this instance has their HIDDEN AGENDA which is in my view both ILL-INFORMED and BOUNDLESSLY DESTRUCTIVE. For the Gathas are EMPLOYED by Reformists, quite WRONGLY, to demonstrate that the Younger Avesta of the 'Yashts' and the bulk of the Pahlavi theological literature, represent a departure from, and a distortion of Zarathushtra's own teachings. In particular, the Gathas are supposedly free of the dualistic cosmology of Ormazd and Ahriman, and are instead monist in the manner of other great faiths. As the teachings of an AVOWED reformer of religion, they are presented, again QUITE WRONGLY, as REJECTING ritual observances -such as the 'ijashne'.

" References in them to 'Yazatas' and 'Amesha Spentas' are sanitized through 'a translation' into abstract terminology - losing sight of the propensity of Iranian and kindred ancient religions to divinize abstractions. The Gathas reflect also the stream of heroic mythology that has been the binding force in Iranian culture and ethics - but this, too, is overlooked.....The dualistic material in other faiths has been changed and compromised with grim results... ....The real faith of Ahura Mazda accords tremendous importance to the material world; where it strives for transcendence, the striving is of an altogether different essence than anything we find in the mystical systems of other faiths. Consequently, RITUAL PRACTICE IS INSEPARABLE FROM ZOROASTRIANISM.........

Professor Russell continues:

" So, what is the true nature of the 'Reformists' assertions? Many of them seem to believe that they are, in sense, returning to Zarathushtra's own reforms, which are obscured by a reversion to atavistic custom and inundation of theological misunderstanding. THEY THINK that they are restoring the Zoroastrain faith to its pristine character. They also have been wont to employ the term "LIBERAL", as if to suggest that their *ERRONEOUS* CONSTRUCTION of Zoroastrianism and its founding Prophet represent a democratic pluralistic, progressive approach to the faith. All this is, again, *FALSE*.

" The view of an anti-dualistic, anti-ritualistic Zarathushtra, with all that flows therefrom, does not have its roots in liberalism ..It springs, in fact, from the very opposite of those ideologies............The REFORMIST movement in Zoroastrianism is DISHONORABLE AT ITS ROOTS, and its claims are ILLEGITIMATE. The opponents of this reformist movement are showered with personal invective, with slander, when they can not be silenced in other way. THEY (the Reformists) SHOULD BE REJECTED; IF THEIR REFORMS SUCCEED, ZOROASTRIANISM WILL DIE FROM WITHIN and its own few remaining children will have accomplished, out of ignorance, in a few decades, what hordes of Macedonian and Moslem invaders over millennia failed to accomplish by design.........."

- Professor James Russell.

Kudos to Professor James Russell, for understanding the DISHONORABLE nature of the reformist liberals in the West. They and their Gatha-only-cults and "assemblies" should be fervently opposed by every right thinking Zoroastrian, for they CAN DESTROY OUR ANCIENT RELIGION, AS PROF. RUSSELL POINTS OUT.

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