Stephen Birkland

Stephen Birkland is a current member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing institution of the Baháʼí Faith. He and Stephen Hall were both elected during a by-election in 2010 to fill the vacancies created by the retirement of Hooper Dunbar and Peter Khan.[1]

Background

A statement from the Baháʼí International Community after the by-election in 2010 included the following biographical statement about Stephen Birkland:

Mr. Birkland, 58, was serving as a member of the International Teaching Center at the time of his election. The Teaching Center, based in Haifa, is an appointed body that serves to advise the Universal House of Justice, among other duties.

Prior to his appointment to the Teaching Center in 2008, Mr. Birkland lived in Minnesota, USA, and worked as a psychotherapist and organizational consultant. He also taught at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN, in its college of management for some 20 years. He also served in several voluntary Baháʼí positions, including as a Continental Counsellor, from 1993 to 2008.

Mr. Birkland possesses a Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Science in counseling from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls.[2]

Talisman

In the 1990s an email group named "Talisman" was formed where some Baháʼís began being critical of Baháʼí institutions. Some members from that forum later shared letters claiming to come from Stephen Birkland during exchanges where Birkland warned them against taking an openly critical stance against senior Baháʼí institutions.[3] Four of them ended up withdrawing their membership and some went on to write critically of Mr Birkland in particular.[4][5][6] Moojan Momen refers to those participants as "marginal" and, after their leaving the Baháʼí Faith, "apostates."[7]

Writings
  • Birkland, Stephen (August 1998). "Internet, the World Wide Web, and Electronic Discussion Lists: A perspective from the Baháʼí Writings". Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved May 31, 2017.

References
  1. "Two new members elected to Universal House of Justice". Baháʼí World News Service. March 20, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  2. "Two new members of the Universal House of Justice are chosen in a by-election". One Country. April 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  3. Birkland, Stephen (July 16, 1996). "Letter of Counselor Stephen Birkland to a Baha'i Intellectual and Publisher". Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  4. Bacquet, Karen (2001). "Enemies Within - Conflict and Control in the Baha i Community". Cultic Studies Journal. 18 (1): 140–171. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  5. Cole, Juan (March 2002). "Fundamentalism in the Contemporary U.S. Baha'i Community". Religious Studies Review. 43 (3): 195–217. doi:10.2307/3512329. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  6. Cole, Juan (June 1998). "The Bahaʼi Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 37 (2): 234–248. doi:10.2307/1387523. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  7. Momen, Moojan (2007). "Marginality and Apostasy in the Baha'i Community". Religion. 37: 187–209. doi:10.1016/j.religion.2007.06.008.
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