Archive for February, 2007

“Ayyam-i-Ha Party in Purdy,” Leaves of One Tree Baha’i School, photo by Flitzy Phoebie

The kids and I haven’t yet gotten back into the habit of attending Baha’i school and devotions on Sunday mornings. We got there yesterday, though. To be more precise, M went with me; R had a play-date with a friend. The joke was on R, though.

You see, X is the friend that R made on this year’s first day of school. X had just moved here from Texas, and had yet to make any friends. X and R have gotten along famously ever since. R even invited X to attend his Cub Scout open house. Only now have I learned that they had known for quite some time they were both Baha’i. R didn’t even bother to tell us…which delights me to realize just how commonplace he thinks he is as a Baha’i.

As soon as I recognized X, I quickly looked for X’s parents, whom I’d met once before. I didn’t have to look far, as they were sitting directly behind me. We parents were delighted to find this unexpected common bond; the kids were completely nonplussed. We just can’t seem to get our heads around how the only two Baha’i kids in the Access School — one of them a “new kid” — succeeded in finding each other on the first day. That our respective children resonate so deeply with the Baha’i principles as to be found quickly by other Baha’is is just too cool for words.
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Nolan, “R’s new best friend is a Baha’i ??!?!?!” Keeping Up With Nolan
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{Re-posted with permission}

I saw the new book outlining the “learnings” of the past Five Year Plan. Wow, what an inspiration! Here’s to the Institute process… -gw
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So! I have been talking with my roomies and a few of them have agreed that that they might be interested in doing book one with me. I’m really excited and hope they decide to follow through with it, however, its all up to God.

seb, “trying to start up Ruhi with my roommates,” Tribe
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there has been some some ruhi that is getting done at a good pace (yuichi is almost done his book 6) which i am really happy about

Jesse, “More in Prep,” I’m Big In Japan

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Youth Book 2 @ LGBI!!!

All pics uploaded on February 21, 2007 by Oak on flickr
and taken at the Louis Gregory Baha’i Institute in South Carolina

The Founder of the Baha’i Faith encourages his followers to “spread the glad-tidings.” There is no clergy. All Baha’is are encouraged to teach their Faith. Baha’is who do are generally not referred to as missionaries (see the Wikipedia article). Say the word “missionary” and the image conjured up has usually been a Westerner going to an indigenous culture to seek converts. In the following article, the “missionaries” referred to were Easterners teaching their Faith to a family of Italian and Spanish descent living in Ecuador. -gw

“Cuenca, Ecuador,” uploaded on February 6, 2007
by Dan Brooke on flickr
My mother … was born in Cuenca, Ecuador of Italian and Spanish lineage. She and her 14 brothers and sisters grew up in a religious Roman Catholic household and they were all raised for the most part to be your typical pious South American Catholics. However that was not to be, some Persian missionaries made sure of that.

My mother and most of her sisters and brothers “converted” to the Baha’i Faith almost forty years ago by those abovementioned missionaries. One of the major figures of this religion was Shoghi Effendi, hence my first name. My mom lobbied my dad long and hard to name me in honor of this Baha’i historical figure. My father finally gave in saying that at least I was being named after a religious man. The Baha’i Faith has influenced my outlook on morality for most of my life. Its main tenets are very liberal which is how many would describe me. These include: the equality between men and woman, the elimination of racism and the “harmony” of religion and science. I still don’t quite understand the latter but I would be the first to admit that the Bahai belief system smacks more of modernity than the Inquisition. At this point of my life I am an atheist and naturally don’t subscribe to any religion, but even so I do admire the aforementioned principles of the Bahai faith.

djshoghi, “Assignment #6 ‘What’s in a name’ rewrite,” 31 Year Old Freshman

Photo: Amy Kerlin

The movie “An Inconvenient Truth” is considered controversial and has led to a lot of reflection. Here Mark’s reflection reminds him of an experience he had as a Baha’i youth. -gw

Mark

I think the power of a film like [An Inconvenient Truth] isn’t actually in the science itself. When I’m thinking about the things in the movie I like I’m not thinking about the statistics on CO2 emmissions over that past 20 years — I’m thinking about the feeling I gained from the movie — the perspective on my part in the greater scheme of our environment. To say that the entire merit of this film rests in it’s science seems to be ignoring the more important reason to watch this film in the first place — to inspire one’s self to take action.

When I was younger and went door to door in a nearby community to invite people to a inter-faith dialogue sponsored by the local Baha’i’s, my friend and I came across one man who this whole thing reminds me of. He had gotten a degree in religious studies through a local Christian College (which I believe is now a University) and had said he once wrote a paper on the Baha’i Faith. Based on his exhaustive research (which it turned out, didn’t include actually reading any Baha’i writings) he came to the conclusion that this “cult” (as he called it) didn’t follow true religious doctrine and wasn’t a real religion. I was only a teenager at the time and barely had the cognitive ability to put together a well-formed sentence, let alone discuss the issue with this guy, so we tried to be as polite as we could, left him the invitation (it was actually for a discussion related to Race-Unity Day) and went on to the next house. The truth is, we were there only to invite people to a discussion on Race-Unity issues put on by the local Inter-Faith group, but I guess he heard “Baha’i” and decided to talk about that particular topic.

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www.bahaibookstore.com

But in later years I came to realize that while this person may have felt that he did pretty exhaustive research on the Baha’i Faith, he didn’t actually know much about the religion itself. For myself, and I think for people of all faith’s, the true importance/passion/significance of being a part of one’s religious community isn’t based on research, comparative fact-finding and scientific data, but it’s based on matters of the heart. It is about how you feel — the love and connection you have with those people in your community, and with human beings at large. I think that is where a lot of the significance of religion lies for most people.

And I’m not saying that one shouldn’t do their research and investigate the “truth’s” which are presented to them — it’s very important to be unwavering in your approach to developing a sound understanding of these sorts of things. But when that is said and done, what pulls you towards a certain set of beliefs is what your heart tells you is RIGHT.

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Uploaded on February 3, 2007 by jetalone on flickr

So when I think of this film, An Inconvenient Truth, I feel that it’s merit isn’t actually so much in the science (Yes, the science is important and, if you watch the film, you can see that they did a lot of work to really make sure their science is sound — which is why I find it ironic that people would say it isn’t) but in the message they are conveying. It’s a good message. It’s an honest message. And it speaks to the heart. Maybe the science isn’t 100% there, but you know what? I don’t really care. Because what the film did for me was help me shift my paradigm to one where I’m considering new things that I might not have thought of before.

Mark, “Hong Kong (2/4 - 2/19): In HK, You’d Already Be Sick …” Narom.net - blog

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{Re-posted with permission}

Intriguing snippet from an online discussion forum. -gw

I was baptised as a baby, but i didn’t confirm. I stil have my christening bracelet, it’s so tiny! I’m now a Baha’i.

Snowflake, Re: Religion « Reply #111 on: February 19, 2007, 04:57:33 PM »
National Self Harm Network

I never put a GPS device on my son Rahmat to monitor his activities when he went down to L.A. a year and a half ago to participate in a youth project. I didn’t have to. A spy took pictures of him and put them on the Internet. Of course, I didn’t know that a spy was doing this until I came across these photos on Flickr while searching for a Ruhi photo this morning. -gw

Rahmat doing extreme Ruhi

All photos uploaded on September 12, 2005 by carmiento on flickr