Hi Susan, Thanks for your reply. My thoughts are interspersed...
> > The Baha'i community, like any others, goes through cycles. And there is > good reason to think our upswings and downswings have as much to do with > what is going on around us than what is happening in the Baha'i community > itself. I think where what we do in the Baha'i community makes a > differences is when it comes to our ability to hang on to whatever gains > come as a result of the growth cycles when they occur. To do that we have > to > have a certain level of infrastructure. The Mormons and all these other > churches you speak of already have this. What church doesn't have worship > services, Sunday school and Bible study for adults? Any social service > projects they do are on top of these basic activities. We as Baha'is > haven't > had them, but they will be what people expect when they come in. Precisely. I agree with you. Let's take the example of the Mormons. They are equivalent in age to the Baha'i Faith. Yet look what they have accomplished. Which is the more vital community? Is there any scholarship done on this? In the broad range of NRM's where does the Baha'i community fall on the scale of commitment to community life? Also, let's consider the Iranian Baha'i community. They have always had a much better infrastructure in place than the West. What is wrong with our community that we can't follow these obvious examples? I am not belittling the administration on this - I am condemning the community as a whole. I am tired of years and years of being part of a handful of individuals doing everything. Watching people come and leave because they don't see a model - a way of canalizing the teachings. We all have hoped to see it happen. I am out of hope. Again I bring you back to the question of people of capacity. Read the histories and many of the early American believers came from extraordinary backgrounds and lent their talents and resources to building the Cause. Where are these individuals? Where are the people of capacity? Surely someone has some data on this? Unless I am missing something, the history is clear. The Baha'i Faith has not attracted appreciable numbers of people of capacity since the time of the Guardian. Am I off base here? Believe me, I'd like to be shown I was. > > As for your frustration with the war in Iraq, as you know a lot of us > share > that. And some of us have found ways to act in response to this apart from > our Baha'i community. But if all avenues of resistance were open to you > and > your family, realistically how much difference would it make? Perhaps it is in my makeup. I can't sit idly by and watch this happen. I cannot be a "stepford citizen" and just go along to get along. As I cease to see the Faith as a viable alternative to work within, I am at a loss what to replace it with. But if I can't justify a return to working within the Faith, I will find something I'm sure. > On the other > hand, consider your teenage children. If they were not raised Baha'is what > would they be doing at this age? Good question. But I worry that I have led them down a dead end path. We watch as the children of our friends have left the Faith. There are only a handful that have stayed with it after their workshop experiences and years of service. Vastly disappointing. Has someone data on this as well? Another good avenue of scholarship. From where I sit, we are not retaining the majority of the youth who grow up as Baha'is. Again, this has reinforced my thoughts on the lack of the community's vitality. > > I remember my wife and I on pilgrimage in 1998 > > and Ruhiyyih Khanum too sick to see the pilgrims and wonder what her > > state of mind was. > > Ruhiyyih Khanum was suffering from benign dementia short before her death. > That's why she didn't see pilgrims. Being Baha'is doesn't preserve us from > this kind of thing. > Ah but it doesn't disprove my point. Unless I missed them, her last public statements were full of warnings and disappointment in the community. I don't think you can deny Bill Sears left this world thinking himself a failure. I heard it from Margauritte's mouth herself about the feelings he was left with after trying to rouse the community. Again, I would honestly love for someone to show me different. Thanks for your time, Dick D. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
