In a message dated 6/1/04 4:34:30 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< I don't see these types of people entering the Faith. Or if they do, we don't hear about it.>> Most of the individuals who came into the Faith and became renowned for their service to the Faith were people like anyone else, they grew into the level of service that we remember so fondly. We have lots of folks of "capacity" who grew into their level of service and general celebrity in their professions and in their spiritual committment. I see no lack of this kind of individual today, they just have not received their general celebrity as yet. For many that will come posthumously, just like it has in the past. There are plenty of educators, lawyers, college professors, wealthy individuals, popular celebrities men and women of science in the faith in recent years as well. I can think of individuals whom I know and have know personally, and those I have met only peripherally or not at all. Dorothy Nelson is a renowned jurist, as is her husband, I knew personally in a neighboring community the attorneys (a married couple like the Nelsons) who introduced them to the faith in the first place. I know Jack McCants fairly well as he comes from nearby in Oklahoma and lived here before he was elected originally to the National Spiritual Assembly - he was a psychologist, of course, but started as a Methodist minister before he met the Faith. We have scientists of great renown in our recent past like Guy Murchie, we have popular icons like Red Grammar, Dennis Farina, Danny Seals, Jimmy Seals, Dizzy Gillespie, Dash Crofts, people whose public came to know that they were members of a "wierd religion" because they worked very hard for the Faith. We shall have no dearth of those individuals in the future either. And not just in this particular western nation either. <<A second point, would a person like Martha Root and her services be acceptable these days? Would an individual be allowed to go hither and yon seeing and teaching the influential and would we be allowed to be kept abreast of their activities? >> Well, Ms Root became a Hand of the Cause because Shoghi Effendi made more appointments to that station than His predecessors did. Why did he do that? We have no more Hands today, of course, but the institution of the Counsellors fills that gap <<Perhaps it is because the Order of Baha'u'llah is purging the cult of the individual and that is a good thing in the long run. Or perhaps it is because we aren't attracting this type of capacity into the Faith. Still deciding. >> Well, I have no doubt that we attract the same kind of capacity. It just takes longer for their halo to brighten. The aura of love and admiration that became attached to the Hands did not descend upon them instantly, we see them through rose-colored glasses to a certain extent. In that regard we need to view the efforts of those serving today to see the future "glamour" that is not yet obvious. (I use glamour in its most ancient of meanings a magical sheen of attractiveness and desirability that is almost artificial in nature). Regards, Scott __________________________________________________ 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]
