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Explores the application of Baha'i principles towards society building.
Society Builders pave the way to a
better world, to a better day.
A united approach to building a new society.
Join the conversation for social transformation. Society Builders.
Society Builders with your host, Duane Varan.
Welcome to Society Builders, and thanks for
joining the conversation for Social Transformation.
Now, today's episode is an exceptional episode.
I say exceptional here, not because of its
outstanding quality, but because it's an exception to
our normal pattern of episodes, really, because we're
currently in the middle of our sequence of
episodes exploring the science of depolarization, of bringing
antagonistic groups closer together.
But we're interrupting that sequence because the
Baha'i world just received a message from
the Universal House of Justice.
Its message of November 28, 2023.
And this message is so weighty and so important
that I felt it required me to drop everything
and focus on exploring its contents immediately.
It's a seminal message that Baha'is throughout the world
will be studying intensely over the coming weeks.
So today we interrupt our previously scheduled sequence
on the Science of Depolarization to explore the
recent message of the Universal House of Justice,
exploring the treasures of wisdom that can be
discerned from our experiences as a community over
the past hundred years, and more systematically working
to apply our principles.
So this episode comes to you hot off the press,
so fasten your seatbelts and let's dive right in.
Now, we've talked about the significance of
this kind of guidance from the Universal
House of Justice in previous episodes.
Messages like this help us understand our past, and
that's not just about the events that transpire, but
about interpreting their significance and their impact.
They help us understand the future, giving us this incredibly
rare glimpse in terms of what's in store for us,
what lays for us right around the corner.
But they also help us understand the present, both
in terms of our communities, but also in better
understanding the current state of the world.
It provides a unique lens to cut through the confusion
that is so pervasive all around us, and to see
global events with a new level of clarity.
So messages like this are such a precious gift.
We're incredibly fortunate to have
access to such wisdom.
Literally, every word gives us new insight.
So naturally, it's incredibly exciting to
be the recipients of this guidance.
Now, a couple of quick disclaimers.
As I've done before, I want to remind
you that this podcast is not a reflection
of the views of any Baha'i agency.
I share my insights with you purely
as a personal initiative, and my views
have absolutely no authority whatsoever.
In fact, my understanding is clearly imperfect.
I share my views with you in this
series to help stimulate your own thinking.
You are perfectly free to accept
or reject anything I say.
My views are no more or less important
than yours, so weigh it all for yourself.
Just think of me as another person sitting
around in your study group sharing my thoughts
with you and weigh those thoughts for yourself,
as you would the contributions of anywhere else
in your consultation or in your study group.
And once again, I want to remind you that my purpose
in sharing my thoughts here with you is not to provide
a substitute for your own study of this message.
It's designed to supplement your study
and hopefully even encourage it.
Okay, with those disclaimers now let's explore.
Now, the focus of this message is primarily on
what we've achieved as a global community over the
past hundred years, across the three Divine Charters, in
focusing our service and activities, the 'Tablets of the
Divine Plan', which have guided our teaching initiatives the
Will and Testament of Abdul-Baha, which has shaped
the evolution of our Baha'i institutions, and the ' Tablet
of Carmel', which has been the guiding light in
the building of the Baha'i World Center.
The message centers on guidance provided on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi that explained that attempts to understand the
implications of the Will of Abdul-Baha would require
a century of 'actual before the treasures of
wisdom hidden within it could be revealed.
And drumroll, please.
Now that we've had that century of it actually
working, the time has come for these treasures to
now be revealed, and that's what this message provides.
Wow. Right.
This message is that unearthing
of these precious treasures.
How incredibly exciting is that?
Now, by my count, the message is comprised
of 27 pages, that's a little over 16,500
words, across 89 paragraphs, ignoring titles, of course,
that are structured across 7 key sections.
So this message is on the meatier end of the spectrum
in terms of such messages, and it's packed with insights.
And the primary narrative of the message is
devoted to sharing the story of the history
of the past hundred years, gleaning the treasures,
the lessons, learned along the way.
In a lot of ways, this reminds me of
the Guardian's contributions in writing 'God Passes By', which
is a history of the first hundred years of
our Faith from 1844 to 1944.
Now, there were substantive history books on our Faith
already written at the time, of course, but Shoghi
Effendi's work is entirely unique, not because it tells
us the story of the events that transpired, but
because it helps us interpret them, their significance in
the unfoldment of a larger narrative of the organic
evolution of our Faith.
And this is precisely what the
Universal House of Justice does.
Here they lay out a history of the first hundred
years of our formative age, from 1921, with the passing
of Abdul-Baha to 2021, of our efforts to apply
our teachings as communities in more systematic ways around those
three Charters, which I referenced earlier.
Now, you're going to be incredibly inspired when
you read all this, if you haven't already.
You're going to learn so much, and it helps
situate events in your own life with new perspective.
It helps you position activities you already participated in,
seeing them in new light, understanding the larger narrative
of what they were really all about.
And I'm sure that throughout our communities
there will be many systematic initiatives designed
to help us better study the message,
because it really is just so seminal.
So I hope you will appreciate that an attempt
to summarize all of this is well beyond the
scope of what we can achieve in today's episode.
So that's not what we're going to do.
That's not what we're going to
focus on in this particular episode.
Today's episode is not an attempt
to summarize the entire message.
Instead, today we're going to focus on the parts
of the message which specifically focus on society building.
In other words, we're exploring only one
aspect of this very weighty message.
And in all honesty, I feel
inadequate even in attempting that.
So please accept my deepest apologies here for
not being able to tackle the entire message
and for limiting today's episode in this way.
Once again, I encourage you to study
the message yourself and collectively with others.
But hopefully we can explore at least part
of that message together in this podcast.
And with these disclaimers shared, let's now dive
in to explore these parts of the message.
And specifically, we're going to explore
four themes related to society building.
Here the organic nature of our evolution as
a community, the character of our interaction with
wider society, new insights describing the process of
society building, and finally, an exploration of the
interaction between the forces of integration and disintegration.
So today we'll explore each of these four themes.
The first hundred years of the Formative Age of our
Faith - the period from 1921 to 2021 - will probably
be viewed by future historians as the 'community building
stage in our evolution as a community.
As the message clarifies, before we could meaningfully
contribute to larger society with scale, we had
to build our capacity to function as communities
capable of charting our own destinies.
Now, prior to this, in the Heroic Age, the believers
had direct access to guidance from our Central Figures.
First from the Bab, then
Baha'u'llah, and then Abdul-Baha.
So if you've been following this podcast series,
you'll remember from episodes 6 through 13, for
example, how we explored all of these exciting
ways in which the Baha'i's of Abdul-Baha's
generation contributed to society building.
But they pursued these under
Abdul-Baha's direct guidance.
Those schools for girls and boys in Iran,
the race amity initiatives of the United States,
the Baha'i villages, cultivating crops in the Holy
Land, the erection of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in
Ishqabad all of these benefited directly from this
unerring, patient and continuous guidance.
But once we no longer had direct access to
this precious gift to humanity, a new process was
set in motion around those three divine charters.
We talked about setting in motion the formative age
of our faith and developing our capacity as protagonists
in our own development to function as communities making
our own decisions and navigating our own paths through
systematic action guided by experience and the higher level
of guidance first received by Shoghi Effendi and then
of the Universal House of Justice.
This is this community building
stage I was referring to.
And this system that has been
organically evolving is entirely unique.
We have no clergy or leaders directing
believers and telling them what to do.
We had to develop new patterns of community
life centered on collective action through consultation, something
truly without parallel anywhere in the world.
And there were countless challenges
in cultivating this new culture.
So while we always had the ability to apply our
teachings in the path of our own spiritual progress, learning
to do this together, collectively took some time.
And as the message clarifies, we had to
first learn to apply these principles in our
own communities before we could effectively apply them
to the challenges of wider society.
Now, don't get me wrong.
Plenty of individual Baha'i contributed
to society in remarkable ways.
And many Baha'i communities and groups of
Baha'i contributed, often experimenting with new approaches.
And there were new institutions which evolved.
Institutions at all levels global, national, local, even
Baha'i inspired organizations, a constellation of new institutions
to respond to both the opportunities and demands
of engaging with wider society.
But the point here is that our
systematic attention collectively as communities, had as
their priority this community building focus because
it was the prerequisite laying the foundation
we would need to collectively and systematically
be able to contribute to society building.
So the message carefully lays out the story
of the organic evolution of our communities towards
the stage where we were finally able to
collectively and systematically tackle the society building challenge.
In fact, one of my favorite parts of the
message articulates this in such an inspiring way.
Rather than attempt to summarize this section,
let me just read it to you.
They say Shoghi Effendiexplained to the Baha'is of
America that given the restricted size of their community
and the limited influence it wielded, they must focus
at that time on its own growth and development
as it learned to apply the teachings.
He promised, however, that the time would come
when they would be called upon to engage
their fellow citizens in a process of working
for the healing and betterment of their nation.
That time has now come.
And it has come not only for the Baha'is
of America, but for the Baha'is of the world,
as the society building power inherent in the Faith
is released in ever greater measures. Wow. Right?
The time is now.
So we engaged ever so patiently in community
building over the past hundred years, developing this
capacity for this promised age in which we
could then apply ourselves collectively to society building.
And that time has now arrived.
I mean, doesn't that just take your breath away?
And the message really helps
us understand this organic evolution.
It evolves both through experience and through
this higher level of divine guidance.
And as the message explains, with every step
forward in its organic unfoldment, the Baha'i World
develops new powers and new capacities that enable
it to take on greater challenges as it
strives to achieve Baha'u'llah's purpose for humanity.
So this, I think, is one of the main
takeaways from the message related to society building, that
we understand its place in the organic evolution of
our community, how our path moving forward is built
on the foundations of our past.
Of course, that our new focus builds on the
previous plans is something that the Universal House of
Justice has been telling us for some years now.
But this message goes into much more depth,
explaining and illustrating this and inspiring us.
It helps us situate the current opportunities,
our new focus on society building within
this organic evolution of our collective capacity.
The second theme I'd like to explore from the
message is what new insights it shares in terms
of describing our interaction with wider society.
Now, there's no question that this arena is one
where we're learning and adjusting our views rapidly.
Our community cultures are changing and
we're learning to reconceptualize how we
interact with the world around us.
Previously, I think we thought of ourselves
as being very separate from the world.
It's like we had a fortress exclusive from the
world around us, but we were very open to
inviting people to join us inside this fortress.
But there was a clear and
defined wall that separated us.
We moved in very distinct worlds.
We enjoyed fellowship with our Baha'i brothers and sisters, and
we created spaces like Firesides, where we welcomed wider society,
but on our turf and on our terms.
Now, this is an exaggeration for sure.
It wasn't this black and white.
There was plenty of gray there.
But my description here describes a certain kind
of culture where there was a very distinct
separation between us and the world around us.
Now, we know that this perspective is entirely
flawed and not consistent with our teachings.
We're evolving in better understanding a new
reality, but it's one which we're still
only getting a glimpse of.
And this message helps further clarify this.
It's an incredibly new reality that is central
to our new approach to society building.
So instead of this separation, we're learning
to see the world around us as
collaborators, partners in building a new world.
In fact, the vast majority of people engaged in
this enterprise will be from this wider society.
So don't think of the thousands in
our regional Baha'i communities, think of the
millions in the world around us.
That's the force to be mobilized
in the path of society building.
So here, the Universal House of Justice reminds us
that Bahaú'llah calls on us to act as the
leaven, a permeating and vivifying influence that could inspire
others to arise and overcome entrenched patterns of divisiveness
conflict and contest for power so that the highest
aspirations of humanity could ultimately be achieved.
We act as catalysts.
We help awaken this capacity in society.
It's not something we do FOR the world,
it's something we do together WITH the world.
And this recognizes that everyone has a role.
So our challenge is in finding sympathetic
individuals and organizations who pursue common objectives
so we can collaborate with them.
And in this collaboration, we all learn and discover.
They learn from our experiences and our
teachings, and we learn from their experiences.
This is a true partnership and a common quest.
This builds on the recent Ridvan message of the Universal
House of Justice, where they use the example of the
recent conferences held all around the world to describe a
new level of kinship, how we have become much more
open to wider society, consulting about our plans in the
company of those from wider society.
And this is very different from the past,
where we first developed our plans behind closed
doors and then interacted with society.
So this reflects this new paradigm
of kinship, of collaboration and partnership.
As the Universal House of Justice writes in
the Message, every people and every nation has
a part to play in the next stage
in the fundamental reconstruction of human society.
All have unique insights and experiences to offer
for the building of a unified world.
And it is the responsibility of the
Friends, as the bearers of Baha'u'llah's restorative
message, to assist populations to release their
latent potentialities to achieve their highest aspirations.
In this effort, the friends share this precious
message with others, strive to demonstrate the efficacy
of the Divine Remedy in the lives of
individuals and communities, and work together with all
those who appreciate and share the same values
and aspirations.
As they do so, Baha'u'llah's vision of a
unified world will offer a hopeful and clear
direction to peoples whose perception has been distorted
by the confusion prevailing in the world and
a constructive path for cooperation in the search
for solutions to longstanding social maladies.
As the spirit of the Faith increasingly permeates the
hearts to enkindle, love and reinforce the shared identity
of humanity as one people, it instills a sense
of loyal and conscientious civic responsibility.
And in place of the pursuit of
worldly power, redirects energies towards disinterested service.
In the pursuit of the common good, populations
increasingly adopt the method of consultation, action and
reflection to displace endless contest and conflict.
Individuals, communities and institutions across diverse
societies increasingly harmonize their efforts in
common purpose to overcome sectarian rivalries
and spiritual and moral qualities.
Foundational to humanity's progress and well being take
root in human character and social practice.
Wow, we have so much to offer.
But to properly actualize this all, it's something we have
to do in partnership with the world around us.
We don't own our principles.
They are there for the common good.
And as the world discovers the utility of
these principles in helping with their own ambitions,
learning to adopt, for example, our method of
consultation in their decision making.
As they increasingly interact with the Faith, they
will release their own latent potentialities, helping advance
the path to a more unified world.
The message also gives us all kinds
of exciting new contributions to our larger
understanding of the process of society building.
Again, our understanding of what society building
looks and feels like is evolving.
We don't yet have a common unity
of thought on what it all means.
We don't yet understand what a
distinctive Baha'i approach looks like.
That's something that will evolve
rapidly over the coming decades.
Now, I've talked about this in previous episodes, how
there are key constructs like Progressive Revelation which have
achieved this kind of unity of thought.
Anywhere you go in the Baha'i World, from the
jungles of the Congo to the Highlands of Papua
New Guinea, every Baha'i will share a description of
what Progressive Revelation means that is incredibly similar.
And over the course of the past 25 years,
there are new constructs in the community building arena
which share this kind of unity of thought.
So again, anywhere you go, for example,
the construct of accompaniment, just to use
one example, will have a common meaning.
But we haven't yet achieved this around
the various constructs associated with society building.
I suspect that our descriptions here would vary
wildly, and many of our concepts are still
probably shaped by secular concepts, us framing our
Baha'i work within the frameworks and approaches we
already understand, those adopted from wider society, instead
of discovering this distinctive Baha'i approach.
And this quest for this discovery is why
it's so important to look to messages like
this for clues, clues on what this approach
to society building will look and feel like.
So there are a number of treasures here in this message,
and these are treasures we want to learn from first.
The Universal House of Justice again reminds us that
development is not a process that is carried out
by one people on behalf of another.
It is people themselves, wherever they reside,
acting as protagonists in their own development.
So development is something we do with people as
equal protagonists, not something we do for them.
Another principle is that in the same way
that we see this meta narrative of the
organic evolution of our community over the past
hundred years, the same kind of organic evolution
happens in all of our society building initiatives.
Efforts start small and grow as experience accumulates.
We learn from our experiences, which
shape the evolution of our approaches.
And this idea has a number
of important dimensions to it.
First, that initiatives grow organically, but also
that they are shaped by our experiences.
It's not something we think up and
simply implement around a grand design.
It also highlights how critical it is to
try to get the process right by not
overextending ourselves, by staying true to our principles.
Rather than compromising for expediency because how we do
things is just as important as what we do.
The means by which the end is attained
is just as important as the end itself.
Much will depend upon the spirit and
manner in which our tasks are conducted.
And related to this is that process
of reflection of accessing and contributing to
insights, to knowledge, to experience.
It's something that should be available to
all, a democratization of access to knowledge.
I want to explore this theme a little further because
while I think a lot of heads will nod in
agreement with this idea, I think this is something a
lot of communities really need to work on.
In my own experience, institutions often hold such
knowledge very close to their chests and are
reluctant and suspicious in sharing it.
Some of this, I think, reflects a
fear that such knowledge might include negative
results which might discourage others.
For my part, and I'm speaking purely personally
here, I think this approach is fundamentally wrong.
The Universal House of Justice repeatedly calls on
us to be scientific in our approach.
And science is all about falsifiability, about the
ability to learn from both success and failure.
And you can't learn from failure if
you suppress all knowledge of it.
And here I'm just talking about
access to knowledge within our community.
It doesn't even grapple with the challenge
of sharing such experience with wider society,
which is also part of the process.
Now, again, this is just my personal view, but I think
we're going to have to learn to trust the process more,
to learn from what works, but also from what doesn't and
become more secure in providing open access to what we learn
from our experiences, whether good or bad.
And while we're talking about the method
of science, another key scientific principle articulated
in the message is that of replicability.
Good science is replicable.
You can retest to see whether you get similar results.
And in the same way, as programs and approaches
prove successful in one region, we should be able
to replicate that success in other regions.
And that too requires an openness
to sharing and to accompaniment.
And The Universal House of Justice highlights some
of the areas where our contributions to societal
discourse have been particularly effective the advancement of
women, the role of religion in society, the
spiritual and moral empowerment of youth, the promotion
of justice and the strengthening of social cohesion.
And here there's one reference that really
leapt out of the pages for me.
A key victory of the plans of the past 25
years was the leadership which evolved in our youth.
Youth truly moved to the vanguard,
leading our path in most initiatives.
I mean, it was truly a dramatic pattern.
And here in this message, the Universal House of
Justice says this they say the movement of youth
will be complemented worldwide by the unprecedented advancement of
women as full partners in community affairs.
So take that as a clue.
There is a mighty and powerful new pattern we'll see over the
course of the next 25 years similar to what we saw with
the rise of our youth over the past 25 years.
And this new pattern will see
this unprecedented advancement of women.
I mean, how incredibly exciting.
I don't know about you, but now that I've read
this, my eyes are suddenly open to this new reality
and I'm eager to see what this all looks like.
There's also a reference here.
Again, this is something we've seen in recent messages,
but there's a clear shout out to the incredible
role of local spiritual assemblies and their engagement with
wider society and with local leaders.
And similarly, there's a shout out again,
also emphasized in recent messages to the
intellectual life of the community.
And this relates to numerous references.
In fact, I counted 7 different sections
where the Universal House of Justice is
elaborating on the coherence construct.
So there is again further clarification that we
shouldn't pursue our work in fragmented and disjointed
and disconnected ways, but that our approach needs
to reflect a coherence that integrates across our
work in community building, social action and participation.
In the prevalent discourses of society and
that it maintains such coherence among the
three chief protagonists of the plan the
community, our institutions and the individual believer.
And of course, there are words of caution
against getting engulfed by divisive and political discourse.
And instead we need to seek to foster consensus
and unity of thought and to promote collaboration and
a common search to humanity's pressing problems.
So in all these ways, the message
is packed with insights helping us better
understand the process of society building.
The final theme I'd like to explore in
the Message that related to society building is
in the message's description of the interplay between
the forces of integration and disintegration.
On a personal level, these references felt somewhat
ominous, like there are some very, very turbulent
times in store for us all.
In fact, and again, this is just a personal reflection
here, but I found the tone of these references to
be very similar to the tone of the Guardian's writings
in the message of March 28, 1941, which was published
in book form as 'The Promised Day Has Come'.
Now, March of 1941 was an incredibly turbulent time.
It was the peak, really, of Nazi expansion.
France had already been conquered.
Great Britain was being bombed on a daily basis.
Rommel was, despite all odds conquering Africa and his
conquest of the Holy Land seemed a certainty.
So it seemed that Nazi tanks would be
rolling to the Holy Land at any minute.
And who knew what the implications for all
this would be for our World Center?
I mean, these were truly scary times.
I mean, this is the peak moment
of despair for the free world.
And at this juncture Shoghi Effendi writes: A
tempest unprecedented in its violence unpredictable in its
course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably, glorious
in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping
the face of the earth.
Its driving power is remorsely,
gaining in range and momentum.
Its cleansing force, however much undetected,
is increasing with every passing day.
Humanity, gripped in the clutches of
its devastating power, is smitten by
the evidences of its resistless fury.
It can neither perceive its origin, nor
probe its significance nor discern its outcome.
Bewildered, agonized and helpless.
It watches this great and mighty wind of God
invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth,
rocking its foundations, deranging its equilibrium, sundering its nations,
disrupting the homes of its people, wasting its cities,
driving into exile its kings, pulling down its bulwarks,
uprooting its institutions, dimming its lights, and harrowing up
the souls of its inhabitants.
And further, he writes: Dear friends, the powerful
operations of this titanic upheaval are comprehensible to
none except such as have recognized the claims
of both Baha'u'llah and the Bab.
Their followers know full well whence it comes
and what it will ultimately lead to.
Though ignorant of how far it will reach, they
clearly recognize its genesis, are aware of its direction,
acknowledge its necessity, observe confidently its mysterious processes, ardently
pray for the mitigation of its severity, intelligently labor
to assuage its fury, and anticipate with undimmed vision
the consummation of the fears and the hopes it
must necessarily engender.
Now, as a side note, this letter literally
marks the turning point of the war.
Almost immediately after this letter was
written, Rommel's fortunes changed, and he
had to reverse and retreat.
Hitler's subsequent invasion of Russia only months
later laid the foundations for his defeat.
So this is a turning point, so to speak.
But imagine yourself living at this time in
March of 1941, in these incredibly turbulent times
and receiving this guidance from the beloved Guardian.
Now, to me again, this is just a personal reflection,
but this section of the Message of the Universal House
of Justice has these kinds of tones as they describe
this interplay between the forces of integration and disintegration in
operation in the world today, calling on our ability to
read the reality of society as it responds to and
is shaped by these twin processes.
They frame this as the Baha'i world needing to
navigate the turmoil of a most perilous period in
humanity's social evolution, but assuring us that we will
follow undeviatingly the course set by providence.
Here's how they frame this dual process. They say this.
They say: A plethora of destructive forces and
events, including environmental degradation, climate change, pandemics, the
decline of religion and morals, the loss of
meaning and identity, the erosion of the concepts
of truth and reason, unbridled technology,
the exasperation of prejudices and ideological contention
pervasive corruption, political and economic upheaval, war
and genocide have left their traces in
blood and anguish on the pages of
history and the lives of billions.
At the same time, hopeful, constructive
trends can be discerned which are contributing to
that universal fermentation which Shoghi Effendi said is purging
and reshaping humanity in anticipation of the day
when the wholeness of the human race will
have been recognized and its unity established.
The diffusion of the spirit of world solidarity,
a greater consciousness of global interdependence, the embrace
of collaborative action among individuals and institutions, and
a heightened longing for justice and peace are
profoundly transforming human relationships.
And thus, the movement of the world towards
Baha'u'llah's vision advances in countless halting steps, in
occasional dramatic leaps, and with intermittent stretches where
progress stalls or is even reversed as humanity
forges the relationships that constitute the foundations of
a united and peaceful world.
Now, the integration part of that
dual process is incredibly inspiring, right?
I mean, we love reading about all these trends that
are coming together. But if you're like me, you're a
little bit daunted and scared by the disintegration part.
As the message says, none can anticipate precisely
what course the forces of disintegration are destined
to take, what violent convulsions will yet assail
humanity in this travailing age, or what obstacles
and opportunities may arise.
I mean, how scary is that, right?
And the Universal House of Justice makes it
clear here that we are not immune to
the pain and suffering the world will experience.
The turmoil in the world around us
will impact us all the same.
We may understand it, but
we'll still be experiencing it.
They use the example here of the inability
of Baha'i communities to pursue the plans during
the Second World War, for example, upheavals will
paralyze the ability of whole communities and whole
populations to fully participate.
It'll impact our financial resources.
I mean, we'll be impacted in every way.
We'll feel the pain.
And what's interesting to me is that the
language of the Universal House of Justice here
is not one of bunkering up.
We're not preppers.
We're not trying to disengage with
society as some might do. We don't fear it.
We're not trying to avoid it.
So the purpose doesn't feel like a warning so that
we can plan out how to best escape it.
Instead, it focuses on this interplay between
the force of integration and disintegration.
It's a summons for us to pull up our socks, develop
the skills we need, so we are best prepared to help
in service to our fellow brothers and sisters in the world
who will also be navigating through this turmoil.
It's a window of opportunity for us to
prepare ourselves for the tools we'll need to
help our fellow compatriots in this hour of
crisis that looms in our impending future.
How amazing is that?
There is a recognition that this process of
disintegration will lead to greater polarization, to the
recadescence of conflict among competing factions in a
cycle that will play over and over again,
and that the need for our service in
helping remedy this will be greater than ever.
And here there's a symbiotic relationship between
these forces of integration and disintegration.
As the forces of disintegration accelerate, so too,
simultaneously the forces of integration accelerate, knitting together
ever more closely the efforts of those who
are learning to translate Bahaú'llah's teachings into reality
with those in the wider society who seek
justice and peace.
And here, the Universal House of Justice
gives us some specific tools to help
us navigate through these challenging times.
First, they give us the example of the Iranian
Baha'i community, who for 40 years now have shouldered
the most intense suffering and pain as an intensely
persecuted community, but who have responded to this crisis
with unbowed courage and constructive resilience.
So here we can look to our
future hardship inspired by this example, reflecting
endurance in the face of injustices, indignities
and privation, their expressions of unswerving fortitude,
of consecrated devotion and mutual support.
These are essential lessons for how the Baha'i World
must respond to the acceleration of the destructive forces
that can be expected in the years ahead.
And the second tool they give us here is a
reminder to hold on tight to the fundamental truths.
We know for example, the fundamental truth that we
are all part of a single, unified organism.
Well this is such a big idea!
It's so crucial to how we interact
within all of our society building initiatives.
There is no us versus them.
We are all part of one human family.
And that idea is not a platitude.
It's a whole system of meaning, a
whole way of understanding the world.
It's a paradigm that is truly different
from how others understand the world.
So our path to helping others is
centered on us upholding such truths.
Because in those truths lays
the remedies to every ailment.
And again, because this idea is so
incredibly transformational and seminal, I'd like to
quote directly from the message.
They say: At its heart, the challenge
presented by the interplay of the processes
of integration and disintegration is the challenge
of holding fast to Baha'u'llah's description of reality
and to His teachings, while resisting the pull
of controversial and polarizing debates and beguiling prescriptions
that reflect futile attempts to define human identity
and social reality through limited human conceptions, materialist
philosophies and competing passions.
The All Knowing Physician hath His finger
on the pulse of mankind.
He perceiveth the disease and
prescribeth in His unerring wisdom
the remedy," Baha'u'llah states. "We can well
perceive how the whole human race is
encompassed with great, with incalculable afflictions."
Yet, He adds, "They that are intoxicated by self
conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Infallible
Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves
included, in the mesh of their devices.
If Baha'is become entangled in the delusionary notions
of contending peoples, if they emulate the values,
attitudes and practices that define a self absorbed
and self serving age, the release of those
forces necessary to redeem humanity from its plight
will be delayed and obstructed.
Rather, as the Guardian explains, the champion builders
of Baha'u'llah's rising world order must scale nobler
heights of heroism as humanity plunges into greater
depths of despair, degradation, dissension and distress.
Let them forge ahead into the future, serenely
confident that the hour of their mightiest exertions
and the supreme opportunity for their greatest exploits
must coincide with the apocalyptic upheaval marking the
lowest ebb in mankind's fast declining fortunes. Wow.
So we need to uphold the truths we know, for
example, that all humanity is one, and view everything through
this lens of these truths and not reduce our understanding
to the materialist views of our day, which reduce everything
to conflict and contests of power.
And as we get better at sharing such truths,
at applying them and acting in coherence with them,
as we grow in this capacity, we'll increasingly be
able to offer society a haven of refuge to
its members in this hour of their realized doom. Wow.
So fasten your seatbelts.
We might have some rough weather ahead, but our best
response is to prepare ourselves so we can best be
of service to humanity in its hour of need.
Well, that's all the time we
have for exploring these themes today.
Once again, remember that this is not
a summary of the entire message.
There are numerous other themes throughout the message: our
approaches to teaching, to Baha'i administration, to the evolution
of the Baha'i World Center, on the Covenant, the
process of translating Baha'u'llah's Wriitings into the arena of
action, and so much more.
It's a message packed with these treasures of insight.
Today, I've only focused on the parts of the
message which specifically addressed our society building focus.
So you'll really want to study the
message in its entirety for yourselves.
And as I mentioned at the outset, today's
episode was a break in the sequence of
episodes exploring the science of depolarization, a theme
we continue in our next episode, where I'll
interview Andrea Bartoli, who is both a scholar
and who serves as the president of the
Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue, which
is a global Catholic association championing world peace.
Andrea will share amazing stories from his own work in
helping bring an end to the civil war in Mozambique.
I mean, these are incredible insights to learn from.
His stories will truly inspire you.
So thanks again for joining
the conversation for social transformation.
I look forward to seeing you
again next time on Society Builders.
Society Builders pave the way to a
better world, to a better day.
A united approach to building a new society.
There's a crisis facing humanity.
People suffer from a lack of unity.
It's time for a better path to a new society.
Join the Conversation for Social Transformation. Society Builders
Join the conversation for Social Transformation. Society Builders.
So engage with your local communities and
explore all the exciting possibilities.
We can elevate the atmosphere in which we move.
The paradigm is shifting.
It's so very uplifting.
It's a new beat, a new song, a brand
new groove. Join the conversation for Social Transformation. Society Builders. Join the
conversation for Social Transformation. Society Builders. The Baha'í Faith has
a lot to say helping people discover a better
way with discourse and social action framed by unity.
Now the time has come to lift our game
and apply the teachings of the Greatest Name and
rise to meet the glory of our destiny.
Join the conversation for social transformation
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