Baha'i Housecleaning
By John Taylor; 2008 Nov 22, 19 Qudrat 165 BE
I have been doing some housecleaning in my "to write" file. Under "Baha'i Topics" is a long list of bits and ideas that have been sitting idle so long that I am pretty sure they are not going grow into to anything more than fragments. So today, here is a succession of material on the Baha'i Faith, some from me, some sent to me by readers, some from my reading online and off.
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Contents
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Six-Word Memoirs
Top Ten Most Popular Baha'i Youtube videos
Baha'i Communities
Louhelen Schedule for 2009
Ruhi Around the World
Baha'i Podcast Interviews
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Six-Word Memoirs
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The American public radio network NPR featured the latest literary genre, super brief memoirs confined to a mere six words at:
http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/features/2008/02/memoir/gallery/index.html
The original site (http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/) explains the "legend" of the six word memoir, saying:
"Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs."
As always, a book is underway. Plus, if you go to the above site you can find some pretty good visual presentations featuring various writers' six word memoirs. Here is mine: "Stymied by migraine, writes Badi' Blog." Pretty much sums it up for me. But before I was moved to write the following memoirs of my religion, the Baha'i Faith. No doubt each Baha'i will come up with a different six words, but these are mine.
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Baha'i:
Twin Manifestations, one Plan, golden age
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The Bab:
God's revolutionary passes through the gate
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Baha'u'llah:
Suffering of divine Prisoner liberates all.
or:
God's glory manifest in Greatest Name
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Abdul-Baha:
Son of the One, Baha'i paradigm
or:
Baha's servant centers covenant with God
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Shoghi Effendi
Plato's Guardian class, last of type.
or:
Invisible UHJ chair bedizons spiritually learned
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The Top Ten Most Popular Baha'i Youtube videos
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Last night I typed the keyword "Baha'i" into YouTube, then set the criterion "most popular." This, as of then, is a list of the ten most popular short videos in the world.
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1. Seals & Crofts perform "Summer Breeze" at Oregon State Fair in 1992; Views: 445,609
2. Thought of war (very brief display of Abdu'l-Baha's quote from Paris Talks); Views: 259,140
3. Saddam's Execution Prophesied (A flake and apparent covenant breaker's prediction of the Iraq president's execution); Views: 73,349
4. Iran president on Baha'is at UN press conference (in 2007); Views: 64,952
5. Abdu'l-Baha Ascension 28 Nov 1921 (commemorative video); Views: 63,413
6. Rainn Wilson on the Late Late Show (movie star plugs film, mentions Faith); Views: 59,200
7. Super Baha'i Girl (??? unbelievable that this zero production value vignette got more than one viewer other than those who made it!!!); Views: 52,777
8. The Baha'is Question? (official defense of believers in Iran); Views: 51,861
9. BNE Stickers Graffiti on ABC World News (mysterious logo may spell "Baha'u'llah and the New Era); Views: 44,452
10. I Wanna Bop with You Baby! (adaptation of a Dan Seals song); Views: 41,858
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My comments on this list
This is just pathetic. Any Baha'i who is concerned about teaching the faith should be very worried that the most viewed video has less than a half million views, and that many of the most popular videos are not even about it, they are peripheral to the Faith. There are seven million Baha'is in the world, we could do better than that just by watching Baha'i videos ourselves, much less presenting something of interest to the world at large.
Here is a suggestion for the auxiliary board for propagation: keep a live feed of this top ten list on your websites and blogs. We keep track of statistics like the number of LSA's, so for heaven's sakes, why not keep track of this? Try to encourage believers to film activities and come up with better, more interesting videos to present the teachings to the world.
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Baha'i Communities
A reader wrote:
"Have you heard about Baha'i Communities? It's a social networking website, with over 5000 Baha'is and growing. You can put up a blog there, join groups of likeminded people, get a discussion going . . . sounds like the perfect place for you. If you're not already there, would you like an invitation?"
Can anybody tell me more about this group?
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Latest Louhelen Schedule for the first part of 2009
Our family were delighted with our stay at Louhelen last summer. The highlight for me was the chance to say prayers in the presence of a chair that Abdu'l-Baha Himself sat on. We hope to be able to go again next year. Details on the courses at Louhelen, and more are at the Louhelen Website, at: http://www.louhelen.org/programs.html
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February 13 - 15 Celebrating Marriage
February 13 - 15 Islam and the Baha'i Faith
March 27 - 29 Naw-Ruz Family Weekend
April 10 - 12 Youth Eagle Institute
April 24 - 26 Spiritual Empowerment for Junior
May 1 - 3 Women's Spiritual Retreat
May 15 - 17 INSIGHTS Reunion Conference
May 22 - 24 Spring Family Weekend
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Ruhi Around the World
Most people will have seen this photo show of Ruhi gatherings around the world, but for those who have not:
http://www.bahai.org/attaining/
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Baha'i Podcast Interviews
There are three interviews with Baha'is available on the Web, all with special emphasis on mystical aspects of our beliefs.
http://www.healthylife.net/RadioShow/archiveSPA.htm
Exploring the World Religions: The Baha’i Faith, Parts 1-3
http://www.healthylife.net/RadioShow/archiveSPA.htm
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