Monthly Fireside for May

Providing Higher Education:

A Crime in Iran

 

 

Speaker: Beth Fachnie

Wednesday, 9 May, 2012

 

8 PM

 

Garfield Disher Room, Dunnville Branch

Haldimand Public Library

 

The Baha'i Principle Discussion Series

Sponsored by the Baha'is of Haldimand

Notes, Personal and on the Master’s first talk

Some Personal Notes on the Centenary

Notes on the Master's First Substantive Talk in America

 

By John Taylor; 09 April 2012

 

==========

 

Some Personal Notes

 

I very much wanted to record my voice reading the first address of the Master, which happened a hundred years ago. I was preparing on the computer some illustrations to illuminate the points made in it. That way, I could answer for myself the question, what might an address by the Master look like if it were given today, complete with PowerPoint bullet points? A hair raising question, I know, and it probably is best left by the roadside. Still, it interests me. So far, I had only found that this is much more work than I had thought.  Then, I was struck down by a twenty four hour flu. Barely recovered, both my kids were knocked down by the same bug. They spent a miserable night of vomiting and diarrhea.

 

As I was undergoing my travail, I found myself thinking a comforting thought,

 

"Maybe this session serves a creative purpose. Maybe it will act as a sort of reboot for my life. Maybe what I have not been able to do, my hopes and dreams so long unfulfilled, will be morally possible after this is over."

 

It sounded strange once the agony was over, but I repeated it to my daughter between her trips to the bathroom that night. What else could I say to comfort her? It seemed to have an effect on her spirits. I read some jokes to her, and they lifted her spirits too.

 

That night, my son was having a sleepover with his air cadet corps. In the morning, we got a call that he had been sick all night too. I drove him home. A miserable Easter Sunday morning where nobody even thought of the egg hunt and egg painting that they had been anticipating.

 

I was still enervated by this virus, so we did little else yesterday other than watch old videos.

 

Saturday, though, I was somewhat disoriented but functional. I dropped Thomas off at the Legion for his drill weekend, then wandered in the car over to Dunnville's Shared Harvest Community Farm. There I listened to an impromptu disquisition by its young organic farmer. He should be on YouTube, thought I. We spoke about Hugelkultur, or log gardening, which he has used extensively throughout the farm. He is even making up a sinuous design of garden beds meant to resemble a green snake.

 

 

He spoke of the plot by seed corporations to destroy thousands of years of seed genetics by patenting every seed available for sale, then making it illegal to save your own seed. They are so powerful now that they persuaded the Canadian government to refuse entry to a seed expert from India, who had been invited to speak about the now subversive activity of saving your seeds.

 

Then I wandered over to the former arena grounds and attended an outside meeting to discuss future use of this now-vacant land right in the center of Dunnville. Powerful interests, the new cabal of state capitalist parasites who socialize risk and privatize profit, are nuzzling under the skin of city hall. They are trying to persuade politicians to sell them this public land beside our farmer's market so that they can build a condominium complex there.

 

Almost everybody else around here is for turning it into some sort of park or recreation area, perhaps gardens combined with a skateboard park, or, considering that it is on a natural incline, an open stadium for public performances. We talked over several ideas, including a boardwalk to the bridge.

 

Notes on the Master's First Substantive Talk in America

What is a Baha'i? What does it take to be an angel?

 

 

 

'Abdu'l-Baha leaving a taxicab at Hotel Ansonia, New York 1912  <http://abdulbahawest.blogspot.ca/>

Here is a picture I had never seen before, of the Master near the Ansonia, the hotel He stayed at first in America.

 

"It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations." Kahlil Gibran

 

A hundred years ago, Abdu'l-Baha gave his first talks in North America. I have been going over His first couple of addresses in Promulgation. I was struck by the repeated use of the expression "spiritual affinity." The above quote from Kahlil Gibran is the main thing that turned up when I searched. On one hand, Gibran has had a big influence on American spiritual sensibilities over the last century, and the Master may have used the expression to reach that element of society. On the other hand, Gibran had great respect for the Master. Without further research as to when this quote was written, it is impossible to say who influenced whom, since Gibran did meet the Master in New York not long after the "spiritual affinities" talk, the second in Promulgation. I think, though, that a better title for this address might be:

 

"How to Become Angels Arrayed in Divine Virtue"

 

==========

 

It is amusing, when reading the Writings, to count up the number of questions asked. I counted almost two hundred questions in the Iqan, for example. In this "angels arrayed in divine virtue" talk, the Master asks twelve questions. No wonder that Socrates and Plato put such emphasis on what they called "dialectic," on back and forth, Q&A, on discussion, when confronting the highest truth. Here is how one of the Master's party, Mahmud, describes this -- or some other early meeting in New York -- he gave at least two that day, in two different believers' homes. He waxes poetic about the feelings that the meeting aroused.

 

 "After leaving the ship the Master went to the Hotel Ansonia. After some tea, He went to the meeting with the friends. And what a wonderful meeting it was! The friends were so full of joy and happiness that it seemed the very walls were immersed in rapture and ecstasy. Because it was so crowded, many had to stand. When the initial excitement abated, the Master gave thanks and gratitude to the Blessed Beauty for His assistance and then spoke about the power and influence of the holy utterances to attract and cement the hearts, unifying the East and West." (Mahmud's Diary, 38)

Here are some of the topic headings I wrote for my reading text of this disquisition.

 

 

Bullet Points for the Master's First Talk in America (first draft)

 

  Unity is our reason for being

  Atomic Affinity; Life itself comes of love among the parts of the body

  Spiritual Affinity; our potential comes of the Kingdom of God

  Death and darkness come of turning the mirror's back to the sun

  God's Prophets came to teach unity in the heart

  Christ's foundation was the oneness of humanity

  The army of Jesus started off unimportant and ignorant but their purity and attraction gave them the victory

  Opposition to Christianity ended in defeat for the rich and powerful

  By Christ's eternal power the obscure became renowned, the prominent were forgotten

  There was a reason for the suffering of Jesus

  The essential teaching of Jesus

  Some answered questions about the civilization vaunting itself in Christ

  Question One

  Question Two

  Example from the news: the invasion of Tripoli by Italy

  Questions Three to Six

  Answer: this is the civilization of antichrist, death and Satan

  The same is true of conflict between believers

  Q&A seven and eight

  Definition of a Christian

  Spiritual susceptibilities are the real fruits of heaven

  Capsule Definition of Baha'i

  Suffering plays the same role in Baha'u'llah's sacrifice

  Questions nine and ten: this unique period in history

  Definition of service to the Cause of God

  Questions Eleven and Twelve; one must know in order to teach the Cause of God

  Susceptibility leads to divine confirmation and virtue. This way, one will become one of the promised angels of heaven

 

 

As might be expected, 'Abdu'l-Baha starts with the basis of His listeners' religious understanding, which at the time was, by and large, a sort of liberal Protestant Christianity mixed into a thousand other notions, from spiritualism to New Thought (now called New Age Thought). He defines what a Christian is, then what a Baha'i is. The latter amounts to the same thing as the former.

 

It is interesting to contrast the definition He gives here of what Baha'i is with how Abdu'l-Baha defined it in the face of some narrow minded missionaries. They, of course, regarded their faith, Christianity, as a rival religion utterly incompatible, as a congregation of deluded sheep led by cynical power mongers. For the Master, Baha'is are leaderless, a "community of cooperative servants." There can be questions among Baha'is, but not the sort of disputation and wrangling over doctrine that has dragged Christians into the dust ever since Athanasius' day.

 

 

QUESTION: "Is there any leader or head in the Baha'i Religion?"

ANSWER: "The Baha'is are a community of cooperative servants, they have no leader. Their only leader is God. They have no ordained ministers or priests. Whosoever hears and believes in the principles of this Cause, it is required of him to convey this Message to others.

The Baha'is have no organized missionary headquarters. Because their cardinal creed is the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, they have no theological wrangles and no metaphysical speculations."

 

(The Era of Independence; An Interview with Abdu'l-Baha What Abdu'l-Baha said to five American Christian Missionaries From the Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, in Star of the West, Vol. 12, p. 13. For the whole interview online, see: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/era-of-independence-interview-with.html)

 

 

Another aspect of this talk struck me as I was going over it. Imagine how controversial some of what He says here about the nature of Western Civilisation (the forces of Satan and Antichrist) would have been if He had given it in New York ninety years later!

 

I just read Linda McQuaig's "Its the Crude, Dude!", which describes how the United States invaded Iraq out of pure greed, in order to gain control of its oil fields. This base motive was clear to all, Iran most of all -- hence their present rush to a nuclear defense. But when it happened, all of a sudden no respectable commentator in the press could consider any motive for the invasion other than unselfishly spreading freedom and democracy. Forget oil-free places like Congo and Darfur where government itself, much less democracy, were long ago tossed out the window. The point is that we Americans are unselfishly spending masses of blood and funds to save democracy in Iraq. End of story.

 

Same base, bloody story with Italy's invasion of Tripoli, which Abdu'l-Baha refers to in this address.

 

The general opinion was that Italy, the center of Western Christianity, had to be in the right to invade a defenseless neighbour across the Med. Its victory, right or wrong, was a triumph of the West. Of course, when the Italians later proved not to be such successful imperialists, that opinion was moderated. Today we remember the sinking of the Titanic as the most memorable event of that time, but this war (now known as the prelude to World War One) was what contemporary journalists thought was the most important headline.

 

 

 

 

Thoughts from an Evening at Home

Strained Mercy, and Other Musings

 

By John Taylor; 2011 Sep 23, 'Izzat , 168 BE

 

 

 

 

I have been relaxing, having finished my first draft of Cosmopolis Earth, and sent it off to a copy editor. Last night was a typical evening.

 

Contents

 

The Spirit Within Club

Sam; In Memoriam

Two Pre-prandial Prayers

Warm his cool heart

Comment on the Qiblih

 

==========

 

The Spirit Within Club

 

For Tommy's almost daily Baha'i class (Silvie, at 17 years, no longer deigns to attend) I continued reading aloud from a youth novel called "The Spirit Within Club," by Sahar Sabati, a Montreal believer now serving in the Holy Land. I typically read a chapter, but Tomaso always insists on hearing two or three more chapters, which shows what a good writer this fellow is, I guess. The Spirit Within Club was written to point the way the Ruhi program sees kids leading the community and the faith, and it seems to do a pretty good job of that. I am actually quite surprised that Tomaso takes such an interest in it, what with all the explosions and hijinks in the books, movies and games he usually likes.

 

The author contacted me through the now largely dormant Badi Blog, and sent us a prepublication copy of this novel, targeted at 8 - 14 year olds, which, he tells me, has been published by George Ronald and should already be available in your friendly national BDS. When we are done reading it, Tommy and I will be interviewing Mr. Sabati by Skype. I hope to share the results with you on this blog.

 

Sam; In Memoriam

 

When the Baha'i class was over we said a prayer for Sam, a member of our Baha'i community who just passed on. Sam was totally paralyzed by a brain stem stroke, but when his wife declared and they asked him if he wanted to be a Baha'i too, he said yes. I do not know how they communicated that, or anything else, since he is totally motionless. He reminds me of one of my most admired believers, Evelyn Knight, of whom I often speak here. She was a victim of Down's Syndrome, yet she was an active believer in a big city where it was hard to be an active believer, even for those with far more natural abilities.

 

Evelyn was always an inspiration to me, but not Sam, at least not when he was around. I must say, Sam was quite a test.

 

During meetings, every fifteen minutes or so, Sam's wind pipe got clogged, his breathing became heavy and obstructed and it sounded like he was about to suffocate. His nurse or wife would then fool around with some tubes, switch on a loud machine and it would clean out whatever it was that was clogged. He was a Baha'i about three years, and no matter how many feasts and firesides I attended with him, I never got used to that. I was always convinced that he was about to die, the adrenaline would pump through my system and I lost track of whatever else was going on in the meeting.

 

But again, the fact that this fellow, who evidently was an accomplished artist and craftsman before the stroke hit, even became a believer and stuck to it to his last day, is itself testimony to some kind of spiritual current running deep down things, way beyond the comprehension of us dwellers of conscious material life.

 

Two Pre-prandial Prayers

 

I guess we do not call them "grace," like Christians do, but the Master did reveal two mealtime benedictions when he was staying at the fantasy ranch of Phoebe Hearst, where the meals must have been pretty big and formal. It was 99 years ago, almost to the day that this happened (16 September). Here they are, from Balyuzi's bio,

 

==========

 

Mrs. Hearst recollected also the effect that the chanting of an Arabic prayer had had on her all those years ago in 'Akka, and expressed her ardent desire to hear such a prayer once again. 'Abdu'l-Baha's voice rang out powerfully as He acceded to her wish and chanted a prayer in Arabic. The other guests sat spellbound, although they were not familiar with the  308  language. The second day at the luncheon table, when asked to say a benediction, He uttered this prayer:

 

"He is God! Behold us, O Lord, gathered at this board, thankful for Thy bounty, our gaze turned to Thy Kingdom. O Lord! Send down unto us Thy heavenly food and blessing from Thee. Verily, Thou art the Generous, and verily, Thou art the Beneficent, the Merciful."

 

 

 

And at dinner on the 15th He spoke this prayer:

 

 

 

"He is God! O Lord! How shall we thank Thee! Thy bounties are limitless, and our gratitude but limited. How can the limited render thanks to the limitless? Incapable are we of offering thanks for Thy mercies. Utterly powerless, we turn unto Thy Kingdom, and beg Thee to increase Thy bestowal and bounty. Thou art the Giver, Thou art the Bestower, Thou art the Powerful."

 

 

 

Before departing for San Francisco on the 16th, 'Abdu'l-Baha asked to see all those who served in Mrs Hearst's household: maids, pages, groom, cook.

 

(H.M. Balyuzi, Abdu'l-Baha - The Centre of the Covenant, p. 307-308)

 

==========

 

"Warm his cool heart," A Portrait of Portia and Shylock

 

The Merchant of Venice, The Sequel

 

After reading the Baha'i stuff, Silvie and I continued our reading of Shakespeare's play about racism, The Merchant of Venice. I took most of the male roles and Silvie the female ones, except when she did not, in which case the drama came from our disputes as to who reads what role. Last night we covered acts three and four, with the action climaxing in two sub-plots. It was so gripping, in spite of the often obscure references and word play, that Tomaso stayed at the table to quietly play with some walnuts and Mom ceased her Czech blogging to discretely listen in.

 

I have been kind of stuck on the idea of writing a series of sequels to Shakespeare's plays. We all enjoyed "Hamlet II," an indie film about a play about an artsy English lit teacher who writes an indulgent ego piece about Hamlet II and stages it in the local high school. In November there is a "write your own novel in a month" challenge, and I am kind of thinking of doing a novel about events after one of the Bard's plays, now that my main book is written. Silvie was thinking along similar lines, because she stayed up late to draw the following drawing.

 

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpcnTtDcnIKmJC6X2rmh0rCu_ZrARCbsF_ANwbH-H8fRT8tmoDoWiHCaTjOD9vBkc9hAQR5g-y836EHaALTJhPtROp8OG6yEBFDb2O8ZbXCAJoYGLqccu4J26lRaAo0N74_rE/s400/image0.jpg

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CQwnUk4dicNTcEYUbGcCUg?feat=directlink

 

 

This is her idea of what happened after Shylock had been deprived of his fortune (by Portia's ruling) and forced to become a Christian. Portia comes to him discretely and passes over to him the ring that his dead wife, Leah, had given him during their courtship. A touching proof that she had meant it when she said, "The quality of mercy is not strained..."

 

 

Comment on the Qiblih

 

This site is going the rounds, a way to find out for sure, no matter where you may be,  in what direction to pray.

 

http://qiblih.com/

 

This is an amazing device. Turns out that for all these years I have been praying to a bathroom in Tunis rather than the correct point of adoration, which is in Bahji.

Such is human frailty.

 

But, as the Qur'an (24:35) says, God's revelation is "neither of the East nor the West," so It must be in every direction. So I guess I could not have been that far off.

 

By the way, do not confuse the Badi Blog with Badi's blog, http://www.myspace.com/badimusic/blog. No relation.

 

How to hold a Public Meeting in your area

By holding a regular public meeting our Dunnville Baha'i community (LSA of Haldimand) has built up over a decade a regular following of about a dozen people who attend our public meetings. In Hamilton, a much larger community, we built up a similar following of about sixty non-Baha'is turning up within a couple of years. I include the following information about how this is done so that other communities will know how to go about it and all that it takes to do the same thing.

 

In the past, Betty Frost had a monthly column in our local paper, but there was a shakeup in the administration and now only paid journalists have that job. Undeterred, every month she writes a letter to the editor about our upcoming meeting. Here is what she submitted this month.

 

To the Editor,

 

On June 8th the usual monthly program sponsored by the Haldimand Baha’i Community(held in the Garfield Disher Room of Dunnville’s library) will have quite a different approach. Our speaker, Nola Marion of St. Catharines, will not be "addressing" the group on the subject of how we can build healthy communities. In her own words, via email, she said:

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

 

WHAT DOES 'COMMUNITY' MEAN & HOW DO WE BUILD 'HEALTHY' COMMUNITIES?

 

In conversation we can share ideas, co-create knowledge and nurture relationships. Conversations are based on the idea that no single person has the whole answer to a question but rather that each person's thinking can be enriched by the perspective of others. Come out and join our conversation about 'community' and explore the concept that 'community' is where we discover our strengths and interests, and feel a sense of belonging. In 'community', we have the opportunity to develop an understanding and appreciation of others as we live together and share experiences.

 

Our connection to the globe begins with participation in our local communities. Join us in exploring what a community is and how building healthy communities is an essential component to the betterment of society.

 

We hope that you will respond to her invitation and join us at 8:00 p.m. next Wednesday. The "conversation" will conclude with light refreshments.

 

Betty Frost

 

Haldimand Baha’i Community

 

Every month Betty sends this material to me, and it is then my job to squeeze what she said and make up a poster, which I print out and distribute around town.

 

Here is this month's poster:

 

Bahá’í Principles Series

 

Community

“What does community mean and how can we build better ones? Our connection to the globe begins with our local community. Here we can discover our strengths and interests and find a sense of belonging. Come and join the conversation.”

 

Featured Speaker:  Nola Marion

 

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

 

8 PM

 

Garfield Disher Room,

Dunnville Branch,

Haldimand Public Library

 

 

Knights of AHW1

Follow the Instructions

 

By John Taylor; 2011 Mar 06, Ala 05, 167 BE

 

Follow the Instructions, by Jenabe E. Caldwell, Indian Publishing Trust, Baha’i Publishing Trust, New Delhi, 1998

 

A certain Baha'i publishing trust noted that I am a blogger a few years ago and sent me a letter in which they promised to send me a newly published book, my choice of three options, if I would review it on Amazon and one other site whose name escapes me. I chose my book and although it was not without merit overall I was not pleased with it. I had more negative opinions than positive ones. I chose a "silence is best" policy and did not review it (another reason for not writing about it is that I could not get more than fifty pages into it). Anyway, I felt slightly bribed. If that ever happens again I think I will refuse the offer, book lover that I am. If the New York Times insists that its reviewers give back or otherwise dispose of whatever product they write about, I think that a Baha'i should adopt an even stricter standard.

 

One book that I bought (with my own money) last summer is "Follow the Instructions" by Jenabe Calwell. I met Jenabe in 1975 in Alaska. He was a very inspiring speaker -- do not take my word for it, you can hear a podcast of an interview with him from "Baha'i Perspective." Anyway, when I saw this book, published in India and very reasonably priced. Naturally, I snapped it up. I think this, if any, would be a good book for the institutions to purchase and hand out to every believer who is involved in more than casual teaching work.

 

 

 

Now I know what older Baha'is will immediately think when they hear the name "Jenabe Caldwell." He is just so old school, they will say. Caldwell was the leading "evangelist" of the quasi-revival movements, officially termed mass entry, during the late 60's and early 70's. He tells the story from the inside, and most of his stories are very inspiring. Clearly, he was learning as he was going, and he was doing all he could to stop the mass exits that followed the mass entry. We have got to pay close attention to what Caldwell says, since he speaks from several decades of experience in direct teaching, in leading and inspiring mass teaching projects. What he says is absolutely invaluable.

 

I got up to chapter nine in the book, called "Tender Loving Care, (TLC)" and stopped reading for several weeks. It is not that what he said was bad or anything like that. It was just stunningly thought provoking and stopped me cold. The chapter consists of an old letter he had written just after the event; it describes how he met with disappointment organizing a teaching initiative in Mexico. It is a kind rambling letter, no inspiration or literary glitter, but the implications are mind boggling. What it describes is this:

 

He carefully nurtured and involved two believers for an upcoming project. One of them had been inactive and the other was a new declarant, as I recall. Caldwell was called away somewhere else but he sent these two believers off to help out with an urgent teaching task in a distant city. They had gone way out of their way to get there at all. When they arrived, essentially they were snubbed by the believers who had been sent to meet them and settle them into the project. Passively snubbed, but stubbed nonetheless.

 

Understandably, they went home soon after and that was that for them. Caldwell concludes that the believers need special training at meeting, greeting and making people feel welcome. If we do not give Baha'is this training, the entryway into this Faith will stay a revolving door, pushing as many people out as it lets in. Unless we get this training, disappointments will keep happening and the Faith will never grow.

 

 

 

For weeks, as I say, I have been mulling over what Caldwell says about special training. He hit the nail on the head with his point, commonplace as it is. If we are ever to get past where we were in the 60's we need to offer TLC to anybody and everybody who crosses the threshold into the faith. To use the current jargon, it has to be part of the culture, it has to be systematic. I think of all the times I have walked into Baha'i meetings in a big city and the same thing happened. Passive snubbing. Even when I am well known to just about the whole community, I can walk in, sit down, listen, and when the meeting ends walk out without more than a few nods and how are you fine how are yous and that is it. I come and go like a thief in the night. As long as anybody can go out of a Baha'i meeting and walk a block away to a local church and be greeted with at least a handshake when I walk in and a handshake when I walk out, who do you think is going to attract more people?

 

I have been going over in memory the training in the Ruhi institutes and trying to think of how they correct this TLC deficit that Caldwell points to. Maybe institutes do in very general terms, but what he is talking about is specific training in the specific skill of meeting, greeting and offering hospitality. This is just what every minister does at every church door after every Sunday service. It is more than that, of course, but I am talking about the bare minimum. As Caldwell puts it, TLC. Honestly I cannot think of anything in Books One to Six, or Book Eight, that addresses this need directly. Maybe my readers can point to something.

 

What we need is for every LSA in big communities to assign a certain number of community members to get special meet, greet and hospitality training. Use them like knights to guard the doors at every large meeting. Keep the training up constantly, in the same way that a cop or teacher has to regularly take courses keep his or her training current.

 

Call them the knights of the crimson book, or use Caldwell's term, a "TLC committee," or call the group the "AHW1 Society." AHW1, of course, is the first Arabic Hidden Word, which promises a different sovereignty, a sovereignty of love, to anybody who shows forth a "pure, kindly and radiant heart." Let the training start with careful study, a la Ruhi, of the first talk in Paris Talks, the one which lays out everything that "greeter training" is aiming for, that is, taking people into your heart, your home, inviting them to stay, no matter what their background, without worrying if they steal your cutlery, just do it, spiritually. Unless we start such a program going, and do it soon, the present program for mass entry will get no further than its predecessors did in the 1960's and 70's.

 

Abdu'l-Baha Himself told the following story illustrating His opinion that this factor, the effective, skilled and assiduous promotion of a cause by its followers, is a Sine Qua Non of success. The popularity of a group is not necessarily tied to its truth or real worth. Conversely, a worthy cause, even that of God Himself, can be unfairly neglected if its lovers and followers are neglectful.

 

"Nur Ali-Shah was rejected by both the government and the people. He became homeless and an exile. He could not live even in the holy shrines because of the transgression of the religious authorities against him. At the end, he died in Baghdad.

 

 

 

"A few of his servants, who were living in extreme poverty and adversity, were very sad on account of his calamities and homelessness. With much sincerity they began to commemorate his name. Since they did this with great sensitivity and devotion, each one of them became very famous, honourable and respected among all the people. Everyone was amazed at this. Even many of the ministers of the king and the members of the clergy became their close friends and devotees. All of this took place, despite the fact that his cause was not very important." (Stories Told by Abdu'l-Baha, #111, pp. 120-121)

Haldimand Monthly Fireside Notice

Baha’i Principles Series

A Key to Loving

This book, A Key to Loving, by local author Betty Frost discusses ideas from the Baha’i Writings, like: “The first principle of divine guidance is love,” and, “The most important feat in this day is harmony and agreement.”

Featured Speaker:  Betty Frost

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

8 PM

 

Garfield Disher Room,

Dunnville Branch,

Haldimand Public Library

Can you believe it?

JANUARY 28, 2011

Internet Essay Teaching Opportunity

I was just listening to Arnold Toynbee's Credo on the old radio program "This I believe," and found that it is now a web site on which you can submit your own essay. The guidelines for writing it are at:

 

http://thisibelieve.org/guidelines/

 

I did a search for the word "Baha'i" and found only a few references, listed below. Maybe some of the readers of this blog would be interested in submitting their own credos.

 

I also did a search for "Bill Sears," since he mentions in God Loves Laughter (a book that I have read aloud seven times to my son, who continues to pester me to read it yet again) that he recorded his own segment for "This I Believe," back in the 1950's sometime. Evidently they do not have the Hand's recording up on the site yet. If anybody knows more about this, please let me know.

 

Fasting: More Than Just Skipping Lunch « Katy | This I Believe 9 Oct 2008 ... It was the first of nineteen days when I wouldn't eat or drink from sunrise to sunset as part of the Baha'i Fast, a fast that I would ... thisibelieve.org/essay/51041/

 

I Quit Carrying a Gun « Robert Powers | This I Believe 5 Mar 2010 ... And from Baha'i—“The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens”—I became aware that my prejudices had always imprisoned, ... thisibelieve.org/essay/16903/

 

A Sustaining Force of Humanity « Aleah | This I Believe 26 May 2005 ... Inspired by a Baha'i friend, I have concluded that a faith is true to its believers, and every person must find his or her perfect fit. ... thisibelieve.org/essay/2869/

 

This I Believe « Anisa | This I Believe 26 May 2005 ... I was born into a Baha'i family and its spiritual beliefs were placed upon me as I began memorizing prayers and learning virtues that I ... thisibelieve.org/essay/2881/

 

This I Believe « Karen | This I Believe 18 Sep 2007 ... I write today not only as a Baha'i but as a mother and educator ... (from the writings of Abdu'l-Baha, leader of the Baha'i Faith 1892-1921) ... thisibelieve.org/essay/32896/

 

This I Believe « vernyce | This I Believe 25 Oct 2005 ... One summer Larry and I were both attending a Baha'i summer school in Michigan. My twin brother Vern and I began our mornings cleaning and ... thisibelieve.org/essay/7485/

 

This I Believe « Darrell | This I Believe 7 Nov 2005 ... This time it was Religions of the World and I learned about Baha'i, Sikhism, Jainism, etc. It was Information overload. ... thisibelieve.org/essay/7765/