Fasting to learn of hunger

Abdul-Baha spoke at the Hull-House in 1912.

“All praise be unto God, Who hath revealed the law of obligatory prayer as a reminder to His servants, and enjoined on them the Fast that those possessed of means may become apprised of the woes and sufferings of the destitute.”
– Baha’u’llah

For Baha’is, the Fast generally means a time of personal spiritual purification, re-orienting oneself towards God. But it also serves as an opportunity to come to know suffering. This is a bounty, to understand the world around us in ways that we normally would not. For those who have never known what it means to be hungry, fasting is a taste. Through it, we should be changed, committing ourselves anew to the cause of social justice. Poverty is not an artsy novelty, nor a trendy cause célèbre. Earning an honest living is a commandment of God, as engaging in work has been elevated to the station of worship. But it is understood that despite our best efforts, sometimes life will be difficult and it is during those times when those with means need to be generous.

In the Spanish language, there are two verbs for “to know”: saber and conocer. One is to know something intellectually. The other can be to know tangibly, or experientially. Even if we have committed ourselves to living a life in service to others, knowing injustice is conceptually wrong is a different motivation than knowing injustice through personal experience. In His bounty, Baha’u’llah helps us see what suffering feels like, if only for a moment.

Earlier this month, the U.S. federal government announced a new “supplementary” measurement of the poverty line, which will not likely change how poverty is handled, but perhaps how we see it – particularly since an additional 8 million people’s situations would be more realistically recognized – arise from 13.2% to 15.8% of the population. In Baltimore, where under the old calculations the poverty rate was at 19.9%, we’ll likely see increases to close to a quarter of the city population. (Anyone care to do the math?)

What makes people poor is not some external definition, but a combination of life circumstances and personal decisions, institutional structures and individual actions. Rarely is it completely one or the other. Thus, social change is dependent upon an overhaul of both the environment and the heart. Collectively, this new number will shed greater light on the current situation of our population. Personally, fasting can help us understand how hunger feels. Taken together, we’re vested with tools to create the world as promised in the Scriptures.

Injustice upheld: Redskins permitted to keep name

William "Lone Star" Dietz

It was just announced today that the US Supreme Court has refused to hear a trademark suit brought against the Washington Redskins football team by the National Congress of American Indians (and others). In effect, the Redskins can keep their name, because the tribal groups “waited too long to bring their challenge to the Redskins trademark, and thus forfeited any right to sue.” Read the details here.

That the highest court in the land implicitly sanctions the degradation of citizens in order to maintain the investments of a company’s trademark name shows starkly still how far we have go to simply acknowledge the racial prejudice in our country’s institutions.

The football team claims that their name is an honorific adopted to recognize William “Lone Star” Dietz, one of its head coaches in the 1930s who was native American. So a football team gets to define a term that others understand has its roots in the commodification of Indian body parts exchanged for payment to bounty hunters as proof of a kill?

We – those of us in whatever dominant group, be it white, male, heterosexual, Protestant, educated, wealthy, or any combination thereof that sets us in a more powerful position in relation to others – unfortunately continue to harbor the delusion that it’s acceptable to use names hurtful to others because it suits us. The Golden Rule states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Yet, we’re sometimes quick to rebut, “oh well, I wouldn’t mind it too much”. Thus, we come to Baha’u’llah’s admonition: “Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”

However we think about a term isn’t the point. The standard in this case must be defined by the other person, who as an independent spiritual being, has the right to define himself or herself on his or her own terms. Another way to phrase the passage, is as the Platinum Rule: “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.” This takes humility. This takes recognition that despite differences in the material life, we are all spiritual beings of one human race, and that to disparage one part of our family is to hurt the whole. To even consider it more deeply, it hurts the perpetrator who abases himself, lowering his own station which was originally created to reflect all of God’s attributes.

Those high schools and colleges which have chosen to change their mascots because the originals were offensive to one group or another have shown that to change a name isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it can be the start of a better one.

For more info on the Baha’i teachings on race unity

Baltimore mayor on trial: how about just overhauling our understanding of governance?

So after four years of probing and investigations, the State of Maryland has decided it’s got enough dirt to take Baltimore’s first female mayor to trial.

Does the State take issue with a single black mom at the helm of its largest city? Is Mayor Sheila Dixon simply another politician aiming to bend the rules as they apply to her and her cronies? According toBaltimore Sun’s Dan Rodricks, her trial lawyers are apparently going to try painting her as a champion for the poor and needy. All in all, the case will follow whatever course it will. Maybe she’s guilty and maybe she’s not. The point is, why are she and way too many other elected officials around this country even in the spotlight for corruption?

To list all the reasons here is impracticable and we probably wouldn’t think of them all anyway. But it is worth reflecting on some statements made by Abdu’l-Baha in a two-part piece published anonymously in 1875 in Persia, now known as the Secret of Divine Civilization.

“It is obvious that not until the people are educated, not until public opinion is rightly focused, not until government officials, even minor ones, are free from even the least remnant of corruption, can the country be properly administered. ”

“Not until discipline, order and good government reach the degree where an individual, even if he should put forth his utmost efforts to do so, would still find himself unable to deviate by so much as a hair’s breadth from righteousness, can the desired reforms be regarded as fully established.” (source)

So good governance starts with 1) an educated populace, 2) a public opinion that demands truth over drama and 3) the elimination of all traces of corruption. And then there’s the whole moral education of the individual where he or she would abhor the idea of committing a crime.

“At present, however, because of their inadequate schooling, most of the population lack even the vocabulary to explain what they want.” (source)

So we need to overhaul the education system too. The capacity to express oneself isn’t limited to being able to state “I won’t stand for this!”, but to describe and design the social systems we do want. Making a mockery of our public officials doesn’t help them do their jobs, nor does it foster much needed change. In this way, the media too often distract us from what we the people need to know and do.

So where to start? There are a lot of good governance initiatives out there, so take your pick. Transforming your neighborhood association from the fiefdom of a few into an institution focused on service and the welfare of the community could be a move in the right direction. The Baha’is are multiplying the number of spiritual education children’s classes and junior youth spiritual empowerment groups – which in part are designed to develop that crucial power of expression. These too need human resources. Whether you call yourself a Baha’i or not, you’re welcome to help out. Contact the author if you’re interested and we’ll get you connected.

Any other thoughts on overhauling governance?

a learning process – macro view

Profound transformations are taking place in the Baha’i world community. In contrast to many other religious groups where tradition holds prominent importance, the Baha’i community has embarked upon processes of learning, growth and systematic change to address the ills of a world in turmoil. Various observations have come out of the Baha’i World Center either from institutions or individuals outlining certain components of the enterprise in which we are taking part. In a talk given by Dr. Haleh Arbab in 2007 at the Annual Conference of the Association for Baha’i Studies – North America, three broad processes are outlined:

• Learning about growth in the Baha’i community through defined activities associated with education, training, connecting with the Word, and building spiritually based relationships among people.
• Learning about social action where we utilize the above community building processes to generate and apply knowledge for the purpose of systematically addressing social and material issues.
• Learning about engaging in contemporary discourses in order to share Baha’i principles and the learnings generated from our community building and social action with others in society. This can be done both on individual and institutional levels.

If you go into the text, you’ll see these headings written somewhat differently. The above reflects the changes in language and therefore perception that has taken place even in the last two years since it was written. This enterprise requires the Baha’is to become fully engaged in the society around them. An example may be helpful:

The Baltimore area Baha’is are engaged in community outreach in Collington Square park, establishing spiritual education classes for children in that neighborhood. For those who want to know more about the Baha’i Faith, we gladly share the Message and extend an open invitation to help with the classes and join us. So far, resident children, youth and adults have expressed a great deal of enthusiasm around this activity, to the point of even offering their own resources. As we get deeper into the community, we will invariably meet challenges that plague the city in general, such as, say, substance abuse among those we encounter. Currently, we don’t have our own treatment program and can only recommend facilities elsewhere in the city. But some work has been done by Baha’is elsewhere on the issue:

• Substance Abuse: A Bahá’í Perspective, by A-M. Ghadirian, M.D. (free book as PDF)
• Bahá’í Network on AIDS, Sexuality, Addictions and Abuse (BNASAA)

Conceivably, local BNASAA meeting groups could complement other treatment programs, or some other entirely new approach to addressing addiction could be generated as a result of the community learning process. What’s important to note, is that the whole Baha’i action program isn’t about importing Baha’is to provide services. It’s about raising up resources within a given neighborhood, informed by the Baha’i teachings and with growing capacity, residents make positive developments in their own community.

Obviously there will be a lot of learning taking place. And because we don’t live in isolation from each other, but influence and are impacted by our environments and institutions, what we learn needs to be shared, contributing to the discourses related to public health, social work, community development, and the like.

As a place for reflecting and disseminating some of the initial learning around spiritual community development practice (the above “Learning about growth”), Baha’i communities hold periodic ‘reflection gatherings’. These same gatherings and processes are taking place around the world. We celebrate achievements, share experiences, and formulate goals for the next few months of action. Baha’is and others who have participated in some of the Faith’s devotional, study, or educational outreach activities held in the area are encouraged to attend.

So, stay tuned… we’re just gearing up.

on labor

I’ve just started reading “Holding the Line: women in the great Arizona mine strike of 1983” by Barbara Kingsolver. The intro discusses strikes in general and the issues of justice that unions address. I then began thinking about the Baha’i teachings and how they would relate to these kinds of instances, which Abdu’l-Baha terms “industrial slavery”:

“Now I want to tell you about the law of God. According to the divine law, employees should not be paid merely by wages. Nay, rather they should be partners in every work. The question of socialization is very difficult. It will not be solved by strikes for wages…

…The owners of properties, mines and factories, should share their incomes with their employees, and give a fairly certain percentage of their profits to their workingmen, in order that the employees should receive, besides their wages, some of the general income of the factory, so that the employee may strive with his soul in the work.”

(See Baha’u’llah and the New Era for slightly expounded explanation.)

This issue is a sticky one. On the one hand, huge advances have been made in the name of social justice for labor, not the least of which are more humane working conditions, more livable wages, health care, desegregation, etc. On the other hand, the Baha’i teachings emphasize the importance of working in unity – not union unity against the corporation – but true unity whereby all are striving for the advancement of human prosperity. What Abdu’l-Baha described above has slowly started to come about (perhaps in other forms of business) but it still may as well, for the reality of the current situation, be some idea to be associated with the far off “Promised Land”. Thinking that one day, ‘POOF’ all will be well with the world is certainly naive.

So the issue is how to move from the current industrial slavery to the ideal relationship between laborer and employer. One term that has recently been explored by a few Baha’is in relation to oppressive circumstances is the engagement in ‘constructive resilience’. The Universal House of Justice uses this phrase to describe the actions of the Persian Baha’is in Iran who for over 150 years have made advances to the nation’s well being, while undergoing systematic oppression. This community has never turned violent, descending to the level of inhumanness of the aggressor. While they continue to seek justice through legal channels, they engage in personal Baha’i worship, carry out social action that lends benefit to the common good (such as holding junior youth groups for the underprivileged), and elevate the level of discourse in society to address issues of, say, gender equity and personal investigation of truth, among their friends and colleagues. It is constructive in that they are continually striving to be of service and advance civilization. It is resilient because while the community has bent and made superficial changes, it has never broken – neither turning aggressive nor giving into the desires of those who would have them eliminated – as has happened in so many other social movements.

Could constructive resilience be applied to industrial slavery? What might it look like? One fundamental difference between the Persian Baha’is and the laborers in a mining corporation is that they probably don’t have the same conceptual framework. There may certainly be overlap. How many laborers have sat down to chat with the foreman over coffee to discuss prejudice in the workplace?  This is a world about which I know very little. Knowing what’s possible requires knowing the reality of the situation. Then we can start exploring solutions and appreciative processes.

discussing race

Bar-stool diplomacy? Beer summit? These terms trivialize and distract from what’s actually taken place. I’m with Obama on this one – “This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day, and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other, and that’s really all it is.” Except, this isn’t all it really is. This is forward movement.

“Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention amongst you.”

Sometimes steps forward are imperceptible, or they’re policy inducing shifts. I’m glad that the media wasn’t allowed into the conversation this time. Frank and honest discussion around the family’s kitchen table requires privacy so all can feel free to openly speak their mind. But it’s an example, a teachable moment for the nation to witness one way of working through a messy situation.

I’m still processing the significance of this, coming together in intimate settings to root out the source of contention. I’d appreciate any thoughts you readers may have…

looking for unity builders

The other day I was walking around one of Baltimore’s many parks, looking for individuals who were interested in creating unity. By all honest assessments, Charm City’s got a whole host of problems. Yet, I know that it also has some incredible people who care deeply about the social environment in which they and their families live and that they’re trying to do something about it.

“Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and centre your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.”

One man I encountered chatted with me for a bit as we discussed the importance of unifying humanity – bringing the WHOLE family together – to address the social ills of the day. I brought up that we were trying to start some children’s classes in that same park, which over the past three months had garnered some serious interest among the neighborhood’s youngsters. We’ve sought to teach them about God, the Messengers He’s sent to humanity from time to time, and how bringing the diverse peoples of the city, nation and world together in a common cause is the prelude to peace – peace within the individual, the home, the streets and neighborhoods, the city, state, country and world.

Children's class at Collington Square Park

My friend mused that as important as working with individual children is, the environment in which they live will only bat them down again… unless perhaps you could get enough of them together to protect them from the assailing forces. But what about those structures? And I agreed – unless both the individual and the system are simultaneously addressed, our efforts will continue to be undermined. Clearly it isn’t an easy path, and we’re not under the illusion that – poof! – one day it will magically appear. But we are convinced that the good deeds of an individual do make a difference, and that collectively we can learn, by engaging in our communities, how to translate that which has been written in the scriptures of old into reality and action. Such an undertaking does however depend upon the willing commitment of as many people as we can find to join in solidarity with the Baha’is and their mission. Are YOU interested?

the reflection post

It’s been almost 3 months since I officially launched this blogging venture and, as has been the original intent, my approach is one of learning and organic development. So, in an attempt to stay systematic, this post will be a reflection/evaluation.

The content of the posts were to include both reflections on the community development / organizing work I’ve been a part of, as well as commentary on various issues in the world. In terms of frequency, my goal was to produce 1-2 posts a week.

The content has been pretty much aligned with my goals. Admittedly, I’ve found it’s much easier to see what others have done and to make comment on it, than to draw learnings from my own work. Perhaps part of the reason is that for my own stuff, I’m too close to the action to take an objective look at what’s happened. (Though with practice, I could probably do much better – remembering I did a lot of this in grad school.) But it’s also possible that it’s too early to really draw any meaningful learnings from our work. Time and sustained, systematic engagement will be of huge benefit, as we can then begin to see patterns emerge.

Along this vein —– While I haven’t written about it on the blog, our coordinating group had two meetings in the past two months. I realized after the second (this past Sunday) that we had invited individuals (who themselves were not members of the core coordinating group) to join in our consultations. In both instances, I found that such opportunities enable the individual to meet the group, come to a better understanding of roles, obtain a more sophisticated vision the community work, and develop a “forest view” of the activities in which they participate.  For the coordinating group, we benefit from the perspective, insights and experience of key individuals who have been engaged, making for more informed consultation and decisions. While there may be times when inviting others isn’t practical for hammering through the tasks at hand, in general, I think this mode of operating is hugely beneficial and shows a maturation of the coordinating group in its ability to carry out its work in a manner collaborative, rather than territorial.        —– This is an example of the kind of learning I was hoping to blog about. But as noted above, it’s taken a couple of meetings and time to see the benefit of the action. So I will consider this a longer term venture, stay in a learning mode and trust that more insights will emerge in due course.

With regard to the frequency of the posts – woefully sparse. It has certainly been on my mind, but as the organizing activity increased in intensity, I found that getting tasks done took precedence and documenting reflections was pushed to the side. The coordinating work isn’t over, but I have taken some major steps to create time for writing – namely submitting my resignation from one of my lines of work. I realized that this particular work, while necessary in and of itself, was not helping me move in a direction that I wanted to go. For a while, there’s been the job I held, and then the desired work I would dream of doing. I’ve tried carrying them out simultaneously, but have reached a point where it’s simply not tenable anymore. And so, embarking on a path of either finding or making new opportunities, I’m trying to integrate my passion with my paid work. (For the record, that would entail regular writing and research on social / community development issues, coupled with teaching on the same.)

For the time being, I will maintain the blog, though I may ask you as the readers to visit other sites in due course, to which I hope to contribute. I trust the content will be similar, but do need to consider profitablity since I have a family to consider.

As always, comments and feedback are always appreciated. And thanks for reading!

on children’s classes

Whew!

It’s been a busy few weeks (not writing, obviously, but in the field). The past few weeks we’ve been busy with youth training – accompanying our younger cohorts as they learn about community development, outreach, and the tools of the trade. To be more specific, we set up opportunities for the youth to engage in different forms of home visits – to study themes of import with a new Bahá’í, to say prayers of comfort and healing with a women about to go into surgery, and to meet folks to explain what we’re doing in the neighborhood park with their children.

The way Bahá’ís are approaching children’s classes isn’t your average Sunday School. To start, classes are held any time and any place it’s regularly feasible.

“Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.”

So, if we can get two teachers and a band of children under the shade of a tree in the park on a Thursday afternoon in the summer, we’ll have a children’s class.

Under more traditional religious school models, for the child to gain any benefit, they a) usually are of faith belief of the sponsoring religious institution and b) have to travel, some times long distances, to attend the class at the church, synagog, mosque. The Bahá’í teachings state strongly that the establishment of universal education is an urgent requirement of our time. Children need to benefit from the arts and sciences, from moral and spiritual education. Carrying out this responsibility starts with the parents from the earliest ages of the child and then gradually the whole community contributes. All children need education, not just those whose parent’s are Bahá’ís. So rather than holding classes in a centralized location, we take the program to the neighborhood.

The program itself is simple. To start, the children learn a prayer such as:

O God, guide me, protect me, make of me a shining lamp and a brilliant star. Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful.

and discuss the meaning. They’ll next sing a song, based on a particular virtue of the day, such as ‘justice’, and then memorize and discuss the application of a passage from the Holy Writings:

Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path.

The children then listen to a story about how this virtue was exhibited by someone in Bahá’í history. They play a game that’s cooperative and again underscores how to carry out the particular quality of the soul, and then the class wraps up with coloring or some other arts project.

The point here is that the children learn to access and think about the Word for themselves and then strive to apply it to their lives. Deep down, children all have the capacity to be good, but they need guidance. We’re about helping nurture that passion for excellence, loyalty, sincerity, love, justice and service to humanity.

While the teachers are trained, anyone who wishes to assist or teach a class is gratefully welcomed to lend a hand. The Bahá’ís are striving to create unity – unifying all of humanity – and any one who wants to constructively address the current lack of morals among our children, youth and adults, is invited to participate in any way they can.

So if you have children or are interested in helping work with them, find the Bahá’ís in your locality and join us in the work!

on learning in action

Last week I attended a meeting at which our community coordinating group reflected on efforts over the past two months to establish a children’s class in a particular neighborhood. (Related previous post on this.) What came out of the reflection was a budding understanding that we need to approach this as “churning up the mulch”.

Technically, we don’t have anyone in our faith community who lives in this particular neighborhood yet. So right now, we’re working only with imported resources, which doesn’t bode well for sustainability. We have however begun laying a foundation – notably with the ‘neighborhood grandmother’ (whose grandkids live in that area), but who’s also a neighbor of one of our coordinating group members. She’s become greatly interested in both our children’s class concept, and in learning intimately about the Baha’i Faith. And so far, her grandkids have been soaking up every opportunity to meet with us.

This particular neighborhood is of the more economically and socially depressed in Baltimore. Yet, upon a little investigation, our coordinating group sensed potential for this particular park area. If we liken the area to a garden, it hasn’t received much attention, apart from the police, and the soil has been simply getting compacted. It’s tough to grow anything in that kind of environment, however nutrient rich it may be. So one of our next lines of action is to begin tilling – seeing who’s in the area who could potentially or immediately see value in establishing a moral & spiritual education program among the neighborhood children. And the way this program is structured, it seeks to draw in parents and guardians to affect their spiritual growth and capacity to be of service.  The end goal then would be to have the class sustained by folks who live in that neighborhood, who intimately understand it’s social dynamics, yet who are learning to apply the Bahá’í Revelation to effect a transformation of the community.

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As I read the above, I see that it’s not just a matter of telling more folks about Bahá’u’lláh, about the salvation of one soul here, another there. When another person begins trying to apply the Bahá’í Teachings to their lives, we all benefit from the result. It is intimately wrapped up with a collective salvation – not only because they become a better person, but because they too begin to effect a positive transformation of the social environment. When we think of recruiting efforts among other religious groups, it frankly makes me cringe – there is the desire to save a person’s soul, yet they ignore or disregard who the person is, as if the two were separate entities, one part cherish-able , the other for discard. The flip side is to embark on a campaign of social justice, working with the person, yet losing sight of the spiritual / faith nature that should be at the heart of the endeavor. It’s important we remember this, particularly as we explain to others what we’re about, as we seek to enlist their participation in the work at hand.