Society Builders

This is the second in a 3 part sequence exploring how the early American Baha'i community championed race unity - perhaps the best example of society building by Baha'is in the Western World.  This episode explores Abdul-Baha's engagement with the American race unity discourse - focusing on His talks to African-American audiences in 1912.  This sets the stage for our next episode where we explore the impact this all had on both the transformation of the American Baha'i community and on the nascent Civil Right's movement.

This is the first in a 3 part sequence exploring how the early American Baha'i community championed race unity - perhaps the best example of society building by Baha'is in the Western World.  This episode explores the historical context prior to Abdul-Baha's arrival in America.  We explore how 'scientific racism' marred racial attitudes throughout America - and how churches that once championed the abolition of slavery now turned a blind eye - setting the stage for Abdul-Baha'is engagement with the race discourse in America upon His arrival in 1912.

This episode continues our interview with eminent Baha'i historian, Dr. Moojan Momen, on the transformation of education in Iran facilitated by the Persian Baha'i community's network of over 60 schools spread throughout the nation.  At a time when Iran was almost entirely illiterate, the literacy rate in the Baha'i community was near universal.  It's a remarkable story.  In this episode we explore the impact this network of schools had in Iran - and the circumstances that led to their closure by imperial decree in 1934. 

In our last two episodes, we explored how the early Persian Baha'i community engaged in society building by helping facilitate a discourse on governance reform for Iran.  But with the enactment of Iran's first constitution, the reform movement grew increasingly divisive resulting in Abdul-Baha advising the Persian Baha'i community to disengage with political reform and instead focus its energies on address social reform.  Baha'is then turned their attention to, among other needs, transforming education in Iran by promulgating a network of over 60 across the entire Iranian nation.  This is the first in a two part series exploring this amazing chapter in our history.  It features an interview with Dr. Moojan Momen who in this episode provides the historical context and explores the rise of this network of schools.  The story continues in our next episode where we'll explore the impact this all had on wider Iranian society.

This episode continues the interview with Dr. Moojan Momen exploring the contributions of the early Persian Baha'is in the rise of Iran's first democratic institutions.  It explores how Baha'is acted on the guidance provided by Abdul-Baha to contribute to society building in their day through governance reform and how this impacted Iran's reform movement.  But it also explores how Baha'is shifted their focus away from such political reform once it became divisive and instead focused on social reforms in health and education.

In the late 19th century, governance in Iran was in desperate need of reform.  Corruption was rife and the country was being sold off through foreign concessions. In this episode, eminent Baha'i scholar, Dr. Moojan Momen, provides the historical context and background to two key books authored by Abdul-Baha (one still yet to be translated) which engage in this social discourse and helped bring about Iran's first democratic institutions.  This is the first of two parts - providing the background context to the larger narrative.

In a truly blockbuster episode, we discover how most modern discourse (on issues like world peace, race unity, the empowerment of women and more) was influenced by Abdul-Baha and the generation he inspired.  Fasten your seatbelts for this one... you'll be blown away by what you discover.  You'll be truly surprised by just how extensive the influence of the early Baha'i community was in the evolution of key ideas including affirmative action, black pride, the Parents Teachers Association, the moment of silence commemorating the fallen of the First World War and so much more. Includes interview segments with leading Baha'i scholars including (in order of appearance) Dr. Guy Emerson Mount, Dr. Robert Stockman, Dr. Roy Steiner, Dr. Moojan Momen, Kathryn Jewett Hogenson and Paul Hanley.

This episode continues the theme of reflection from episode 4.  Where episode 4 celebrated our victories of the past 25 years, this episode explores some of our potential mistakes.  The episode focuses on four possible mistakes: allowing our sense of focus to exclude other vital community functions; rigid approaches to the needs of the Plans; insufficient regard for the needs of those less engaged; and a lack of scientific analysis in our study and reflection of initiatives.  The episode concludes with a special appeal to those who still feel hurt by such mistakes, inviting them to re-engage.

In this episode, we explore how the efforts of Baha'i communities worldwide in 'community building' over the past 25 years now lay the foundation for the 'society building' of the next 25 years.  In particular, we focus on four key achievements: 1) The rise of a system of learning, empowering communities to cultivate the resources they need; 2) The shift in focus for service at the neighborhood level; 3) The fusion of believer and collaborator from wider society; and 4) the growing leadership of our youth.  Each of these key achievements are critical to the pattern of society building moving forward.

This episode continues to explore how vision gets effectively translated into reality.  But where Part One explores this at the individual level, Part Two explores this at a community level.  How can a collective group of people work together to bring vision into fruition?  And what role does vision play in stimulating and channelling unified action?  It's an episode you won't want to miss.