“History is a powerful instrument. At its best, it provides a perspective on the past and casts a light on the future. It populates human consciousness with heroes, saints and martyrs whose example awakens in everyone touched by it capacities they had not imagined they possessed.”

Century of Light (pages 65-83)
This presentation highlights the teaching experiences of early African American Bahá’is with a special focus on the contributions of African American women. Drawing on oral histories and archival documents, this talk highlights African Americans’ courageous efforts and sacrifices in advancing the Cause of God in the U.S. and abroad. What can we learn from the relatively unknown history of black Baha’is to assist us in exploiting this “moment of historic portent”** for the good of mankind and the establishment of race unity?

126 African American Women In The Bahá’í Faith- Intersectionality, Myths And Restorative History

For a half-century now, the US has undertaken an historically unprecedented experiment with human incarceration. Our society has organized itself around a system of punishment that now locks away millions of people. As most know, the members of the human family that we imprison usually come from the least resourced communities, and from Black and Hispanic communities. This panel discussion will consider contemporary incarceration practices in the US, and how these practices might be supplanted by those who believe in the oneness of humanity, and the need to establish just relationships between all people.

See also Dr. Smith’s May 2018 talk Racial Justice: Mass Incarceration in America (BahaiTeachings.org) and his June 2020 WI webinar “Centering the Pupil of the Eye.”

RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES FROM PANELISTS
Books
Prison Race, by Dr. Renford Reese
The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
Makes me Wanna Holler, by Nathan McCall
Before the Mayflower, by Lerone Bennett Jr.
Wacquant, Loic. Punishing the Poor
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Websites
untilfreedom.com
grassrootslaw.org
The Abolitionist Toolkit:
criticalresistance.org/resources/the-abolitionist-toolkit/

Quote
“We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.” –Shoghi Effendi
See also: bahai.org/action/response-call-bahaullah/

RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES FROM ATTENDEES
Books
Becoming Ms. Burton, by Susan Burton
The Will to Change, by bell hooks
Blood In My Eye, by George Jackson
Howard Zehr: Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times

Miscellaneous Resources
Documentary Film: 13th (Ava Duvernay)
Every work by Bryan Stevenson (Book, TedTalk, everything)
PBS – College Behind Bars, a four-part documentary film series directed by filmmaker Lynn Novic

112  Supplanting The Prison Industrial Complex -Derik Smith, Angel M. Solis, Tyee Griffith

The Great Law of Peace and the Most Holy Book - Dr. Lee Brown

Summary: This talk is a comparative study of the Great Law of Peace articulated by the Peacemaker and founder of the Iroquois Confederacy and Kitab-i- Aqdas promulgated by Baha'u'llah.
Bio: Dr. Lee Brown is the former Director of the Institute of Aboriginal Health in the College of Health Disciplines at the University of British Columbia. He was also the Director of the Indigenous Doctoral Program in the Department of Educational Studies at UBC. Lee’s Doctoral Thesis is entitled: Making the Classroom a Healthy Place: The Develop of Affective Competency in Aboriginal Pedagogy. He is the Co-author of The Sacred Tree, an educational curriculum based in the Aboriginal values and epistemology of the Medicine Wheel. Lee has contributed to the Round Lake Native Healing Centre in Vernon, BC during the last Forty years in a number of capacities including clinical supervisor, counselor and currently as a cultural resource to the centre.

131 The Great Law Of Peace And The Most Holy Book - Dr. Lee Brown

This webinar is a summary and commentary on the soul of man. It documents a potential way to achieve spiritual growth and transformation. The presenter will reference Bahá’í passages regarding the soul and the capacity of the soul. Beginning with the knowledge of God and His Manifestations, the presentation will then focus on the relationships between God’s Manifestations and Man which is established through the Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Faith and the Soul.

137 The Soul Of Mankind- Prerequisites For The Elimination Of Racial Prejudice- Leonard Bell

This orientation course is part of a larger strategy to continuously improve the quality of participant engagement in Wilmette Institute (WI) courses.  We know that there are many reasons individuals and groups take WI credit and/or non-credit courses. All people are welcome and the efforts you make to participate at your level will create a stronger learning experience for everyone. Our courses fulfill their purposes much better and people learn more when participants are highly engaged and motivated to complete a course.  We aim to provide you with the time and space to achieve your personal learning objectives. Success in WI courses implies valuing the knowledge acquired in investigating your questions, becoming confidently engaged in the topic with both faculty and fellow peers, turning outward in your social, academic, and work spaces to share the insights you are gaining, and investing the necessary energy to complete the course.

Orientation - Unit 2-3 "Need for a Framework"

Orientation - Unit 2-2 "Definition and Concept"

Orientation - Unit 2-1 "What is the Bahá’í Conceptual Framework for Action?"

Orientation - Unit 2-4 "What Does The Framework for Action Consist Of?"

Orientation - Unit 2-5 "Posture of Learning"

Orientation - Unit 3-1 "The Three Areas of Endeavor of the Current Global Plans"

Orientation - Unit 3-3 "Why Do the Prevalent Public Discourses Need Reframing?"

Orientation - Unit 3-2 "What is Public Discourse?"

Orientation - Unit 3-4 "How Can WI Course Participants Engage in Public Discourse?"

Orientation - Unit 3-5 "Examples of Participation in Public Discourse"

THE PROSPERITY OF HUMANKIND
A statement prepared by the Bahá'í International Community Office of Public Information, Haifa (This is Part 1--5 paragraphs)

http://www.bahai.org/r/018930835

The Prosperity of Humankind - Part 1

THE PROSPERITY OF HUMANKIND
A statement prepared by the Bahá'í International Community Office of Public Information, Haifa (This is Part 2--11 paragraphs)

http://www.bahai.org/r/636858545

The Prosperity of Humankind - Part 2

This webinar will closely examine Bahá’u’lláh’s proclamatory addresses to Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878) of the Roman Catholic Church, Emperor Franz Joseph Hapsburg (r. 1848-1916) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Kaiser Wilhelm I (r. 1871-1888) of the German Empire. It is the first in a series of three webinars offered by the Wilmette Institute as part of a course scheduled to begin on Wednesday January 18th, 2023. For more details, visit the course page: God Summons Europe (Part II).

Presenter: 

Shahrokh Monjazeb is an independent scholar of the Bahá’í history and sacred scripture. He began his scholarly endeavors in Bahá’í history around 1989 after he completed his undergraduate degree in Applied Physics and Electro-Acoustics with a minor in Religious Studies and Middle Eastern History. Two years later in 1991, he was invited to present at the annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies North America on one of Bahá’u’lláh major works. Since then he has been involved with Bahá’í academic research as well as the work of translating into English the writings of the Central Figures of the Bahá’í Faith. He is a published author and lecturer whose writings and presentations focus on Bahá’í Sacred Text and their literary and historical significance in the context of the socio-spiritual condition of human society. He has authored more than a couple of dozen articles on Bahá’í history and Sacred Text as well as a monograph on Bahá’u’lláh entitled “Bahá’u’lláh: A Brief Survey of His Life & Works”

Webinar:  Baháulláhs Tablet To Pope Pius IX

This presentation will begin with a review of basic information about the nature of the Bahá’í Faith, its founders, and its scriptures. Three Wilmette Institute staff—Robert Stockman, Justin Scoggin, and Ymasumac Marañón Davis—will explore the principles and beliefs about individual and collective development, and conclude with an overview of what Bahá’ís are learning in their efforts to serve humanity through community building, public discourse, and social action.

https://wilmetteinstitute.org/the-bahai-faith-and-an-evolving-framework-for-action/

The Bahá’íFaith And An Evolving Framework For Action

This presentation starts from the Declaration of Baháu’lláh in the Garden of Ridvan. The Order issued by the Ottoman government for the banishment of Baháu’lláh from Baghdad to Constantinople, the Capital of The Ottoman Empire, was communicated to Baháu’lláh by Ali Pasha, the Prime Minister of the Ottoman Sultan. In courteous language, the letter invited Baháu’lláh to proceed to Constantinople as the guest of the Ottoman government. Thus, the time for the departure of Baháu’lláh from The Garden of Ridvan had come. The departure of Baháu’lláh from the garden of Ridvan was on May 3, 1863. The journey of Baháu’lláh from Baghdad to Constantinople started from Firayjat, three miles away on the bank of the Tigris.

The journey was idyllic, consisting of a caravan of Kajavahs (howdas) traversing through twenty two villages in the picturesque Anatolia. The journey, of the distance of one thousand miles, over one hundred and ten days, reached Samsun on the Black Sea. From Samsun Baháu’lláh and some among His retinue continued on toward Constantinople, the seat of the Caliphate and the Sultanate. The banishment of Baháu’lláh continued with His exile from Constantinople to Adrianople. After five years, the course of the banishment of Baháu’lláh continued yet further from Adrianople toward the penal colony of Akka. The course of the banishments and exile of Baháu’lláh, from Constantinople to Akka, is signified by the third glorious phase in the disclosure of His prophetic mission—The Proclamation of Baháu’lláh to the Kings and Rulers of His time.

Banishment Of Bahaullah From Baghdad To Constantinople And Beyond

The second panel in this 2-part webinar series focuses on different issues within the domains of natural and social sciences. It is based on the articles by the participants, including “How Can We All Get Along?—A Bahá’í Perspective on Globalization” by Harold Rosen, “Plato, Modern Physics, and Bahá’u’lláh” by Vahid Ranjbar and “Iterative Theology: Progressive Revelation as the String Theory of Religious Studies” by Andres Elvira Espinoza. The Host for both panels is Mikhail Sergeev.
================================================
See original webinar here: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/series/religion-and-science-in-the-globalized-world/#part_2

Religion and Science in the Globalized World (Panel #2)PODCAST

Historian Michael V. Day takes us through the last years of Bahá’u’lláh’s life—in ‘Akká, Mazra‘ih, and Bahjí— highlighting pivotal moments and texts associated with the establishment of His shrine. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, including eyewitness accounts, Michael paints vivid pictures of the daily life of the Manifestation and of those in His orbit, of His final days and illness, of His ascension and funeral, and of the period of mourning that followed. (Moderator: Bahhaj Taherzadeh)

Link to book: https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Point-of-Adoration-P10597.aspx
Link to Webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5B1J7LCexZU

Conversations of the Heart: Part #3 Point of Adoration

Speakers Joel Nizin, Gary Hogenson, and Kathryn Jewett Hogenson discuss Roy Wilhelm’s life story; a rich and varied one that takes the reader from the coffee farms of Costa Rica to Wall Street to the picturesque environs of the properties that remain associated with his life and the Faith he held so dearly. Shouldering massive responsibility for the well-being and functioning of the early American Bahá’í community throughout the years of the first World War and the Great Depression, Wilhelm played a pivotal role in thxae establishment of the Administrative Order of the Faith. (Moderator: Chris Martin)

Link to buy book: https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Servant-to-the-Servants-P10590.aspx
Link to Webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8WZM8UClrYw

Conversations of the Heart: Part 2 Servant to the Servants

Gisu Mohadjer has collected stories of encounters with the members of the Holy Family. Along with her daughter, Amelia Cook, Gisu shares these stories which are tinged with tenderness, kindness, love, and laughter. They offer us a small window into the extraordinary life of the holy household as seen through the eyes of children. It is hoped that families and readers of all ages will treasure this collection and revisit it often for inspiration and solace and to deepen their love for the Holy Family. (Moderator: Chris Martin)

Link to buy book: https://www.bahaibookstore.com/A-Child-in-the-Holy-Land-P10528.aspx
Link to webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EYO_uEnr5yw

Conversations of the Heart: Part 1 A Child in the Holy Land

"In this episode we are taking you to India, where the dream of a Persian French family of taking to India the culinary pleasures of a very typical French Patisserie comes true. The Christine, Kazem and Laurent Samandari first share practical ideas on how to make sure such a dream can come true and then in the second part of this podcast we dig deeper into the values that are at the foundation of this very successful enterprise, planning to have over a 100 patisseries spread around India."

This podcast is republished here for inclusion in WIlmette Institute's course on "Operationalizing Moral Excellence in Business."
https://wilmetteinstitute.org/courses/moral-excellence-in-business/

ebbf Episode 12: The unusual values-based story of a French bakery in … New Delhi

Throughout His ministry, The Báb wrote many epistles addressed to theologians and seminary students. Among the writings of The Báb, there are two works known as the “Kitábu’l-‘Ulamá” or the “Epistle to the ‘Ulamá”, one which was revealed shortly after His return from the Arabian Peninsula to Iran and is the subject of this presentation.

This work, like many other epistles from the early period of The Báb’s ministry, is in the mode of divine verses and is in Arabic. We will attempt to provide brief historical background on developments in the world of Shí’ism prior to the inception of The Báb’s ministry and discuss the features of this epistle. Among the major themes of this work are the the subtlety of The Báb’s claims to a station greater than representing the hidden twelfth Imam, and the question of intertextuality between His writings and the Qur’án.

Our guest speaker is Nima Rafiei, who was born and raised in Minnesota and currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. He received his B.A. in history and political science from the University of Minnesota in 2013 and obtained an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago in 2021, where he studied both classical and modern Arabic and Persian literature. His interests in Bábí and Bahá'í studies include early mystical writings of Bahá'u'lláh from the Baghdad period and The Báb's commentaries on súrahs of the Qur'án and Islamic oral traditions. He also contributes English translations of Bahá'í texts from the original Arabic and Persian.

Webinar page: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/the-babs-epistle-to-the-ulama/

The Bab's Epistle to the 'Ulama

Recorded 7 November, 2023. 
The recent popularity of chatGPT and its seemingly amazing conversational capabilities has rapidly moved the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the forefront of public discourse in many societies. While many famous thinkers have warned of the dangers of AI, numerous universities and companies are racing to develop software applications and hardware platforms to advance the frontiers of automation, and robotics in fields as diverse as agriculture, manufacturing, education or health care and everything else in between. The emerging methodologies can produce highly damaging results or conversely superbly useful outcomes. The ethical questions that arise call for a thorough examination of fundamental assumptions about human nature, value systems and our visions of a just and prosperous world society. Bahá’í teachings have a lot to say about all this at the level of principle. More particularly, the conceptual framework for study and action developed by the Bahá’í world community during the past two decades can be directly applied to the methods and approaches for the generation and dissemination of knowledge about this subject. Currently, various governing bodies find themselves poorly equipped to legislate on the uses or abuses of AI. We will review both the history of the recent developments in AI and the Bahá’í conceptual framework and we will show how our societies can advance towards achieving coherence between the material and spiritual aspects of social and economic development.

Watch webinar video here: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/artificial-intelligence-and-ethics/

Webinar Artificial Intelligence And Ethics—a Search For Coherence  With Farzin Aghdasi

The Ras͟hḥ-i-ʻAmá is likely the first emanation from the Supreme Pen after the Maid of Heaven vested Baha’u’llah with his revelation in the Siyah-Chal. It has taken 165 years for this text to be translated into English and published in an official English translation. In his masterwork, The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Adib Taherzadeh suggests the 20-couplet poem might well prove untranslatable. Join Karen Webb in exploring the official translation of this absorbing short work and its complex imagery. This webinar was designed to be accessible to those with no working grasp of either Persian or Arabic, and we will examine an approach to analyzing the poem that involves no skills beyond the participants’ imagination and a fairly basic knowledge of the Bábí and Bahá’í faiths.

A PDF copy of the handout mentioned in the video can be found on the website link for the original webinar.
https://wilmetteinstitute.org/the-rashh-i-ama-in-living-color/

The Lonely Goatherd:

https://youtu.be/UmmOJx_Hxto?si=hhDjv9hj4iUEfyIo

The Rashh-i-ʻAma in Living Color | Karen Anne Webb

One of the core elements of social transformation involves a closer examination of the family, which the Universal House of Justice describes as “that vital institution which is the basic unit of society.” This webinar seeks to explore the complex relationships between parents and children. The family is the first communal unit/space where we have to coexist as one.  Some themes explored in this webinar include:

The nature of our relationships with our family, and how it extends to our relationships with friends, schools, our community, work, etc. in the wider world 

Power dynamics between child and parent from a societal and Bahá’í lens 

Cultural differences in parenting styles and methods
 
Exploring “honor” as mentioned in the Bible, Bahá’í texts and also from a cultural and material lens 

Featured speakers:
Shoghi Agbortoko
Sahar Marañón Davis
Clarissa-Cecile Agbortoko 
Allen Lu

More at: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/underlying-assumptions-parents-think-they-are-always-right/

Link to watch stand-up comedy video:
https://youtu.be/nHZVtcDjwNg
watch from 2:50-4:00

Underlying Assumptions Parents (Think They) Are Always Right

In its message of 28 November 2023 to the Bahá’ís of the world, the Universal House of Justice painted an enriching view of the first century of the Formative Age and provides a blueprint for advancing the unification of all of the peoples of the earth. From the striking statement, “That time has now come,” confidence and clarity can emerge about how to make a unique Bahá’í contribution to the eradication of racial prejudice and other social divisions that impede the progress of all of the people in the United States and around the world.

Drawing from recent guidance and examples of steps being taken in communities in the U.S., the session ultimately addresses a fundamental question: If a path to unity and justice is not yet visible in our community, does that mean this cannot exist, or might there be steps we can take to bring this vibrant pattern of unity in diversity to life in any setting?

Watch webinar video recording:
https://wilmetteinstitute.org/that-time-has-now-come/

Featured speakers:
Nwandi Lawson
Ms. Lawson earned an MBA from the Emory University Goizueta School of Business, and she is a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University where she studied journalism and French. Ms. Lawson’s broad professional experience includes teaching middle school in an economically challenged California community, becoming an Emmy Award winning television producer for CNN and other broadcasters, and founding both a media production company and business consulting firm. As a current member of the Bahá'i Continental Board of Counsellors for the Americas, Ms. Lawson has the opportunity to work on educational initiatives in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.

That Time Has Now Come

A recitation of the poem 'Ain't I A Woman?' by Sojourner Truth. It is interspersed with 'responses' from the Baha'i Writings to the 'questions' posed by her throughout the poem. Author: Hermione C. Pickens. All Rights Reserved.

Ain't I A Woman - The Re - Mix(3)

Part 1 of "Todd Lawson Web Talk Series on the Báb, His Artistry, His Audience, and His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph"

The new dispensation announced by the Báb challenged existing notions of religion and revelation. The Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of Joseph is a highly intricate and complex composition which betrays the authorial presence of the young messiah at every word. Yet, almost every word is Qur’anic, however rearranged and ordered to conform to the new message. Thus revelation is seen in a different light. While it is certainly divine in origin, the creativity and the boldness it represents should be seen as coming directly from the Báb Himself. Thus revelation emerges as a cooperative activity, one shared by God and the manifestation. Details and examples of such artistry and creativity will be illustrated through provisional translation.

050 Part 1: The Báb’s Artistry in His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph | Todd Lawson

Part 2 of "Todd Lawson Web Talk Series on the Báb, His Artistry, His Audience, and His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph"

In this session:  The Islamic philosophic or mystical tradition, frequently indistinguishable from the Islamic tradition in general, has long been distinguished by the intensity with which it venerates and celebrates certain specific divine teachings from the Qur’án or the Hadith on the spiritual value of beauty. “God is beautiful and loves beauty” is just one such teaching. There are countless others. The purpose of this web talk is to link the Islamic veneration of beauty with the coming of the new revelation of the Báb and, later, Bahá’u’lláh, who is widely known and referred to by Bahá’ís as the Blessed Beauty. 

The study of “beauty” as such is, of course, impossibly broad. In the course of the web talk we will focus on two aspects, revelation and manifestation as “messengers” of divine beauty. First, there will be a summary and elucidation of the aesthetic dimension of the Qur’anic revelation. Secondly, we will present the Islamic belief that Joseph, the subject of the Báb’s proclamatory Commentary introduced in web talk #1, was a unique embodiment of both spiritual and physical divine or blessed beauty. Muhammad, prophet and divine manifestation (and founder of Islam) is seen by the Islamic tradition as a reappearance of such spiritual and moral beauty. 

As we know, the Bahá’í Faith emphasizes the quality of beauty as elements of both the revelation and person of the divine manifestations, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The role of beauty as religious or spiritual value, then, may be seen to be inherited, enriched and universalized by the Bahá’í revelation.

See Also:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/JAUzFdDHAfs
The Báb’s Artistry in His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph   Todd Lawson

051 Part 2: Understanding the Báb’s Audience- Blessed Beauty in Islam | Todd Lawson

Part 3 of "Todd Lawson Web Talk Series on the Báb, His Artistry, His Audience, and His Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph"

In the Kitáb-i-Íqán Mulla Husayn is referred to by Bahá’u’lláh thus: But for him, God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory. This suggests, among other things, that had Mulla Husayn not recognized the Báb’s station and accepted His claims the new era would not have begun. We know from Bahá’í history that what enabled Mulla Husayn to acknowledge the truth of the Báb’s claims was in fact the first chapter of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’, also known as the Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph. In this web-talk we will enumerate in detail the various features of this brief composition, features that we may assume were of such striking originality and obvious divine authority (another way to translate the Arabic word mulk) that Mulla Husayn had no choice but to become the Báb’s first follower or, as he is sometimes referred to, the gate of the Gate.

052 Part 3: The Báb’s Great Announcement to Mulla Husayn- Cpt 1 of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’- Todd Lawson

Womanism is a worldview that emerged from African American women’s culture-based belief systems and historical experiences spanning Africa and the global African diaspora. Within the last 40 years, womanist scholars have documented the manifold dimensions of this worldview and also articulated its social / environmental / spiritual movement implications for all humanity. Understanding this worldview has the potential to illuminate dimensions of the Black experience – inside and outside the Bahá’í community – that shape the contours of community life, teaching, interpersonal relations, and even our ability to make progress on the Most Challenging Issue. In this web talk, major contours of womanism will be outlined and brought into dialogue with Bahá’í themes and issues.

Layli Maparyan

Layli Maparyan, PhD, is the Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is best known for her scholarship in the area of womanism and is the author of two groundbreaking texts in the field of womanist studies, The Womanist Reader (Routledge, 2006) and The Womanist Idea (Routledge, 2012); a third book is forthcoming. Maparyan has also published significantly in the areas of adolescent development, social identities, (including biracial/biethnic identity and the intersections of racial/ethnic, sexual, spiritual/religious, and gender identities), Black LGBTQ studies, Hip Hop studies, and history of psychology.

Maparyan’s scholar-activist work interweaves threads from the social sciences and the critical disciplines, incorporating basic and applied platforms around a common theme of integrating identities and communities in peaceable, ecologically sound, and self-actualizing ways.

065 African American Womanism And The Bahá’í Faith: New Approaches | Layli Maparyan |

The Wilmette Institute was founded in 1995 to provide basic and advanced courses on the Bahá’í Faith. In 1998, the Wilmette Institute moved to a largely online study approach in order to provide educational classes to a broader student body. It now offers more than 50 unique courses on the web to an average of 30 students per course.

Wilmette Institute

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