A Woman's Perspective

“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

There is a lot of printed material in the Faith on our collective efforts to teach American Indians. We can still use much of it in our efforts today. The importance of documenting our activities comes to light when we realize that what we have is only some of the story. More writing needs to be encouraged and reports of activities need to be filed. We will celebrate what has made it to print and give ease to those who would like to know where to begin to tell the story more fully.

123 American Indians Through Printed Materials Of The Bahá’í Faith

In this webinar, Sovaida Ma'ani Ewing will talk about the themes in her book The Alchemy of Peace: 6 Essential Shifts in Mindsets and Habits to Achieve World Peace
available at Amazon.com Services LLC
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QZZZVYK

Book Description: "Humanity stands at a critical crossroads. Social, political, religious, economic, and environmental systems are unraveling with bewildering rapidity all around us. In the face of such disintegration many of us feel helpless, despondent, angry, and anxious. Such feelings pose the greatest danger of all, as they lead to a loss of hope and a paralysis of will at a time in our collective evolution when inaction can be catastrophic.

"The Alchemy of Peace" offers the gift of hope and a viable path out of the current chaos. It identifies a set of dysfunctional habits borne of tired old perspectives, false assumptions, limiting beliefs, and interpretations on the basis of which we make choices about how to behave. It posits that replacing these mindsets and habits with more constructive and empowering ones will open our eyes to new opportunities growing out of the ferment of our troubled times.

Sovaida Ma'ani Ewing is an author, speaker, international lawyer, life mastery coach, and founding director of The Center for Peace and Global Governance (cogg.org). a virtual think tank and online forum that pools and proposes principled solutions to pressing global challenges. Her latest book, available on Amazon, is "The Alchemy of Peace: 6 Essential Shifts in Mindsets and Habits to Achieve World Peace." She also hosts a live video podcast "Re Imagining Our World" on facebook and the CPGG YouTube channel. The program weekly program is dedicated to creating a vision of the world we want and infusing hope that we can make the choices necessary to attain it.

130 Alchemy Of Peace | Sovaida Ma'ani Ewing

The talk will start with a brief examination of the major sources used in researching the book "A Seed in Your Heart: The Life of Louise Mathew Gregory" by Janet Fleming . This will be followed by an overview of the life story of Louise Mathew Gregory, an English woman born in the Victorian era, whose marriage to Louis Gregory, an African American lawyer, is considered the first Bahá’í interracial marriage. Unusually for the time, she was an educated woman and worked as a teacher in Luxembourg and Paris before her marriage. Her later travels, over a 14-year period, took her to Hungary where she was the first to teach the Faith, and to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia where she acquired the distinction of being the first Bahá’í pioneer to those countries. Janet will expand and explore some features of the book including:

some aspects of Louise’s personality – was she shy? She was a modern independent woman – how did this affect her marriage?
some of the difficulties Louise and Louis had to face in their marriage
Louise’s husband Louis was an outstanding Bahá’í and later appointed a Hand of the Cause. Was she overshadowed by her brilliant husband and has she now begun to emerge from obscurity?

More resources:
https://wilmetteinstitute.org/louise-mathew-gregory-sowing-the-seeds-of-racial-harmony/

097 Louise Mathew Gregory- Sowing The Seeds Of Racial Harmony - Janet Fleming Rose

With inequality plaguing communities around the globe, there’s fierce urgency to invest in change from the ground up. How can we build bridges and deep relationships between impact investors, foundations, entrepreneurs, artists and local leaders to co-create solutions with marginalized communities? How can you tap into the expertise of each individual in minority areas to generate innovative solutions that accelerate a community’s transformation and create concrete action plans that get partnership commitments? Impact Investments is a fresh new way to create a more just, racially balanced flow of finance towards projects and companies that are good for the environment and for the people. But how can these elements be embedded in a much wider sense in the financial systems of today and tomorrow? What are the key elements of successful impact investing? What can wealth create and what can it destroy?

102 EBBF Part 10- Justice & Building Bridges In Marginalized Communities - Jenna Nicholas-

This Episode: 
Successfully Bridging the Intergenerational Gap with Avah Darling and Mary Darling

What are the views of a 16 year old and of her mother on how we can achieve it together?
How can we progress from a dualistic and often conflicting vision of whose responsibility it is to create a better future, Avah will share her insights into a new way to integrate experience, passion, joy and effectiveness to create new models of exploration, learning and action. Moving from divided and divisive assignment of blames and responsibility to a new model of integrated action and reflection.

In this series, we examine the underlying assumptions that brought us to this current global crisis. Together, we explore potential solutions to the vital issues that have gained new urgency at this time. We also discuss our roles and the actions we can take to address these critical challenges and build better systems for the future of humankind. 

ABOUT EBBF: ebbf, Ethical Business Building the Future, is a Baha'i inspired organization dedicated to building a prosperous, peaceful and sustainable global society. ebbf members are people of all faiths who are striving to apply Baha'i principles in their businesses and workplaces.

104 EBBF Part 11- Successfully Bridging The Intergenerational Gap | Avah Darling and Mary Darling

In The Advent of Divine Justice, Shoghi Effendi calls upon white people to contribute to the solution of racial prejudice by abandoning “their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority.” The challenge is clear. Even with the best of intentions, how can one excise or even identify one’s own inherent and subconscious tendencies?

In this presentation, JoAnn Borovicka will share a selection of things that white people can do to increase their awareness and to contribute to the solution of racial prejudice in a conscious and proactive manner. These suggestions are gleaned from the work of social scientists, educators, and others who have studied systemic racism and the culture of white supremacy, as well as from her own learnings from co-authoring the book Crossing the Line—A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Change.

Contributors
JoAnn Borovicka

JoAnn Borovicka recently retired from a career in the Arts and Education where she worked primarily in the South Carolina Coastal Region with some activity overseas. Her work was rich and varied and included curriculum design, professional storytelling, creative writing, dance performance and instruction, costume design, art instruction, studio art, and work in object conservation. Post-retirement she has maintained her studio art activities and also turned her energies to research and writing. She is the author of Light of the Kingdom—Biblical Topics in the Baha’i Writings (2016) and other works (see bahai-library.com) and co-author of Crossing the Line—A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Change (2019). She and her husband, Mike, live in Greenville, South Carolina.

113 Things White People Can Do To Promote Racial Justice - JoAnn Borovicka

This podcast situates the girl child (and her rights) within the global gender equality issue area and, more broadly, that of human rights. It treats the key factors that hem in girls’ progress across the world, limiting their life chances–among them, early marriage, domestic and sexual abuse, trafficking, and access to education. It weighs progress to address the tall challenges, even as it celebrates the achievements in light of UN conventions and Sustainable Goals. Given the Bahá’í auspices of the Series, the webinar brings to bear the Faith’s teachings on the equality of women and men and strong emphasis on the education of girls. Participants leave with the tools to analyze the daily challenges girls face in many parts of our world and with a heightened sense of how urgent safeguarding their well-being is to forging a more equal, just, and unified world. The call to action involves our individual and collective moral duty to assist in this enterprise, as we approach the eleventh year of the International Day of the Girl.

Presenter: Trevor McMorris Tate grew up in the Caribbean and is now a Canadian citizen. He has been a professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Bellevue College, and Eastern Washington University. More recently, he has taught at the University of New Brunswick and, beginning in fall 2023, he will join the faculty in the Honors College on UMaine’s Orono campus. Trevor did his undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies and post-graduate work at the University of Manitoba and Queen’s University (Ontario), where he received his Ph.D. in International Studies. Dr. Tate’s scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Peace Research and the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. His current research focuses on global governance, international norms, and the girl child. Dr. Tate is a past president of the UNA-USA/UN Foundation (Seattle), and has collaborated with civil-society organizations on Bahá’í projects. He has been a Bahá’í for much of his adult life, serving on many Baha’i institutions in Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia, and Washington State.

PODCAST The Girl Child In Global Perspective

Baha’is in South Carolina, like Baha’is around the world, are working to make the world a better and more peaceful place in which to live. Through the publication of “Trudy and the Baha’is’ Spiritual Path in South Carolina,” Annette Reynolds hopes readers will realize that everyone can work together to build peaceful spiritual communities no matter what belief and background one comes from.  This recording covers most of the Question and Answer session from Annette's Wilmette Institute Web Talk of Sunday, 22 January, 2017.

Trudy and The Baha'is: Q and A with Annette Reynolds

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)

Why is gender inequality so pervasive? Where does it come from and what causes it to arise from time to time? Does it have cultural and religious roots? What values are needed to confront its resurgence worldwide and what policies will enable us to create societies in which being born a boy or a girl is no longer a reason for whether or not or for how long or to what a degree we can develop our human potential?

We will take a look at some of these difficult questions and measures their cost on the security of individuals and society as a whole. We focus on how various restrictions against women have a direct impact on the economy of countries and the world. We evaluate the ways in which they undermine the talent pool available to the private sector, distort family relationships, and lead to inefficiencies in the use of resources. We analyze how gender bias contributes to an environment in which women, de facto, are second-class citizens, with fewer options than men, lower quality jobs, and lower pay. And we look at the devastating consequences of such inequality in terms of health, life expectancy and violence against girls and women, from the cradle to the grave.

Women are not yet fully politically empowered to change laws and implement new legal instruments to ensure gender equality worldwide. We have still scant presence in the corridors of power, whether as finance ministers, central bank governors, prime ministers or on the boards of leading corporations. Most importantly, in many parts of the world, including countries which consider themselves “advanced” many girls still receive less educational opportunities and less encouragement to pursue the development of their highest potential. This alone creates a vicious cycle of inequality that persists generation after generation. But perhaps if we include an economic perspective in our arsenal to promote gender equality, the penny might finally drop. The bottom line is, we simply cannot afford gender discrimination any longer.

040 Equality Of Women Equals Prosperity For All

Jena Khodadad, “Biotechnology, Benefits and Perils: The Need for Spiritual Perspective in Achieving Harmony of Science and Religion”

Momentous advancement in the past century and a half in molecular biology of the gene has spurred a scientific and medical revolution, accompanied at once with undreamt of possibilities as well as considerable moral and ethical implications. Such developments include: breakthrough in the structure of the DNA molecule, the carrier of the genetic information in all living things; the mapping and decoding of the entire human genome; and the technology for editing and modifying the gene. The rapidly advancing technology of gene editing, bearing the acronym CRISPER, is acquiring increasing refinements, enhanced possibilities and wider applications.

Other biotechnologies, such as recombinant DNA, gene cloning, and stem cell research, are among numerous other advances which hold prospects for the welfare of humankind, but can also portend harmful outcomes. Among the significant benefits are: identification of the genetic base of disease, eradication of deadly diseases, development of drugs and therapies, prolongation of human life and much more. Among the adverse implications are: c, human cloning, generation of biohazards and their release into the environment.

Such technological advances bring to the forefront the benefits but also the perils of biotechnology, recalling the dystopian predictions in the “Brave New World” of Aldous Huxley.

Followers of traditional religions may adopt a stance against such technologies, which they believe tamper with the gene and trespass into the realm of God’s creation. The sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith, however, inculcate the importance of scientific investigation and knowledge. Hence Bahá’í scientists will likely choose to promote progress in scientific learning toward “the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpening and refinement of the human brain, … to the prolongation of human life, and to the furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of the entire human race.” (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 204) while at the same time remaining vigilant of their harmful implications.

Jena Khadem Khodadad, holds a Ph.D from Northwestern University in biological sciences (cell and molecular biology). Her academic career as professor on the medical and graduate college faculties has entailed teaching of cell and molecular biology and neuroscience and research on the molecular organization of biological membranes. The results of her work were presented before national and international scientific forums and published in scientific journals and books. Jena has served on institutions and agencies of the Bahá’í Faith. As an advocate of human rights, Jena has presented before human rights organizations including Amnesty International and the American Jewish Committee on the denial of higher education to Bahá’ís in Iran. As an active member of an interfaith organization, she is dedicated to interfaith understanding and dialogue.

Jena is the daughter of Hand of the Cause of God, Zikrullah Khadem and Javidukht Khadem and was raised in a household infused with love and passion of the Bahá’í Faith. She has attained the presence of Shoghi Effendi and presented at numerous conferences, seminars and classes on “Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith”– a theme which is integral to the focus of this web talk.  Jena’s most recent writing, The Dynamics of Growth: Scientific Principles at Work in the Worldwide Advancement of the Bahá’í Faith, is published by George Ronald. This book applies insights from science to the question of growth of the Bahá’í Faith in particular and to growth of religions in general. Jena and her husband, Manuchehr, live in the United States in the Chicago area.

047 Biotechnology, Benefits and Perils -The Need for Spiritual Perspective | Jena Khadem Khodadad

The numerically largest Bahá’í community in the world resides in India, and most of those Bahá’ís come from a Hindu background. Bahá’ís readily acknowledge Hinduism as one of the great religions, and identify Krishna as one of the “Manifestations of God”. Yet, generally speaking, Bahá’ís outside of India know little about this religion, and very little about Krishna. They are not alone. Most non-Hindus may be able to evoke a few common perceptions, such as Hindus believe in many gods; cows sacred for Hindus; they believe in reincarnation and are vegetarians, right?, yet otherwise have little knowledge of this religion.

This talk aims to “decode” elements of what constitutes “Hinduism”, an ancient and vastly complex religion, to address these perceptions, and to examine points of convergence and divergence between Hinduism and the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. 

More specifically, I will examine the following questions:

What do Bahá’í authoritative texts say about Hinduism and Krishna?
Who was Krishna and how is He understood in the history of Hinduism?
What are some of the areas of doctrinal difference and convergence between Hinduism and the Bahá’í Faith?
What are the basics of Hindu ethics and practice, including ritual and worship, and what might be some fruitful points of interfaith discussion from a Bahá’í perspective?
The talk will end with an overview of the history of the Bahá’í Faith in South Asia, including the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi, now one of the most visited sites in India.

Anne M. Pearson holds a Ph.D. in religious studies, specializing in South Asian religions. She taught for many years in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University, Hamilton, as well as the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo, teaching courses on world religions, Hinduism, gender and religion, Gandhi and nonviolence, among others. She has authored a book (“Because it gives me peace of mind—Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women”), articles and book chapters on various topics including on Hinduism in Canada. She has been a faculty member of the Wilmette Institute since the 1990s, involved with courses on Hinduism and Buddhism for deepening and dialogue, and preparing for interfaith dialogue, among other courses. She lived in India for a number of years, and continues to visit and be involved with organizations that promote women’s empowerment and peace-building. She has also been an active participant in the Baha’i community since embracing the Faith as a student in the late 1970s.

Explore more webtalks and courses on the Baha'i Faith here:
https://wilmetteinstitute.org

054 Decoding Hinduism: Sacred Cows, Krishna, and the Bahá’í Faith | Anne Pearson

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 increasing instability and turbulence of our times is shaking many of us to the core. Our aim in this talk is to understand the forces of our times in light of the teachings of the Faith and thereby avoid the fear, despondency and paralysis of will that might otherwise result. We will focus in particular on the twin processes of integration and disintegration. We will examine the collective journey of humanity towards maturity and unity and contemplate the exigencies and implications of its current developmental stage. We will learn that much of what is happening is not random but part of a greater divine plan that is designed to lead us to a a glorious collective destiny. We will learn to read the signs of labor that the world is experiencing and remind ourselves of the ultimate outcome of this messy and difficult process, namely the birth of a New World Order. In doing so we will bolster our confidence and ignite hope in our collective future.

Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing is an international lawyer, independent scholar, and the founding director of CPGG — the Center for Peace and Global Governance (http://cpgg.org). CPGG is a virtual think tank and online forum that pools and proposes principled solutions to pressing global problems through publications, podcasts, lectures, workshops, webinars, and targeted consulting. CPGG has just published Sovaida’s latest book entitled Bridge to Global Governance: Tackling Climate Change, Energy Distribution and Nuclear Proliferation. The book posits that while humanity’s unprecedented interdependence has made it prone to systemic aliments like climate change and growing threats of nuclear terrorism and war, yet it lacks the institutions for collective decision-making and enforcement needed to tackle these challenges effectively. There is a huge chasm between the institutions we have and those we need. The book engenders hope by proposing a first step across this gap — a step that is inspired by a highly successful institutional model used to rebuild Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. It recommends adapting this model to address our current challenges while also building confidence to create broader global governance institutions to solve our myriad other collective problems.

Sovaida has also written Building a World Federation: The Key to Solving Our Global Crises. The book posits that humanity has been passing through stages of collective growth towards integration and unity. Our current collective crises–including climate change, financial upheavals, proliferation of nuclear weapons, gross human rights atrocities, and mismanagement of critical natural resources–are simply manifestations of our passage through a turbulent adolescence. The only way to a peaceful world is for humanity to take the next step towards maturity by establishing collective decision-making institutions that can evolve into a world federation of nation-states.

Sovaida is also the author of Collective Security Within Reach published by George Ronald in 2008 with a foreword written by an Under-Secretary General of the United Nations.  It offers concrete recommendations for action by world leaders, national and international, to solve some of the pressing global problems of our time including the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the equitable distribution of energy resources and the international use of force. Ms. Ma’ani Ewing is currently working on her next book focussing on issues of energy and nuclear proliferation.

Ms. Ma’ani Ewing is a barrister-at-law of England and Wales, an LLM graduate in International Law and European Union Law from Cambridge University and an attorney-at-law in the United States. Her eighteen year legal career has included private practice with respected law firms in Washington, DC, including her own, teaching as an adjunct professor of law and most recently service as an Attorney-Advisor in the Legal Advisor’s Office of the US State Department.

034 Finding Hope In Turbulent Times | Sovaida Ewing

What are the major risks for humankind today?
What are the conclusions of the Global Risk Report 2020 by the World Economic Forum?
What do the Baha'i teachings say about potential future risks?
What does this mean for us living in these critical times?

This is the first in a series of interactive "Bahá'í Conversations on Climate Change."

Other talks in the series are to be scheduled, and will include:

How Will Climate Change Affect All of Us?
Many people all over the world are already suffering or even dying because of the impacts of climate change such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, more extreme storms, floods, and sea-level rise. How does this affect our belief in the oneness of humankind, and how can this spiritual principle guide us in our actions to mitigate climate change?

Why is the Earth Warming and What Can We Do about it?
Knowing more about the causes of global warming and what can be done to slow it down empowers us for meaningful actions. It will also make us think more deeply about the meaning of justice, the “best beloved of all things”.

What Do Scientists Say Needs to Be Done to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe? - The Spiritual Challenge of Climate Change
What are the projections for the future? How urgent is the issue of climate change really? How quickly do we need to act? It is now a widely accepted view that knowledge about climate change is not sufficient for human behavioral change. How can the Baha'i teachings motivate and guide our actions?

The Interconnectedness of Climate Change with other Environmental and Social Problems
Climate Change cannot be solved in isolation. How can we alleviate poverty, feed increasing numbers of people, and bring the Earth's climate system back into balance? What can we Baha'is and other people of faith do to bring healing to the Earth and its peoples?

Christine Muller
I was interested in environmental issues already at a young age and became a Bahá’í when I was 17, which was the beginning of a life-long study of the Bahá’í Faith. As the environmental crisis was worsening, I began to systematically study climate change at a time when not much information was easily available. I also searched the Bahá’í teachings for a spiritual solution to the climate crisis. At that time, climate change was not known to most people and there were no educational materials available. That’s why I wrote Scientific and Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change – an Interfaith Study Course, which the International Environment Forum posted in 2009. I served on the board of RI Interfaith Power&Light for nine years and currently serve on the board of the Bahá’í-inspired International Environment Forum (iefworld.org).

070 Bahá'í Perspectives on Global Risks with Christine Muller

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.