Society Builders

Hot off the press, this episode explores the 2023 Ridvan Message of the Universal House of Justice to the Baha'is of the World, celebrating the key achievements of the past year while articulating priorities for the upcoming one.  It's inspiring guidance shaping the society building endeavors for Baha'i communities worldwide.

This episode, the third in our trilogy, continues our study of the message of the Universal House of Justice of December 30, 2021, providing us with our mandate for society building.  The episode features an interview with Dr. Kynan Feeney, a former Auxiliary Board member, summarizing the remaining 27 paragraphs of the message, addressing clusters, training institutes and Baha'i administration.

This episode, the second in our trilogy, continues our study of the message of the Universal House of Justice of December 30, 2021 providing us with our mandate for society building.  In this episode, we explore the fourth section of the message which focuses on social transformation.

This is the first of a three part trilogy exploring the message of the Universal House of Justice of December 30, 2021 laying out the vision for Society Building for the global Baha'i community for the next 25 years.  Part 1 (this episode) explores the 'bookends' of the message - the first and last sections.

The third in a three part trilogy 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 impact the work of the early American Baha'i community had in the evolution of the nascent Civil Rights Movement.  It features interviews with Dr. Robert Stockman, Dr. Gayle Morrison, Dr....

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...

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 th...

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...

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 o...

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...

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 abo...

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 evoluti...

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...

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 le...

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.

This is the first in a two part episode exploring the capacity to translate vision into reality.  When vision is accompanied by faith, determination and action, you can write the history of tomorrow, today.  In this episode, we explore the art of 'fashioning' - the ability to bring vision into fruition.  

The series introduction to the Society Builders podcast - a response to the call for the release of the society-building power of the Baha'i Faith in ever-increasing measures.