Re: Feast???
Alexander Renwick (renwick@owlnet.rice.edu)
Wed, Jan 11 1995 14:24:15 GMT
In article <1995Jan9.200859.28384@cs.cornell.edu>, Heather M Newlin <heather@ecn.purdue.edu> writes:
|> > Doesn't it strike anyone else that there is something very wrong with
|> > becoming a Baha'i (youth or otherwise) by default, and simply because you
|> > failed to tell the LSA etc. that you didn't want to be a Baha'i? Are we
|> > so despreate for numbers?
|>
|> I think that enrolling our children in the Baha'i Faith is a matter of
|> showing the maturation of the American Baha'i community and that we
|> are looking to the future when the vast majority of the world will be
|> Baha'is...
|> In the future, when society is totally immersed with Baha'i principles
|> does it make sense to teach our children to question the truth of
|> Baha'u'llah's claim? It would be almost like teaching our children today
|> to question the reality of the Founding Fathers of America? Or for
|> Christians to teach their children the reality of Christ and His teaching.
Perhaps not question the truth of Baha'u'llah's claim, but certainly I hope
we never stop reconsidering the meaning. Each individual must discover for
him-or-herself what it means to be a Baha'i, and this is not something that
happens without conscious attention. Formal recognition of this process,
through Declaration, is a great strength of the Baha'i Faith. One is never
a Baha'i (nor should one ever be anything) by default, only by consciencious
action.
Also, Declaration can be a sort of coming-of-age ritual, where the child
becomes recognized as an autonomous member of the community. Such rituals
have fallen by the wayside in Western culture; it would be useful preserve
this one which will become a unifying factor in ~the future when the vast
majority of the world will be Baha'is."
--Alex
renwick@owlnet.rice.edu