DYLAN AT THE I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vhNCRlXm1s

TODAY
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-186272

JANUARY 20, 2009 – THE DAY HAS COME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk4_-5Hb6a8

Congratulations to all Americans here that we have lived to see this day. At noon today I will be thinking of all the black troops I served with in my long ago youth. I will be thinking of my Father who served with 3,000 black troops in WWII. My Father and the troops he commanded loaded the ships at Tarawa that also brought the wounded out. Remember those who fought to preserve the rights of others that they, themselves did not have.

This day has come. It is their Great Day.

Praise God!

“It is an interesting thing you say and if this is what was actually conveyed, I may have agreed with you. But, yet again…way off mark and essentially a concoction of your imagination.

Basically what you are saying is that things have changed and if this is the way to do it now, why wasn’t it back then? On the surface a valid and useful question to ask however, upon reflection yet another musing of Craig Parke.”

annonymouz,

In the 1960′s, 1970′s, and 1980′s everything was about “entry by troops”. I know this to be true. I was there. I believed every word of it and was very dedicated. It was taught to everyone that we must contribute money to building the Sacred Buildings of the Arc on Mt. Carmel. In these appeals we were told that once the Arc was completed the Lessor Peace would be established. I completely believed that too and sent money and was very glad to do it. I went to meeting after meeting on different committees for the U.S. NTC appointed DTC in my area and performed many organizational tasks for the nearest LSA year after year. At one point I went to a Baha’i meeting, prayer group, event, or committee five nights a week. I was glad to do it. I worked my behind off for the Faith. But then we were told by Glenford Mitchell in various speeches in the late 1990′s that “The Friends do not understand properly” and that “entry by troops” is really “the process of entry by troops”. Oh! Who knew all those years? I did not know that because that is not what the Institutions said for 30 years. Glenford Mitchell never told anyone else this 30 years before. I guess he had a revelation or something. I guess the entire UHJ did. But in current Baha’i speak it is really more accurate to say that the current authorized top down belief is that we are in “the process of the process of the process of entry by troops”. No one apparently really knows how many processes of processes there are. As long as we are taking the Ruhi Courses over and over the process we are actually in will just kind of meld in the general flow of processes in the Cosmos and only the UHJ will know in secret the actual process level we are in.

The thing about the buildings on the Arc on Mt. Carmel apparently turns out to be our own misinformation among the rank and file too. They now say they certainly did not tell anyone to believe that. And now we are told that the belief that the “Lesser Peace” would come by 2000 was a mistranslation by Howard McNutt in Star of the West and he was almost declared a Covenant Breaker by Abdu’l-Baha anyway. I just didn’t know. I based my whole life on misinformation and the AO now says we were just misinformed dupes for believing such things.

We were also told for almost 30 years that the LSA’s were the bed rock of the future society and we must do everything to create them and save them. All the affairs of the Faith were to be administered by the LSA’s so this work was very important. Therefore, I gladly served on various committees for my nearest LSA over the years. I did many special assignments that took a lot of dedicated time and effort. Now we are told that was never true. The local LSA’s are not the engine of the Faith.

The work of the Faith comes from the International Teaching Center through the appointed arm of “the Learned”. The Counselors and ABM’s and AABM’s run the Faith. What they say goes. They have full Administrative power over any LSA or Regional Baha’i Council in their area even to the point of annulling or preventing the election of membership on a Regional Baha’i Council elected from members of the LSA’s under them if it is deemed that there are not sufficient people available in the region who are not of a high enough caliber properly trained in the Institute Process using the Ruhi Full Sequence of Courses. I just did not know this. Everything I was taught was wrong.

LSA’s are not the primary grass roots Institution of the Faith. The ABM’s and AABM’s are. What they say goes. And one of their new duties from the Guidelines from 2000 or 2001 is to see that files are to be opened on people in Haifa who are deemed not strong enough in the Covenant in some way. Anyone that has any thoughts or opinions against how things are being run. Or makes any unapproved comments on a Web Site like Alison Marshall did. Such people can be thrown out of the Faith at any time for any reason by First Class Postage common letter with no due process and that is that. I just did not know any of this for decades.

But both Glenford mitchell and Peter Khan have said in their speeches that “the Friends did not understand properly”. But both of them were serving in the system in the 1960′s,1970′s, and 1980′s in positions of power. Why didn’t they inform us that we did not understand things properly?

To me it is all quite Orwellian – OLDTHINK vs NEWTHINK as I have posted here. All my years of service were for self-deluded reasons and it was all my own fault.This is basically what they say in their speeches. To me it is “blame the victim”. But I do give them credit. These guys are good in their craft.

But I just don’t see how a system like this can ever succeed because anything can be changed by anyone in lifetime incumbent authority at any time for any reason as they see fit with no accountability to anyone or any electorate and what went before can be completely erased from the organizational memory at will.

I certainly do agree with you that Baha’u'llah had the right to change His religion at any time as He saw fit. But I just did not know that other people had that right too. I just didn’t. I was a dupe and I guess I have to bear the responsibility as both Glenford Mitchell and Peter Khan have pointed out in their speeches since the late 1990′s and early 2000′s.

It is all a process of a process of a process and we must all keep doing the workbooks over and over. Forever. That is the new Plan. And that is the way it will be to everyone’s dying day on Earth both “Baha’i” and “non-Baha’i”. Forever. It is all an endless process of “organizational becoming”.

So it goes.

Wahid

It is an interesting thing you say and if this is what was actually conveyed, I may have agreed with you. But, yet again…way off mark and essentially a concoction of your imagination.

Basically what you are saying is that things have changed and if this is the way to do it now, why wasn’t it back then? On the surface a valid and useful question to ask however, upon reflection yet another musing of Craig Parke.

Why did Baha’u'llah reveal the Most Holy Book in the eve of His revelation and not in the beginning in 1863 outside of Baghdad when He declared formally His station? Hmmm…Why wait almost 30 yrs to give them the Most Holy Book?! Gee this doesn’t make sense!

Now, I am not comparing Ruhi to the Aqdas but the process and Divine Plan that they play into are one in the same. Have you ever stopped to think that what Baha’u'llah says in the Aqdas is actually true? “What is of them is of God…”.

I think this is like the 185th time I have said this but some just simply refuse to acknowledge the reality that this is a process…a process a process a process.

By My spirit and by My favor! By My mercy and by My beauty! All that I have revealed unto thee with the tongue of power, and have written for thee with the pen of might, hath been in accordance with thy capacity and understanding, not with My state and the melody of My voice.

Ever think about all four quarters instead of quitting at half time? You never know!

No, my dear Craig: they cannot be the same: we all change, you, I and them, from day to day, we are never the same and we are all always capable of advancement and growth.

Craig wrote :
Does this fate also apply to non-Baha’is that MAY NOT WANT to be taught this way? Are they condemned too?

Of course not, Craig. This means that we need a menu for every one. No one is condemned, but some have lost opportunities to serve. We had and still have all sorts of deepening material for us and others; we needed a standard basic course and a “significative number” of people like you and I, ready to give some of their time to help those who need help. I give some of my time, no doubt not enough, to the institute; this has been due to my other commitments, and not to a desire to ignore the institute Process that I admire and support.

Yes, I know that many intellectuals ignored the process, much more involved in their own useful researches than in helping their struggling fellow citizens into the arena of service; Some zealots got hold of this and our apparatchiks found a tool for pressuring other people in an up-down power issue, trying to shovel it down people’s throats; The UHJ had asked for “love and efficiency” and they understood “force and efficiency”. This discredits the zealots and not the educational enterprise. It discredits the intellectuals who found all this “too shallow” for themselves and took time to recognise the educational issue involved, and not the system.

I remember a story about Mirza Abul-Fadl who lost his high position in the Shiite hierarchy by accepting the Faith. He went to the Holy Land, but at first was still aware of his high position. Then this uneducated man came along and asked Abdu’l-Baha for the bounty of saying poems, and Abdu’l-Baha said that God willing, his wish would be granted. Then this man came to Abdu’l-Baha saying that he had inspiration, but could not write, and Abdu’l-Baha asked Abul-Fadl to act as a secretary to this uneducated man; this is what the Institute process is about. Had I not believed in God before, I would do now because of His image in the UHJ.

When I went to French Polynesia, I realised that the lectures I was giving in ethics in France were not appropriate for most of these people. The Ruhi books were well adapted not only for these people, but also as a spring-board for those in your neighbourhood, and also for some highly educated Baha’is who have not yet realised that the faith is all about serving others and not attaining our personal Nirvana. I had done them in France not to learn what I already knew, but to be in a position to help these people help themselves once I was gone. It is a teacher training programme for building up human resources. It is not a deepening programme.

I wish you would try book 5. I am sure you have a wealth of experience to share with the junior youth.

Craig wrote:
Where I live free peoples just elected a black man President of the United States who will take office in three days.

Craig, Listening to him speak on CNN, I wished he would never stop.

Let us see what the world will allow him to do now.

Craig I love what you said here: yes, the Baha’i Faith has been let loose by God and belongs to all; all we are doing is to try to produce a structure that can link all those people and bring them in collaboration and coordination.

This is very difficult, because so many people are wrapped around themselves and unable to make the necessary concessions for the frustrations involved in the discipline and selflessness involved in team work.

Look at the Institute Process. Here is a project put into action in 1996 with a simplified pedagogical curriculum that allows intellectuals like you and me help some 2/3 of humanity, many of them living next-door to us, access the Baha’i teachings and then become themselves teachers. They help us give the essentials of the Faith, as near as possible to the original text, without adding our own theories and nightmares into our teaching work.

What do people say? I don’t like it! too shallow! Too much discipline, not complicated enough FOR ME. I want spirituality for MY OWN spiritual development. Others are not good enough for me to collaborate with.

And so it goes… if we don’t rise to serve, God will be, and is, raising the pebbles to do that in our place. In the end we will see that God saved us in spite of our misgivings. This is how I understand “the seal the kingdom is God’s stamped upon the brow of all it’s habitants.”[/quote]

Farhan,

Where I live free peoples just elected a black man President of the United States who will take office in three days. I say the people that did this advanced the deepest wishes of the life of Hand of the Cause of God Louis Gregory and his wife Louisa Mathew far more than the impaired organization called the “Baha’i Faith” that essentially betrayed the great effort for racial justice he put forth in his life. I am so glad I went back into politics and worked for this election. The BAO and their lifetime incumbent minions can go to hell. I can’t wait for them anymore after almost 40 years working on this issue. The Faith is too dysfunctional to ever be a factor now. I want to accomplish something real before I die so I completely shredded in my soul everything Shoghi Effendi had to say on non-involvement politics. He can just keep practicing “not writing a will” in the worlds beyond. I am so glad I did not miss this opportunity to make a difference in my time on Earth for my country. I went out and worked for this campaign in honor of all the black veterans I have known. And for the 3,000 black troops my Father served in the Pacific with in WWII.

Free peoples will eventually own all the real estate of the Baha’i Faith I helped pay for in Haifa over all those years long after the current leadership is gone to dust. The Institute Process may be just fine in some places in the world. I never said it isn’t. But where I live it is an insult to the intelligence of even uneducated people. It is not free study and inquiry. It is indoctrination. And it is not based AT ALL in any way, shape, or form upon the Writings of the Founders of the Baha’i Faith. It is based upon the mere personal hack opinions of the “professional” high school level “educators” who wrote it. It is not appropriate for anyone where I live. Is the UHJ infallible about every situation involving non-Baha’is too? Can you explain how that works? They say every person, everywhere on Earth MUST be taught THIS WAY without knowing anything about anyone’s contacts?

You imply in your comment the standard implication that anyone that does not enthusiastically use these exact “teaching” methods is not with “the Guidance” and is, therefore, “the victim of ego, self, and passion corrupted by false Western ideas of ego and self-will who will, in the end, sink in their depths”. Does this fate also apply to non-Baha’is that MAY NOT WANT to be taught this way? Are they condemned too? How is it possible that the the UHJ can know how I am supposed to teach the seekers I know when they say they are not omniscient? If they are omniscient maybe they can tell you how to teach your wife and daughters the Faith so they will join it? Shouldn’t clairvoyance and omniscience start at home among the Baha’is first and then move outward to the general public second?

Craig I love what you said here: yes, the Baha’i Faith has been let loose by God and belongs to all; all we are doing is to try to produce a structure that can link all those people and bring them in collaboration and coordination.

This is very difficult, because so many people are wrapped around themselves and unable to make the necessary concessions for the frustrations involved in the discipline and selflessness involved in team work.

Look at the Institute Process. Here is a project put into action in 1996 with a simplified pedagogical curriculum that allows intellectuals like you and me help some 2/3 of humanity, many of them living next-door to us, access the Baha’i teachings and then become themselves teachers. They help us give the essentials of the Faith, as near as possible to the original text, without adding our own theories and nightmares into our teaching work.

What do people say? I don’t like it! too shallow! Too much discipline, not complicated enough FOR ME. I want spirituality for MY OWN spiritual development. Others are not good enough for me to collaborate with.

And so it goes… if we don’t rise to serve, God will be, and is, raising the pebbles to do that in our place. In the end we will see that God saved us in spite of our misgivings. This is how I understand “the seal the kingdom is God’s stamped upon the brow of all it’s habitants.”