We have people being placed in a situation of responsibility for the first time in their lives and they become rigid in order to “protect” themselves; they need time to learn and improve their services and we have to be patient of their clusminess.”

what???????

A friend once was terribly annoyed with me when I trashed a script he gave to me read, because I had not read all 100 pages. I likened my response to his own world, the dance world, and asked if he needed to watch a whole show in order to judge the quality of the performance? I am not implying that my judgement is any better than anyone else’s, but to point out that we all have differing ways of defining what is enough experience (of a process or a course) based on our own histories and backgrounds.

It seems that most comments on the topic of “ruhi” classes/process or courses is the objection to its exclusivity: Bahai communities are no longer diverse in the ways Bahais tend to deepen (I’d even say “if”, as communities I know of, since Ruhi has existed in force, no longer have deepening or study classes). And I know, in a way I can held to blame. I no longer conduct alternative classes, at least, publicity for my Bahai community for fear of being labeled as creating conflict, because these would not be Ruhi oriented. So I do as many Bahai do, in such a situation, nothing. My solution to the frustration I might have (did have) is to go and do things in a non-Bahai forum. It just saddens me sometimes when Bahais comment or say, ‘why don’t you do that for us’, that I can’t even say why, without fear of it being misunderstood.

Another objection is the very nature of “Ruhi” itself, with its hierarchial set-up. You have to do book 1 first, or memorize or read, things in small units, and then one is ‘qualified’ -with the book x or “ruhi black belt” qualificiation.
I find it such a materialistic orientation, which wouldn’t be an issue if it was presented as an option Bahai communities could take or leave or even adapt. I know in China some classes are run creatively allowing discussion and deviation from the texts on the pages, but in the European communities I’ve had contact with, this is not allowed.

One could argue about the maturity, flexibility or otherwise of Ruhi tutors, but for me the essence of the whole process seems to be the antithesis of independent investigation, surely, one of the main principles of the Bahai Faith.

I have also seen the Ruhi courses work well as 11 an 12-year-old “catechism” class text.

On the other, my own university student daughter walked out of a Ruhi group when she read quickly and turned the page to see what was coming next. “Don’t go ahead until everyone in the group has finished writing”, she was told. And like others, I find the materials a complete misfit to independent investigation for educated, Western people. If this had been my introduction to the Faith, I would have never stuck around to find out what it is really for,

The purpose of the Faith is to enlighten and spiritualise. In situations where Ruhi matrials help to achieve this, great. For most of us in Western countires, certainly with university educations, something else is needed.

It took me a while to eventually find it, but here is the April 19, 2004 letter from the US NSA saying that the Ruhi Training FULL SEQUENCE OF COURSES is now THE *ONLY* WAY to do community deepening in the United States. Nothing else counts. Zilch. Zippo. Nada.

Whatever a community ITSELF wants to do to meet the situation on the ground DOES NOT COUNT in the top down corporate micromanaged Faith. This is the top down ruling! To question it is to go against the Covenant. That’s it!

There is only one problem. None of this stuff is going to have any appeal to the deeper spiritual seekers amid the American public so all Teaching in the United States is now going to come to a grinding halt. The top down one-size fits-all McFaith approach is going to be absolutely catastrophic!

But nobody at the top can perceive this because they live in a huge administrative bubble. They don’t live on Actual Spiritual Seeker Street where everybody else does who really knows how to teach the Faith to REAL PEOPLE!

I’ll post this for the record, but I don’t know if anyone is reading any more posts on this thread now.

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
of the
BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

536 SHERIDAN ROAD, WILMETTE, ILLINOIS 60091-2849
• (847) 733-3537
• EMAIL: secretariat@usbnc.org

April 19, 2004

The Bahá’í Community of the United States Dear Bahá’í Friends,

Over the past few months, the National Spiritual Assembly has been in consultations with the Continental Counselors and the Regional Bahá’í Councils on means for accelerating the momentum of our community related to the two essential movements of the Five Year Plan—the steady flow of believers through the sequence of courses offered by training institutes and the advancement of geographic clusters from one stage of growth to the next.

As a result of these consultations, the National Assembly has crafted the Training Institute Policy attached for the purpose of giving concentrated and sustained attention to the two essential movements that will lay the foundation for systematic growth of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States in these remaining two years of the Five Year Plan.

We beseech the Blessed Beauty to assist the devoted efforts offered in service to His mighty Cause of each and every member of this valiant community.

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

Robert C. Henderson
Secretary-General
Attachment

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
of the
BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

536 SHERIDAN ROAD, WILMETTE, ILLINOIS 60091-2849
• (847) 733-3537
• EMAIL: secretariat@usbnc.org

TRAINING INSTITUTE POLICY FOR THE UNITED STATES BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY FOR THE FIVE YEAR PLAN

In the two years remaining in the Five Year Plan, we call on the friends to give concentrated and sustained attention to the two essential movements that are the foundation for systematic growth of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States.

The first is the increased flow of believers through a full sequence of courses for the purpose of raising a critical mass of Bahá’ís in each cluster who are trained in the fundamentals of systematic growth.

The second is the movement of geographic clusters from one stage of growth to the next, to increase the number of clusters capable of initiating and sustaining intensive programs of growth.

At the recent conference of senior institutions in Pensacola, careful assessments of the potential for advancing the process of growth in the four regions suggest that scores of A clusters are within our reach by the end of the Plan.

Achievement of this potential would ensure the emergence of favorable conditions for accelerated growth of the Bahá’í Faith in our country.

With this in mind, the National Spiritual Assembly has named the Ruhi Institute Materials the main sequence of institute courses for the United States Bahá’í Community.

The focus on the Ruhi sequence is intended to foster, as quickly as possible, the emergence of a large number of A clusters, capable of sustaining programs of intensive growth.

Bahá’ís currently learning the Fundamental Verities curriculum sequence should complete their training.

The friends who complete the Fundamental Verities training are to be counted among the believers who have completed a full sequence of courses.

We encourage those friends who are beginning their institute training to start the Ruhi sequence of courses.

The Fundamental Verities courses, and other curricula, may continue to be available to friends and seekers as branch courses.NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY of the BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

536 SHERIDAN ROAD, WILMETTE, ILLINOIS 60091-2849

Training Institute Policy for the United States Page 2

Bahá’í Community for the Five Year Plan

The Core Curriculum is to remain the standard and program goal for the Bahá’í education of children in the United States. As a branch of the main sequence of courses, teachers of children’s classes are encouraged to continue their training in the Core Curriculum program.

Dear Friends, we are fully confident that concerted efforts to accelerate the two essential movements of the Five Year Plan can and will guarantee a systematic pattern of growth.

As clusters gain the capacity to initiate and sustain intensive programs of growth, campaigns of media proclamation will be launched, blazoning the Teachings and the Name of Bahá’u'lláh.

We are thankful and confident that all of the friends will give their wholehearted support to this critical effort.

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES
Robert C. Henderson Secretary-General
April 19, 2004

I recently was discussing the fine film “The Aviator” with a friend via e-mail. She disagrees with my theory that the problem with the world is mental illness. She says the problem with the world is rank
cowardice. She says Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud, also said
that the problem with the human race was cowardice. Perhaps I need to make a new revised theory. That the world is driven by the dynamic
between the mentally ill with courage and the mentally ill who are cowards. This seems to still cover my general theory that everyone on this planet is mentally ill! Perhaps this new revised theory can explain
everything! I am thinking about it.

In our discussion she said “I think that a world in which the importance of the individual’s role is diminished is doomed, and that is what we are seeing with the Baha’is and the Neocons.”

I had brought up the point of the fascinating parallels between the
neocon mindset and the Baha’i Administrative Faith mindset. I had said “Look at the derangement of both the neocons running the government of the United States right now and the professional Administrative Order lifetime employment class running the Baha’i Faith. Look at the parallels. Both require massive cowardice to work.The corporate media and the political system have gone to their knees before the neocons. No hard questions. No thinking as to where this is all going. No one will stand up to anyone in the Baha’i Faith as the Ruhi destruction prevails. Not a sound. Yes. It is all cowardice. People that institutionalize
cowardice get what they deserve. It will not be pretty. For the U.S. it is going to be great economic difficulty. For the Baha’i Faith it is going to be great financial difficulty. All because no on will speak up.
So be it. Judgment Day. This is how I see it. It is BOTH mental illness and cowardice.”

The final completely lethal combination for any society or system of organization. Mental illness and cowardice! Both are now being institutionalized
among these two groups. Very, very interesting. It must be something
that is now in the drinking water everywhere in the world. Absolute
lock step silence to catastrophe! So be it. It seems we are living in
the 1930’s again. People are paralysed before both big and little fates that any thinking person can see coming. In all of these schemes the individual no longer counts in the blanket top down Big Idea! The raw use of American military power on somebody’s closed inner circle theory of the world. And the Baha’i Faith being completely run into the ground on somebody’s closed inner circle theory of the world. Both thinking they are infallible in their top down vision. They know! And nothing anyone else has to say counts! No outside input is tolerated. No dissenting voice. No other input counts. If you speak up you are branded a traitor and a malcontent. For both camps no discussion is tolerated. Absolutely zero. “He who is not with us is against us.” Fascinating stuff! That awful dynamic of repeated human history when things become unglued and spin apart at the vortex: mental illness and cowardice. The silence is deafening in both camps on both roads. Absolutely deafening.

I havent seen “The Aviator” yet. But I know something about how it ends. What is foreshadowed.

Your question about seeing proof on how only Ruhi Training materials can be used for “community deepening” in the U.S. in writing is a very fair question. But I sware this is true. It was either in a U.S. Feast Letter or in the American Baha’i within the last year. I will try to find this directive and post it up here.

I was absolutely shocked when I read it because I saw that this immediately dashed the hopes of a nearby community I knew about that was trying to escape Ruhi by using the well known and well respected Daniel Jordan written materials form the 70’s.

In one of their community Ruhi sessions a long time Baha’i absolutely refused to take part in one of the idiotic “role playing”
sections and it almost came to fisticuffs with the Ruhi trainer! How’s that for World Unity! To them it was absolutely absurd that the Baha’i Faith had come to this so they wanted to change the materials as a way out!

My heart sank when I saw that this ruling completely trumped their community hopes! No escape for anyone in the new micro-managed UHJ/ITC Faith! It also shocked me in that the other alternative course “The Fundamental Verities Core Curriculum” that people also liked over the Ruhi materials seemed to be taken off the table now too! I found the whole thing completely Orwellian and absolutely creepy. One of those ice water up your spine moments in the current free fall demise of the Faith.

So your request for proof is a very fair question. I will try to find that letter or article. I think it was a Feast letter. Absolutely amazing stuff in the strange top down micro-management hysteria in the new UHJ/ITC Revelation.

Again, I will try to find it and post it up here.