Thats great, except your missing the underlying solution behind all those problems, and thats the moral and spiritual development of man. Once men learn to let their 'hearts burn with loveing-kindness' for one another, that 'when a thought of war comes, oppose it by a more powerful thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be opposed by a more powerful thought of love.” the rest of the issues that you talk about will naturally be dealt with. How can any many that isn't “content with showing friendship in words alone” stand by and let his brother in a developing country suffer? This the building block of your social development, human rights, peace movements etc…

To Craig Parke
I find it interesting that a man of your intellect can't see how these simple quotations from Book1 can effect a transforming change in the character of the individual. Can you imagine what the world would be like if even 10% of the people “let their heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross you path?” These are the simple basics that we build the morals of society on. Maybe it needs more big words? You only have to look at neighborhoods around the world where the Ruhi Process has advanced to see the effects of this transforming power of these simple words, when put into practice and applied in the fullest implications of their meanings. Why do you think only 10 commandments were needed? They were simple, yes, but if everyone had truly practiced them the world would have been a better place.

The Faith is just too counter productive and the top down “Administrative Order” too impaired in the electoral processes to ever be a factor. Everyone is much better off if they say their prayers and go their own way. Once you are a signed Baha'i you are no longer a player. I will no longer bring people into such a system. I myself will no longer sit in the same room with the people who allowed this to be done to the once great potential of the Faith. It is now just a personal satrap for the psychological needs of a very tiny clique of lifetime incumbent people in Haifa and on NSA's.

But I wish everyone well who wants to turn off their hearts and minds and choose the path of subservience to the top down deranged system which has zero checks and balances in it. You now have people without any personal conscience in the Faith. If the UHJ told them to murder their parents they would do it without question. Not me. I greatly honor personal conscience in people. I will be part of no organization that tells people to switch off their personal conscience. I once thought the Faith teaches personal conscience. I was wrong. In the new Ruhiized Faith you do what you are told and if you don't like it you can leave. I left.

Perhaps I misunderstood what you were saying…

2. What on earth does Charles Wolcott's working for Disney have to do with anything? This shows that the motive is mere opposition, not fairmindedness. In any event, Mr. Wolcott was not an executive, he was the director of music for MGM and he wrote movie scores.

3. While I, too, had difficulty with Ruhi 1, the later books get much better, are more profound, and have a lot to offer. In addition to the content, there are other benefits: They get people out the door in acts of service and teaching. It gets Baha'is into contact with neighbors, and the divine Message gets shared.

4. Ruhi programs include thousands of children's and youth classes in morality. God knows I wouldn't want to be a young person trying to be a Baha'i in today's amoral climate. It is hard to think of a greater service to our future world (and not far in the future) than to instil integrity into young people. I'm reminded of the train platform schools in India — run on a shoestring, but effective; and there are thousands of such classes, simple affairs seated on a blanket in people's front yards. I do not think that the profundity and significance of these Ruhi programs should be underestimated. The Baha'i Faith deals with First Principles and these programs are both simple and profoundly significant.

5. The Ruhi programs are a way of kick-starting what wasn't happening, and should have been: self-study and self-application. The process of studying the Baha'i Faith, which is so broad and vast, intimidated most people. And again, Ruhi isn't just about initiating a process of study, it's about community-building, and community service, and these take a lot of guts.

6. One of the unique features of the Baha'i Faith, and Ruhi is at the middle of it, is that it reaches peasants. Peasants make up more than half of the world's population, and moving this population is incredibly important, and incredibly difficult. Peasants are very adept at recognizing what's in their children's best interests — like education — and they make sure their kids get it. But Ruhi also reaches adults, and offers hope for impacting on such crucial matters as husbands treating their wives as equals; and parents educating the girl child. These matters alone would make the Ruhi programs highly significant. Impacting on these matters alone would change the face of the earth. I suggest not assuming that because you don't need to be an educated person to go through the Ruhi methodology, they are not worthwhile. There is a humbling process that occurs, that is also beneficial.

7. Baha'is who go through the Ruhi program and think they've arrived because they've gone through the sequence of courses, have missed an important point. This isn't to put merit badges on people, and it, like any other advancement, can be used improperly, as a means of ego. These relative comparisons are all quite beside the point; relative merit is meaningless, only advancement towards the knowledge and the deeds of Abdu'l-Baha is a real accomplishment.
8. Don't write us off just yet. There's merit in doing what the Universal House of Justice prescribes as a remedy.
And just to round things off:
9. Got a better idea for renewing the human race? Brent Poirier