Dear friends,
Some day some of you will, no doubt, be in government at some level. Maybe these will help you as they help many of us in our lives, and now government is becoming interested. THey are very helpful in any kind of consultation, evenbetween man and wife. Ben and I use these principles when we consult together about what we want to do or some idea one or the other of us has. It works very
well for us.
I have a story to tell you about them. Someone called from the Kelowna City Hall to ask if Baha'is would care to take part in the installation of the newly elected Mayor of the city. By the way, she is a woman. An excellent woman. Not a
person who displays herself or is proud or arrogant. She's thoroughly capable
and a very pleasant and humble person. She was an esteemed city councilor for years.
The installation ceremony was to take place in a large and pleasant city owned facility with many officials and dignitaries present. After accepting the invitation our representative asked why the Baha'is had been chosen to open the installation ceremony? It tuned out to be because the Jewish community complained that Christians were usually chosen to do this job, and the Jews recommended that other religions should be invited to take their turns. The city person doing the
planning knew something about Baha'is and decided to invite us.
Some prayers and readings were chosen for the event, and the person from City Hall was given them to review to see if they were suitable. Word came back that they wouldn't do because God was mentioned, and some of the Councillors would not
be comfortable with a mention of God. I suppose some may be agnostics or atheists. (I was an agnostic myself before I bacame a Baha'i.) A new set of readings
were compiled that didn't mention God and these are the ones I decided might be
of help or interest to you.
After the programme was over the Mayor and some Councillors to be given the quotations in written form to hang in the council chamber, so the Baha'is decided to
have the consultation principles reproduced in calligraphy suitable for the Council Chamber. Since then other city officials also asked permission to post them in their own offices. That was then that I decided that if they found them so
useful you might find them useful too, now or in the future.
Baha'is, as you know, believe that all world revealed religions are various stages in the one unfolding religion of God revealed to humanity down through the ages to mature us as a human race from primitive infancy extremely long ago, until
now when we are entering the stage of maturity and world civilization. This teaching is how we are able to respect all other revealed religions. We believe that when the other religions realize this they will find their common roots and
begin to honour and respect each other. Such respect for others' beliefs is one important way to overcome prejudice and hatred and allow the development of a
peaceful world. Spreading this understanding and modelling it in our lives is one of our chief Baha'i aims.
Here are the quotations, and if you're ever on a committee, or any kind of governing body, or simply consulting together as a family or a couple, you may find them useful. I hope so. :-)
Warmly, Mary
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O ye the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully.
The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation
and compassion. Take ye counsel together in all matters, inasmuch as consultation is the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way, and is the bestower of understanding.
Let truthfulness and courtesy be your adorning. Suffer not yourselves to be deprived of the robe of forbearance and justice.
Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.
The primary purpose, the basic objective, in laying down powerful laws and setting up great principles and institutions dealing with every aspect of civilization, is human happiness; and human happiness consists in securing the peace and well-being of every individual member, high and low alike, of the human race; and
the supreme agencies for accomplishing these two objectives are the excellent qualities with which humanity has been endowed.
-Baha'u'llah.
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