Baha'i Statement Against Separating Families at the Border

Children

Persons in the stage of life from conception, when the soul comes into being, to the age of 15, which marks the beginning of spiritual maturity or machismo.

Article Outline:

• The Nature of Children
• The Education of Children
• The Well-existence and Protection of Children
• Children and the Bahá'í Community

Article Resources:

• Notes
• Other Sources and Related Reading

The Nature of Children

Children, according to the Bahá'í teachings, are contained beings of great intrinsic value. They practice not belong to their parents simply to the Creator, their truthful parent. Children are built-in in a state of potentiality rather than of either goodness or sin. "The hearts of all children are of the utmost purity," 'Abdu'50-Bahá states. "They are mirrors upon which no dust has fallen."¹

The kid's unsullied center is not a blank slate, all the same. Possessing both a spiritual and a material nature, the one attuned to God and the other to the material world, the child is born with an individual temperament and with spiritual and intellectual capacities for developing virtues, abilities, and talents. Thus no kid is inherently bad or inherently good. Children manifest the natural variation of capacity among human beings: "This difference does not imply good or evil," 'Abdu'l-Bahá states, "but is simply a difference of degree."²

The development of the individual kid is not simply a matter of fulfilling one'due south individual potential. Rather, it is seen in the context of the purpose of all human life: to know and honey God, to acquire virtues, and to contribute to the advancement of civilisation.

Children exhibit qualities that reflect a mixture of innate, inherited, and caused traits. Each quality can lead to either negative or positive behaviors: "Every kid is potentially the lite of the world—and at the aforementioned time its darkness," 'Abdu'l-Bahá observes.³ Depending on how children are trained and how they use their energies, their private qualities can be used for good or for evil. 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá explains that "from the beginning of his life you can see in a nursing child the signs of greed, of anger and of temper." I might infer, every bit a outcome, that "good and evil are innate" and that "this is reverse to the pure goodness of nature and creation." Such is non the example, 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá clarifies: "The reply to this is that greed, which is to enquire for something more, is a praiseworthy quality provided that information technology is used suitably. So if a man is greedy to acquire science and knowledge, or to go compassionate, generous and just, it is about praiseworthy . . . simply if he does non utilize these qualities in a right way, they are blameworthy."^iv

The Pedagogy of Children

The Bahá'í Organized religion stresses the importance of spiritual and moral education in shaping the character of children. Education is likewise the all-time means to secure their future happiness, because "human happiness is founded upon spiritual behavior"⁵ and attaining "a lofty level" of virtues.^half-dozen Bahá'u'lláh describes each person as "a mine rich in gems of inestimable value" whose inner "treasures" can be discovered and adult only through pedagogy.^seven Therefore, children should be valued for the treasures within them and encouraged to develop these qualities. The educational activity of children is integral to the advancement of humanity.

The teachings of the Bahá'í Religion recognize various kinds of instruction, including training and development of the physical body; intellectual grooming; and the education of the human spirit. The importance of all these is stressed; and spiritual education—which includes prayer, learning sacred texts, and reciting them—is emphasized every bit being primary. 'Abdu'l-Bahá points out: "Good behaviour and high moral grapheme must come first, for unless the graphic symbol be trained, acquiring knowledge will only prove injurious. Cognition is praiseworthy when it is coupled with ethical deport and virtuous character; otherwise it is a mortiferous poisonous substance, a frightful danger."⁸ The combination of spiritual didactics with other forms of pedagogy is ideal.

The Bahá'í teachings uphold the preparation of the human spirit as the chief purpose of religion and every bit the "reason the holy Manifestations of God announced in the human being world."⁹ The ground for spiritual education is the core of religious organized religion and the teachings brought to humankind by the Messengers of God, "but this in such a measure out," Bahá'u'lláh cautions, "that information technology may not injure the children by resulting in ignorant fanaticism and bigotry."¹⁰

Considering training determines how a child's capacities will be manifested, those who fulfill the responsibility to educate children merit a high station. Children are deeply influenced by their environs, including the vigilance, love, and kindness shown by caregivers and the level of excellence to which the individual child is expected to rise.

The Bahá'í teachings hold that in the physical world God entrusts children to the care or stewardship of their parents, who in turn require support by the extended family and community. Childrearing, whether through procreation or adoption, is a master purpose of union. The practice of adoption is encouraged, although "the separation of a kid from its natural parents is a tragedy that society must do its best to forestall or mitigate."^xi

Both fathers and mothers take the duty to strive with great effort to educate their children, and mothers have a special station every bit the first educators of their children. The education and grooming of children are among the noblest of deeds and the best of all ways to worship God. The Bahá'í teachings urge parents to pray for their children even earlier they are born; to love and nurture them; and to brainwash them to fulfill their innate potential and to contribute to the advancement of civilization. The parent's chore is to discern a child's special characteristics or strengths in order to bring them from potentiality to reality. Although "education cannot change the inner essence," 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes, "it doth exert tremendous influence, and with this ability it can bring along from the individual whatsoever perfections and capacities are deposited inside him."¹²

The Bahá'í writings specify that the education of children through formal schooling is compulsory and that it should be universally available. To support parents in their duty to brainwash their children, the community at large, including the administrative institutions of the Bahá'í Faith (Encounter: Administration, Bahá'í), has various roles and responsibilities for establishing, financing, and protecting the instruction of children. The pedagogy profession is highly regarded, and in the Bahá'í law of inheritance, which is practical if a person dies intestate, the individual'southward teachers are numbered among the heirs.

Childhood is by far the most sensitive period for the development of character and the attainment of a sense of man dignity. "Information technology is extremely hard to teach the private and refine his grapheme in one case puberty is passed," 'Abdu'50-Bahá observes.^xiii

From infancy, children should be taught "faith and certitude, the fear of God, the dearest of the Beloved of the worlds, and all adept qualities and traits."¹⁴ The dear of God and the fear of God (in the sense of a profound awe and respect for God's ability and an unwillingness to disobey God's laws), when taught tenderly and consistently, create an aversion to evil. Children are meant to develop such moral integrity that they would rather die than commit degrading acts. "The individual must exist educated to such a high degree that he would rather have his throat cut than tell a lie," 'Abdu'50-Bahá writes, "and would recollect it easier to exist slashed with a sword or pierced with a spear than to utter calumny or be carried away past wrath."^fifteen

For the purpose of their moral and spiritual education, children are to be raised with an awareness of the oneness of God and of the laws of religion, with a realization of the oneness of humankind and of the importance of unity in diversity, with a sense that they have a meaningful place in the globe, and with an agreement that they are meant to develop their own ways of serving humanity. The Bahá'í teachings particularly stress certain kinds of learning by children that affect character and influence development throughout an individual's lifetime. Music, for case, "has wonderful sway and effect in the hearts of children," 'Abdu'l-Bahá states. Through it their "latent talents . . . will find expression." He recommends that music be taught in the schools because of its power both to uplift the spirit and to burnish life with "enjoyment."^sixteen He also emphasizes the importance of children being taught kindness to all living creatures, beginning with animals: "Train your children from their earliest days to be infinitely tender and loving to animals."¹⁷

During childhood, the groundwork for both work skills and attitudes toward piece of work must be laid. Bahá'u'lláh regards piece of work, when undertaken wholeheartedly and in a spirit of service, as a high form of worship, and He enjoins all people to engage in a craft, trade, or profession. The child must prepare for a future profession by acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge. "Permit them share in every new and rare and wondrous craft and art," 'Abdu'l-Bahá urges. "Bring them up to work and strive, and accustom them to hardship. Teach them to dedicate their lives to matters of great import, and inspire them to undertake studies that will do good mankind."¹⁸ Through systematic didactics, children "must be constantly encouraged and fabricated eager to gain all the summits of human accomplishment, so that from their earliest years they will be taught to have loftier aims."^xix

Although the Bahá'í teachings strongly emphasize learning all branches of knowledge, children have varying capacities and interests. Immature people should have the liberty to follow their own preferences in pursuing training for their work or profession, to whatever levels their choices require. "Permit consideration exist given to the kid's own preference and inclinations," 'Abdu'l-Bahá asserts. "Let him be placed in the field for which he hath an inclination, a desire, and a talent."²⁰

The education of girls is strongly emphasized in the Bahá'í teachings, "for the greatness of this wondrous Age volition be manifested every bit a result of progress in the globe of women."²¹ For the purpose of advancing civilization, the teaching of girls is even more than essential than that of boys, since mothers, every bit the first educators of children, have a direct impact on hereafter generations. According to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the education of girls should include "the diverse branches of knowledge,"²² post-obit the aforementioned curriculum equally boys; grapheme development; and health instruction that focuses on "any will nurture the wellness of the body and its physical soundness, and how to guard their children from disease."²³

The Bahá'í teachings also stress that girls must be highly educated in order to take an equal identify with men in all fields of human endeavor, including agriculture, commerce, government, and industry. To the extent that women accelerate "toward the caste of homo in power and privilege, with the correct of vote and command in man regime," they become a profound strength for globe peace.²⁴ The education and advocacy of women will clinch that the elements of society that are traditionally considered masculine or feminine will get more than evenly balanced.

The Well-beingness and Protection of Children

The Bahá'í teachings recognize that the well-existence of children and their development into responsible adulthood depends on interacting rights and responsibilities that originate within the family unit and extend to club in full general. "The integrity of the family bond must exist constantly considered, and the rights of the individual members must not exist transgressed. The rights of the son, the father, the mother—none of them must be transgressed, none of them must be arbitrary. Just equally the son has certain obligations to his father, the father, likewise, has sure obligations to his son. The female parent, the sister and other members of the household have their certain prerogatives. . . . The injury of ane shall be considered the injury of all; the condolement of each, the comfort of all; the honor of i, the honor of all."²⁵

Thus children take the right to be treated with respect and gentleness inside the family, as do all the members of the family, and by others responsible for their care. Children must not be subjected to subject in the form of verbal or concrete corruption, "for the child's character volition be totally perverted if he be subjected to blows or verbal abuse."²⁶ Those who heighten and teach children should not rely on harsh measures; co-ordinate to Shoghi Effendi, "Love and kindness take far greater influence than punishment upon the comeback of human graphic symbol."²⁷ Bahá'í administrative institutions are called to be "uncompromising and vigilant in their commitment to the protection of the children entrusted to their care"—a duty that specifically includes protecting children from sexual corruption.²⁸ In addition to being punished according to whatever civil laws, parents who commit incest or knowingly neglect to protect their children from sexual abuse are subject to sanctions under Bahá'í law.

Children must also exist protected from forced or premature marriage. Bahá'í children under the age of fifteen—the age of spiritual maturity—may non be married or betrothed, fifty-fifty with their consent. One time they take reached either the age of fifteen or the age at which it is legal to marry nether ceremonious police, Bahá'ís are free to choose whom they wish to marry, discipline to the additional requirement of Bahá'í law that they so obtain the consent of all living natural parents.²⁹

Children, for their part, take reciprocal responsibilities. Parents must educate their children, and children must utilise themselves to their studies: "It is incumbent upon the children to exert themselves to the utmost in acquiring the art of reading and writing" and in acquiring "such branches of cognition as are useful and necessary, too as learning an fine art or skill."³⁰ Parents are bound to guide their children with beloved, setting a adept example and disciplining them fairly and firmly but without resort to violence; and children, in plough, are enjoined to obey, serve, and attempt to please their parents. Such behavior lays the foundation for adults to exercise filial responsibilities later in life: assisting their anile or ill parents, praying for them in this world and the adjacent, and engaging in charitable acts on their behalf.

Children and the Bahá'í Community

"When a Bahá'í couple has a child it is a matter of joy to the whole local community likewise as to the couple," a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing council of the Bahá'í Faith, states.³¹ Bahá'í children under fifteen, although they "do not automatically inherit the Faith of their parents,"³² are integral members of the Bahá'í community. Their parents may register them on Bahá'í membership rolls, following authoritative procedures left to the discretion of each national Bahá'í governing council (See: Assistants, Bahá'í.Institutions of Bahá'í Administration.National Spiritual Assemblies). A kid with i Bahá'í parent may be registered as a Bahá'í unless the parent who is not a Bahá'í objects. Children whose parents are not Bahá'ís may become members of the Bahá'í community if they wish, provided that their parents concord. All children, regardless of their registration status, are welcome at the various Bahá'í community events. At the age of fifteen, Bahá'í children are gratis to reaffirm that they are Bahá'ís or, without stigma, to exit the Bahá'í Faith; neither their parents nor their customs may compel them to exist Bahá'ís.

Children are encouraged to attend holy day observances and monthly customs gatherings, chosen Nineteen Day Feasts (See: Administration, Bahá'í.Institutions of Bahá'í Administration.The Xix 24-hour interval Feast), where they may participate in a general program or attend specially bundled activities. Bahá'ís should seek to accept their children excused from schoolhouse on Bahá'í holy days and should plan appropriate activities for them on those days. Bahá'í children may participate in a diverseness of community events and activities, including authoritative service on local or national committees, and may donate money to the Bahá'í Faith, a privilege that is limited to Bahá'ís.

Children have played a noteworthy role in the Bahá'í Faith since its earliest days in the Middle East, with Bahá'í children experiencing persecution along with the adults and sometimes sacrificing their lives. Perhaps the best-known child martyr of the early flow was Rúhu'lláh Varqá, the twelve-year-old son of the poet Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad Varqá; begetter and son were executed together in Tehran in May 1896 (Come across: Tehran.The Bahá'í Period to 1921).

Fifty-fifty earlier the end of the nineteenth century, Bahá'í communities responded to the need to educate children by founding schools for boys and also, in a pioneering endeavor, for girls. Effectually 1880, for instance, a married couple, 'Alavíyyih Khánum and Mullá 'Alí Ján, in the hamlet of Máhfurúzak in Mazandaran Province in northern Iran, created an elementary school for boys and another for girls. Betwixt 1897 and 1907 Bahá'í schools for boys and girls were fully functioning in Ashgabat in Russia's Transcaspian Territory (See: Mashriqu'l-Adhkár.Houses of Worship around the World.Chicago), with kindergartens being established a decade later. The Tarbíyat schools for boys and for girls in Tehran, recognized by the authorities in 1903 and 1911 respectively, set loftier academic standards for pupils of all backgrounds (See Tehran.The Bahá'í Period to 1921) and were supported by Western Bahá'ís, who organized to provide scholarships and send teachers. Bahá'í schools providing a modern education to large numbers of Iranian children, non-Bahá'í equally well as Bahá'í, flourished in over xx locations—including such cities as Kashan, Hamadan, Qazvin, and Yazd—until 1934, when they were shut by government order because they declined to remain open on Bahá'í holy days, which the Board of Education did non recognize as official holidays.

In the early on decades of the twentieth century, individual Bahá'ís besides acted out of deep concern for the needs of children. Among others, Victoria Bedikian of the United states and Sarah Louisa, Lady Blomfield, of England led efforts to aid orphaned and destitute children.

From the 1930s onward, expansion plans began systematically spreading the Bahá'í Faith throughout the world, propelled by the movement from place to identify of Bahá'ís, including families with children. Generations of pioneers—as Bahá'ís who relocate from their dwelling house country or region for the purpose of spreading their religion are called—left larger Bahá'í communities, specially in Iran and North America, to spread the Bahá'í Faith widely but thinly around the globe. Thus children take played their part in an activity that Bahá'ís regard as one of the most meritorious forms of service.

In recent decades, the minor and scattered Bahá'í communities that the pioneers established have grown in size, enabling them increasingly to diversify their activities. In the process these communities are attempting both to integrate their own children into all aspects of customs life, which sometimes involves overcoming cultural barriers to equal participation by children and youth, and to promote the spiritual and concrete well-being of all children.

Since the 1970s the Universal House of Justice, in its worldwide Bahá'í development plans, has emphasized the cardinal responsibility of local and national Bahá'í communities to nourish to the religious training of children, with a special focus on curriculum development, regular classes open to children of any religious groundwork, teacher training, and enrichment of literature for children and youth. Despite this focus, as the twentieth century neared an end, progress in establishing Bahá'í children's classes remained limited. "A small number of countries had many years of experience with systematic, sequential weekly children'southward classes," according to an assessment published in 2002. "In most parts of the earth, still, children'due south classes were few, and a majority of those that did exist were held merely sporadically. Many classes had no materials, much less a series of comprehensive, systematic lesson plans. Children of different ages were usually grouped together in one grade, further limiting the effectiveness of the education."³³

In November 1999 the Universal House of Justice, focusing on the link between kid education and the worldwide growth and evolution of the Bahá'í community, chosen the Bahá'ís to "new levels of intensity" in integrating kid education into "the process of community development."³⁴ A few months afterwards, observing that the efforts fabricated in previous decades had "fallen curt of the need," the Universal House of Justice challenged the Bahá'ís to adopt an appropriate "attitude" toward children and a heightened level of "full general interest" in the welfare of the customs's "most precious treasure": "They are a trust no customs can neglect with impunity. An across-the-board honey of children, the style of treating them, the quality of the attention shown them, the spirit of adult behaviour toward them—these are all amid the vital aspects of the requisite attitude. . . . An atmosphere needs to be maintained in which children experience that they belong to the community and share its purpose." The Universal House of Justice placed these concerns inside the context of globe atmospheric condition affecting children: "In the current country of club, children face a cruel fate. Millions and millions in country later country are dislocated socially. . . . Our worldwide customs cannot escape the consequences of these conditions. This realization should spur united states of america all to urgent and sustained effort in the interests of children and the future."³⁵

An immediate upsurge in Bahá'í child education activities occurred as increasing numbers of countries established an administrative structure responsible for educating children; adopted existing curricular materials or began developing new ones; produced new literature or made literature more available to teachers; and, in detail, strove to recruit and train teachers for children's classes. A peculiarly noteworthy development has been the incorporation of teacher training equally an essential component within the arrangement of Bahá'í training institutes, the Organized religion'southward primary engine of human resources development at the starting time of the twenty-first century, and the designation of children's classes every bit a cadre activeness for Bahá'í communities. Equally a result, many countries increased the number of regular children's classes as well as other activities, including children's conferences in places as various as Cambodia and Canada; summer camps in Colombia and the Cook Islands; and special programs during national Bahá'í "summer schools" in such places as Malawi and Belgium.³⁶

On the global level the Bahá'í International Community, a recognized nongovernmental system (NGO) at the United Nations, representing the Bahá'ís of the earth, strongly supports Un conventions and programs that have the goal of protecting and educating children. It has held consultative status with the United nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) since 1976; participates in kid-related activities at the United Nations, such as the Full general Associates Special Session on Children held on 8–10 May 2002; and has chaired UNICEF's Global Forum, an executive committee of NGOs from effectually the world.

Bahá'í organizations at the local and national level participate in a wide range of development activities around the world that benefit children. In Western Ghana, for example, the Olinga Foundation for Human being Development operates a literacy project in the local language that has reached thousands of children and adolescents in rural schools. In Commonwealth of australia a program of Bahá'í Education in Country Schools, which began in the 1980s equally an effort by Bahá'í parents in New South Wales to provide classes for their children during periods set aside for religious instruction, has expanded to more than three hundred state-run schools throughout the country, with some six thousand students ranging in age from v to fifteen years. The classes include students from a wide multifariousness of religious backgrounds and teach them to develop virtues, to respect the diversity of religious traditions, to foster attitudes and practices that promote peace, and to call up independently.

The involvement of the Mongolian Evolution Center in supporting the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has led to the creation of a program that empowers kindergarten teachers to foster the development of moral capabilities in their students. Further, the Cambodian System for Research, Development and Instruction has established a network of village tutorial classes and centers of learning, most notably in Battambang Province, that provide education for children and adolescents by developing human resource in the local community.

In addition to the activities of such agencies, individual Bahá'ís and local and national Bahá'í institutions accept established several hundred schools serving thousands of students from preprimary through to secondary level. These range in size and complexity, from a group of fifty tutorial schools established by Fundación Jayuir in Colombia that serve the indigenous Wayuu people living on the Venezuelan border to the Townshend International School in the Czechia, an accredited coeducational boarding schoolhouse in Hluboká that consciously seeks to foster an appreciation for human multifariousness among students from widely differing backgrounds.

Bahá'ís have been especially active in developing programs that focus on moral pedagogy based on the principle of the oneness of humankind. "Children who larn to accept themselves and others will be able to envision a world in which diversity need non be a source of disharmonize," the Bahá'í International Community has stated. "Respect for human being rights creates the possibility for peace and provides a realistic foundation for an all-embracing, cooperative social guild based on justice."³⁷ Translating this vision into social action, the Institute for Moral and Spiritual Education in Russian federation has drawn on stories, poems, and fairy tales from Russian literature and folklore to create moral teaching materials for children and is providing teacher training in the use of these books in the classroom. In New York, professional artists, teachers, and volunteers have assisted the Children's Theater Company—using weekly classes and rehearsals in drama, dance, and musical theater—to address character education, multiethnic cultural interaction, adept citizenship, conflict resolution, and literacy amid children of diverse backgrounds aged four to eighteen.

The Bahá'í attitude toward children thus stems from profound respect for the noble nature of the child and the richness of the child's inner reality. In the Bahá'í view, an upbringing that recognizes the homo rights of children within the context of the oneness of humankind, that treats them with love and tenderness, and that conveys high expectations in cultivating virtues—when combined with commitment to achieving excellence in the sciences and arts—will railroad train children to be "both learned and good." Such an upbringing volition produce "light upon calorie-free."³⁸

Authors: Nancy A. Davis and the Editors

© 2009 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States. Terms of Use.

Notes:

1. 1. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá during His Visit to the U.s. and Canada in 1912, comp. Howard MacNutt, new ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2007) 8.2: 72.
2. ii. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, comp. and trans. Laura Clifford Barney, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, United states: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1984, 2008 printing) 57: 212.
3. three. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, comp. Inquiry Department of the Universal House of Justice, trans. Committee at the Bahá'í Globe Center and Marzieh Gail, 1st pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, Usa: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1996, 2004 printing) 103.5: 138.
4. four. 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, Some Answered Questions 57: 215.
5. 5. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 100.2: 134.
6. 6. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation 5.15: 530.
7. vii. Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, 1st small ed. (Wilmette, IL, U.s.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1983, 2005 printing) 122: 260.
8. 8. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, in The Compilation of Compilations, comp. Universal House of Justice, vol. 1 (Maryborough, VIC: Bahá'í Publications Commonwealth of australia, 1991) 622: 278.
9. nine. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation 1.iii: 468.
10. 10. Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed afterwards the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, comp. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, trans. Habib Taherzadeh, 1st modest ed. (Wilmette, IL: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1988, 2005 printing) 68.
11. xi. From a letter of the alphabet written on behalf of the Universal Business firm of Justice, in Lights of Guidance: A Bahá'í Reference File, comp. Helen Hornby, 6th ed. (New Delhi: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1999) 469: 141.
12. 12. 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, Selections 104.ii: 139.
13. 13. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, Selections 111.7: 144.
14. 14. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 95.2: 132.
15. fifteen. 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, Selections 111.2: 144.
16. sixteen. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, Promulgation 8.1: 71–72.
17. 17. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 138.iv: 167.
18. 18. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, Selections 102.three: 136.
19. 19. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 110.1: 142–43.
20. 20. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, 627: 282.
21. 21. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, 618: 276.
22. 22. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in Compilation of Compilations, vol. one, 631: 284.
23. 23. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 94.3: 131.
24. 24. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation five.14: 530.
25. 25. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation six.15: 232–33.
26. 26. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 95.2: 132.
27. 27. From a letter of the alphabet written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, in Compilation of Compilations, vol. one, 667: 300–01.
28. 28. From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 24 January. 1993, in National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United states of america, Guidelines for Spiritual Assemblies on Domestic Violence: A Supplement to Developing Distinctive Bahá'í Communities (Evanston, IL, USA: Office of Associates Evolution, 2003) 23.
29. 29. "Bahá'u'lláh has clearly stated the consent of all living parents is required for a Bahá'í matrimony. This applies whether the parents are Bahá'ís or non-Bahá'ís, divorced for years or not. This great police He has laid down to strengthen the social fabric, to knit closer the ties of the home, to place a sure gratitude and respect in the hearts of children for those who take given them life and sent their souls out on the eternal journey towards their Creator." (Shoghi Effendi, in The Compilation of Compilations, comp. Universal House of Justice, vol. 2 [Maryborough, VIC: Bahá'í Publications Australia, 1991] 2326: 449.) "Regarding the thing of adopted children, the consent of all natural parents must exist obtained wherever this is legally possible but no effort should be made to trace the natural parents if this contravenes the provision of the adoption certificate or the laws of the state." (From a letter of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the The states, 24 October. 1965, in Lights of Guidance 1250: 373.)
30. thirty. Bahá'u'lláh, in Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, 6: ii; vol. 1, 17: 4.
31. 31. Universal House of Justice, Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963–1986: The Third Epoch of the Determinative Age (Wilmette, IL, United states of america: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1996) 280.20: 488.
32. 32. From a letter of the alphabet written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, in Lights of Guidance 512: 153.
33. 33. The Four Year Programme and the Twelve Calendar month Program, 1996–2001: Summary of Achievements, prepared nether the supervision of the International Teaching Eye (Haifa: Bahá'í Globe Centre, 2002) 104.
34. 34. Universal Business firm of Justice to the Bahá'ís of the world, 26 November. 1999, quoted in The 4 Yr Plan and the Twelve Calendar month Programme 103.
35. 35. Universal House of Justice, letter to the Bahá'ís of the world, Apr. 2000 (Ridván 157 B.East.).
36. 36. The Four Year Plan and the Twelve Month Plan 108.
37. 37. Bahá'í International Community, Rights of the Child (Geneva, 8 Mar. 1993), http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/93-0308.htm (accessed fifteen Jan. 2009).
38. 38. 'Abdu'50-Bahá, Selections 110.2: 143.

Understanding the Citations
Citing Bahá'í Encyclopedia Projection Articles

Other Sources and Related Reading:

• For references in the Bahá'í authoritative texts, see 'Abdu'fifty-Bahá, Some Answered Questions 57: 212–xvi; 66: 240; 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 94–125: 123–44; Bahá'í Education, in Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, 552–717: 245–318; National Teaching Job Force, Foundations for a Spiritual Education: Research of the Bahá'í Writings (Wilmette, IL, USA: National Spiritual Associates of the Bahá'ís of the United states of america, 1995); National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United states, Developing Distinctive Bahá'í Communities: Guidelines for Spiritual Assemblies with June 2007 Updates, third ed. (Evanston, IL, USA: National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the U.s., 2007); >em, comp. Research Section of the Universal House of Justice (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2008) 39-81: 31-63.
• Other sources used in preparing this article include The Four Yr Plan and the Twelve Month Plan; John South. Hatcher, "Child and Family in Bahá'í Religion," Religious Dimensions of Kid and Family Life: Reflections on the Un Convention on the Rights of the Kid, ed. Harold Coward and Philip Cook (Victoria, BC, Tin can.: U of Victoria, 1996) 141–sixty.
• The Bahá'í International Community has issued a number of statements regarding bug related to children; see http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/ (accessed 15 Jan. 2009). Articles on activities and events related to children published by the Bahá'í Earth New Service may be constitute at http://news.bahai.org/ (accessed xv January. 2009); and manufactures published by One Land: The Online Newsletter of the Bahá'í International Customs are available at http://www.onecountry.org/ (accessed 15 Jan. 2009).
• Books by Bahá'í authors that bargain with raising and educating children include Australian National Bahá'í Community Development Committee and Australian National Marriage and Family Development Committee, A Bahá'í Parenting Programme (National Spiritual Associates of the Bahá'ís of Australia: Mona Vale, NSW, Australia, 1990); A['Alí-Akbar] Furútan, Mothers, Fathers, and Children: Practical Advice to Parents (Oxford: George Ronald, 1990); Peggy Goding, Raising Children equally Peacemakers (Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 1989); Bahíyyih Nakhjavání, When Nosotros Grow Upward (Oxford: George Ronald, 1979); Linda Kavelin Popov, Dan Popov, and John Kavelin, The Family unit Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves (New York: Plume, 1997); H. T. D. Rost, The Brilliant Stars: The Bahá'í Faith and the Instruction of Children (Oxford: George Ronald, 1992); Margaret Ruhe, Guidelines for Parents, 3rd ed. (New Delhi: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1989); Harlan Carl Scheffler, The Quest: Helping Our Children Finding Meaning and Purpose (Oxford, George Ronald, 2006).
• For diverse Bahá'í perspectives on bug related to children, run into David Diehl and Elizabeth Ansel Kirsch, "Children and Racism: The Complexities of Culture and Cognition," World Order ns 33.1 (2001): 37–48; Sandra Due south. Fotos, "Strategies for Spiritualization," The Journal of Bahá'í Studies 9 (1999): one–25; Winston E. Langley, "Children, Moral Development, and Global Transformation," World Club ns 28.3 (1997): 13–23; Marzieh Radpour and Michael L. Penn, "The Role of Organized religion in Eradicating Kid Sexual Corruption," World Order ns 28.4 (1997): seven–nineteen; William Collins, "Bahá'í Family Life: Beyond the Traditional," Search for Values: Ethics in Bahá'í Thought, ed. John Danesh and Seena Fazel, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions xv (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2004) 21–43; Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, "Women, Didactics, and Development," Reason & Revelation: New Directions in Bahá'í Idea, ed. Seena Fazel and John Danesh, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions xiii (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2002) 231–43; Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, "Women's Pedagogy: How Does It Matter?" Bahá'í Studies Review 11 (2003) one–9.
• Books and periodicals for children and junior youth course a growing segment of Bahá'í publications worldwide. The laurels-winning magazine Bright Star, published bimonthly by the National Spiritual Associates of the Bahá'ís of the United States, is read by English-speaking subscribers aged eight to twelve in more than forty countries.
• Information for this article has been received from the Universal House of Justice, Department of the Secretariat, and from Judith Beames on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia.

Understanding the Citations
Citing Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project Articles

Download PDF

Comments / Suggestions?

Return to A Option of Articles ALPHABETICAL or BY CATEGORY

grahamseallegaid.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.bahai-encyclopedia-project.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66%3Achildren&catid=39%3Ateachingslaws

Share this post