Empowerment
The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.
- Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CVI
[A]n environment conducive to the spiritual empowerment of individuals, who will come to see themselves as active agents of their own learning, as protagonists of a constant effort to apply knowledge to effect individual and collective transformation.
- Universal House of Justice, Ridván Message 2010, paragraph 11
The continual aim of the institutions of the Bahá’í community--whether it be through the operation of summer schools and training institutes, through the development of the Nineteen Day Feasts and National Conventions, or through day-to-day interaction among the friends--is to empower the individual believers so that they will learn how to live their lives with increasing knowledge, wisdom, unity and fruitfulness in conformity with the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
- Universal House of Justice, Bahá’í Administrative Order, 18 July, 2000
Careful thought needs to be given to ways in which empowerment can be approached as a universal and shared enterprise and not something the 'haves' bestow on the 'have nots.
- BIC to the UN Commission on Social Development, “Empowerment as a Mechanism for Social Transformation”
Quote of the Day
Idal 1 Ilm 182 B.E.
. . . in situations where the alleged abuser or relative or close friend of the alleged abuser is a member of the Assembly, it is suggested that the Assembly member receiving the report contact the National Spiritual Assembly for guidance rather than conveying the report directly to the Local Assembly.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States – Guidelines for Spiritual Assemblies on Domestic Violence, p. 77