Materials Studied at the 114 Global Youth Conferences in 2013

Materials from the youth conferences

The Period of Youth

The youth conferences gather young people of different ages and experiences. Many are teenagers who, through school, family, and community life, are preparing for the duties of adulthood. Others are older youth who may be in college or working, married or in the process of starting a family. For some, social conditions may have thrust on them duties of a much older age, and the survival of their families may already depend on them. Equally diverse are the communities they come from, ranging from the small villages of the world to the neighbourhoods of large urban centres with millions of inhabitants.

Regardless of their social situations, young people aspire for spiritual and intellectual growth and “to make a contribution to the fortunes of humanity”. They have many wonderful powers, and channelling them properly is an important concern, for when misdirected or manipulated by others, they can cause much social distress. Among the youth of the world are those alive to Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of a spiritually and materially prosperous world.

In selfless service to society is the possibility for both personal growth and enhancing capacity to contribute to social progress. “Service to humanity is service to God”, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has stressed. Through directing their talents and abilities to the elevation of society, they “become the cause of the tranquillity of the world of creation”. As they infuse their day-to-day activities with a spirit of generous giving, and offer voluntary acts for the well-being of others, they attract the assistance and confirmations of God.

It is essential then that ever-growing numbers of those in the prime of their lives “steel themselves for a life of service” to society. Naturally, many matters occupy their time and energy: education, work, leisure, spiritual life, physical health. But they learn to avoid a fragmented approach to life that fails to see the connections among life’s various aspects. Such a disjointed view of life often makes individuals fall victim to the false choices suggested in questions such as whether one should study or serve, advance materially or contribute to the betterment of others, pursue work or become dedicated to service. Failure to approach one’s life as a coherent whole often breeds anxiety and confusion. Through service, young people can learn to foster a life in which its various aspects complement each other.

Assured of God’s unfailing blessings to those who arise to serve, youth look at the environments in which they interact with others—the family, the peer group, the school, the work place, the media, the community—and recognize the social forces that operate in them. Some of these forces, such as love for truth, thirst for knowledge, and attraction to beauty, impel them in their progress along a path of service. Other forces, for instance the spreading materialism and self-centredness, are destructive and by distorting young people’s view of the world impede individual and collective growth. As they advance in their endeavours to contribute to the construction of a better world, their capacity to draw on the spiritual and social forces that make them builders of civilization grows manifoldly.

Reflection questions

What are the positive or negative forces operating in environments in which youth interact? In what ways might these spaces influence young people?

How do you view the role of your generation in society? What high purpose shapes your individual and collective actions?

Discuss the positive effect that service has on spiritual and intellectual growth and on the capacity of the younger generation to contribute to social progress.

Community Building and Fostering Mutual Support

A great responsibility to contribute to the betterment of society faces the current generation of youth. On them also rests the duty of fostering an environment in which the younger members of society can attain the spiritual and intellectual powers needed to become builders of a new civilization. The task is no doubt immense. To counteract the powerful social forces that threaten to sap their powers and distort their purpose, youth can rely on God’s unfailing assistance. They also have to enhance the ability to create an atmosphere of mutual support and assistance among themselves and in their communities in which their powers to transform society are multiplied.

You are now asked to reflect on the contribution your generation can make to the building of vibrant communities in neighbourhoods and villages, and in other settings where people eager to play a part in collective transformation are found.

To consider this question, it is essential to briefly review some of the elements of the framework for action that guides the efforts of the worldwide Bahá’í community. Most of the actions of Bahá’í communities to build a new society inspired by the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh take place in the context of a cluster, a manageable geographic area consisting of villages and perhaps a small town or of a large city and its suburbs. The main objective in each cluster is strengthening, through the application of Bahá’í teachings, the three main protagonists in the processes of change: the individual, the community, and the institutions. This work includes raising, through the institute process, growing numbers of people capable of promoting spiritual and social progress; building vibrant local communities where “individuals, families and institutions … [work] together with a common purpose for the welfare of people both within and beyond its own borders”; and developing institutions with the capacity to mobilize, canalize, and unify the energies of many friends who are eager to serve. Clusters necessarily are at different stages of development based on the number and effectiveness of those labouring for change and the strength and advancement of the local communities and institutions. In some, efforts of the Bahá’ís to build a new society are yet to begin.

In each cluster, the friends face different circumstances. Many of them live in largely homogeneous villages of rural areas or the usually diverse neighbourhoods of large cities. A strong communal spirit characterizes some localities; in others, it is clearly absent. The friends in a cluster may also associate with others based on certain common interests, for instance, study at a particular university or membership in a professional or social organization that is not restricted to a physical location. To build a new society, the friends seek to raise in these settings and spaces the capacity to apply the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. No society can experience the spiritual and social advancement possible at this stage in human life without the selfless services of its members.

In reflecting on the efforts of the young generation to walk a path of service, it is important to think about how they can “foster a vibrant community life in neighbourhoods and villages”.

Reflection questions

What do you regard as the true nature of friendship? How would you determine which friendships are helpful and which are detrimental to the progress of young people?

Creating an environment of mutual support includes having a vision of large numbers of youth who as true friends work together to transform their community. How would you go about fulfilling such a vision in your cluster or community? How important would conversation among the youth be, and what would be its purpose and content?

A process of community building inspired by the message of Bahá’u’lláh must have at its heart an unfolding conversation on the Faith’s teachings and their implications for the life of the population. What can you do to encourage large numbers of youth to become part of this conversation and the indispensable process of study and service related to it?

What contributions are youth making, or could youth make, to strengthen consultative processes in your community?

Early adolescence

Falling between the ages of 12 and 15 and representing a transition from childhood to youth, young adolescents—referred to as “junior youth”—experience rapid physical, intellectual, and emotional changes. Their spiritual powers expand. A new level of awareness fosters in them an increased interest in profound questions and in their talents and abilities. During this short and critical three-year period, ideas about the individual and society that may very well shape the rest of their lives are formed. However, delight at these new powers is often combined with feelings of worry, discomfort, and doubt that may produce contradictions in behaviour. Directing their new abilities towards selfless service to humanity is therefore needed at this age.

Some views of junior youth do not cast this period of life in a positive light. Popular views, for instance, regard this age as full of confusion and crises. Such thoughts foster conditions in which undesirable patterns of behaviour are spread. A proper understanding of this age is that of selfless young people with “an acute sense of justice, eagerness to learn about the universe and a desire to contribute to the construction of a better world”. The negative traits they sometimes show are certainly not intrinsic to this stage in human life.

The key issue to consider then is what the sources of unacceptable patterns of behaviour are that sometimes characterize some junior youth. Two factors require particularly careful thought in this regard. First, the effect of negative social forces on many communities has led to the spread of various social ills that have great influence on how young people view themselves and society. Second, junior youth are heavily affected by the behaviour of adults towards them. Although at this age they are gaining insights into many profound matters, adults sometimes insist on treating them like children. In addition, the difference in words and actions that some adults at times exhibit can be a source of confusion to young people who are looking for standards by which to shape their lives.

Stressing the effect of negative social forces on junior youth does not imply that young people are basically fragile. They can, with help, face these forces. They can develop the powers of the soul and mind that not only enable them to transcend such challenges but also make them contributors to building a new society.

Reflection questions

In thinking about the junior youth in your community, discuss how they are affected by destructive forces and the patterns of behaviour they give rise to.

Describe how the junior youth in your community are advancing spiritually and intellectually and how they are learning to contribute to the progress of their families and communities.

Discuss the spiritual qualities and attitudes that you think one supporting a group of junior youth should strive to demonstrate.

Contributing to the advancement of civilization

The community-building efforts of the Bahá’ís and their friends are not simply good social projects by selfless individuals. They are based on the belief that humanity is living at a very special time in its history. In its development, humankind has passed through stages similar to infancy and adolescence and now stands at the beginning of its maturity. Two inseparable processes, one of disintegration and the other of integration, are moving it forward. The process of disintegration is visible in the violence, war, and corruption that go together with the collapse of an outmoded order now incapable of dealing with the needs of a maturing world. It causes great confusion and suffering but also contributes to removing barriers to unity among people. The process of integration is related to the spiritual forces released with the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. On the one hand, these forces are influencing increasing numbers of people everywhere to work for unity and progress. On the other, they are gradually reshaping society through the conscious efforts of the Bahá’ís and their friends.

…The goal of building a new civilization requires complete change in how society is organized and also in the conduct and behaviour of individuals. In this connection, Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings intend “to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself, both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions”.

Essential to civilization building then is accepting that all the people of the world, indeed of every community, are one. The recognition of this vital truth has many implications on the life of a community and of society at large. In this day, all the people of the world have received an equal measure of the favour and mercy of the one true God and, in all their diversity, share the right and duty to contribute to creating a new world. When relationships among members of a community, and between them and the institutions, are characterized by love and justice, all are given the opportunity to use their God-given attributes to advance social good. When spiritual and scientific knowledge is accessible to all, members of a community can together learn to apply it to their collective life. This is related to the community-building endeavours of the Bahá’ís discussed in the previous statement that are intensifying in many clusters, neighbourhoods, and villages across the globe. The change in culture they are fostering is evidence of how a new society emerges from the efforts of growing numbers of people to apply the teachings of God in this day to the life of a growing number of communities.

The implications for the life of an individual who yearns to contribute to advancing civilization are also significant. A person strives to acquire the qualities, attitudes, and abilities of an effective contributor to progress and endows the various aspects of his or her life—education, work, marriage, family life—with a strong sense of mission. Such an individual makes every exertion to conform to the high ideals of the Faith. Learning to avoid prejudices of all kinds, to adhere to a high standard of chastity, and to show rectitude in all interactions with others enables an individual to become an effective actor in the endeavour to change society. In “efforts to achieve personal growth and to uphold Bahá’í ideals,” one is immersed in a purposeful community, an environment in which true unity impels friends of all ages to assist one another attain higher and higher levels of spiritual, moral, and intellectual excellence.

From this perspective then, one who is aware of the potential for creating the world anew that the message of Bahá’u’lláh holds will no doubt find great joy in bringing its inspiration to the people of the world, and enabling them to arise to fulfil their duty as conscious builders of a new civilization.

Reflection questions

How can young people under diverse social conditions ensure that they obtain the most effective education available? How would one’s work or profession serve as a means to contribute to civilization building? What would make it an obstacle?

How can young people properly prepare themselves for marriage and for families that would contribute meaningfully to creating a new society?

What would be the nature of a local community that is able to help its members develop the qualities and abilities of a builder of civilization?

How can youth, upon whom so much of the work of building a new world relies, effectively support each other in order to attain progress in all the various areas of their lives?