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Nurturing inclusiveness as a prerequisite for all Bahá'í efforts to build unity / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bahá’í Faith and nurturing inclusiveness to build unity
In the mid-1800s, Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, enunciated a vision of a new world reflecting what he identified as humanity's approaching coming of age. Since then, inspired by his declaration that “The earth is but one country, and mankind[lower-alpha 1] its citizens”,[2] and his urging to “Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self”,[3] millions of individuals have accepted Bahá’u'lláh's assertion that his teachings for worldwide unity express God's will for this critical stage in human history. Of all ages and from extraordinarily diverse backgrounds, Bahá’u'lláh's followers, known as Bahá’ís, believe his teachings embody dynamic society-building principles that nurture an ever-expanding movement towards inclusiveness and unification which is seen as one reason the Bahá’í Faith has grown at least twice as fast as the population in almost every UN region over the past 100 years[4] to become the second-most geographically widespread spiritual belief system on the planet.[5] Wherever they reside, Bahá’ís say they strive to become involved in grassroot social projects, educational activities, and prevalent discourses of society that engage like-minded individuals and groups to work together for the spiritual and material progress and unity of their communities and the world.
Bahá’u'lláh calls for a truly inclusive worldview in which all consider each other as members of one global family and the earth their common homeland. He teaches that members of this family must act towards one another with care, justice, and a loving willingness to sacrifice as needed for the sake of the greater good and progress of the whole. He also explains humanity's oneness as being integral to God's intent in creating humans and sending a succession of divine messengers to guide them to gradually advance civilization to bring about this world's ultimate unification. Thus, among numerous themes in Bahá’u'lláh's voluminous writings, Bahá’ís identify the “oneness of humanity” as the core operating principle and essential pivot around which all his teachings revolve. They state the full implications of human oneness logically imply the necessity of fundamental cultural changes in how people perceive themselves and how they must learn to interact with all others in ways that heal or transform hearts and minds in order to build healthy spiritual/social relationships.
Despite oppressive societal forces rooted in humankind's immature past that still work against unity, Bahá’ís cite tremendous geopolitical changes over the past century which have resulted in ever-wider circles of collaboration—along with escalating calls across the planet for broader, deeper, and more meaningful "inclusion" and "inclusiveness" in a multitude of important social development discourses and projects[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3]—as evidence of real progress towards unification. Baháʼís deem their multi-faceted individual efforts supporting such progress are formally enhanced by the Baháʼí International Community (BIC) which is widely recognized for its contributions to policy discourses in diverse social spaces—including at the United Nations (UN) where, since that organization's founding in 1945, the BIC has worked with UN agencies and become a well-respected non-governmental organization (NGO) elected to leadership positions at many prominent NGO proceedings involving major discourses and inclusive plans to develop a better world.[7]