Society builders pave the way to a better
world, to a better day - a united approach

to building a new society. There's
a crisis facing humanity.

People suffer from a lack of unity.

It's time for a better path to
a new society - join the conversation.

for social transformation - Society Builders

join the conversation.

for social transformation - Society Builders,

'Society Builders' with
your host, Duane Varan.

Welcome to our first episode of
Society Builders, where we explore the

application of Baha'i principles to the
problems of individuals and society.

Together we'll engage in a conversation
about social transformation.

I'm your host, Duane Varan.

I hope you enjoyed our opening sting.

If you'd like to hear the full
version of our theme song, stick

around to the end of the podcast.

Today's episode is designed to introduce
you to the series, sharing the underlying

rationale for producing the series, and
the hopes and aspirations for what I

hope the series will ultimately achieve.

All right.

Now for some quick background.

So less than a month ago on December
30th, 2021, the Bahai World Community

received guidance from the Universal
House of Justice, the body, which

leads the Bahai world, charting the
path for Bahai communities worldwide

over the course of the next 25 years.

What was particularly unusual and unique
about this particular guidance is that

it gives us a single aim and focus
for the entire global Baha'i community

for the duration of that period.

And that focus is this the release
of the society building power of the

Faith in ever greater measures

I'll say that again.

The release.

Of the society building power of the
Faith in ever greater measures.

Now, don't worry just yet about
what that construct really means

and what its implications are.

That's what we're going to
together discover across

this entire podcast series.

But for now, just think about what
it means for the Baha'i community

to have a singular focus like this.

For what for many of us will
essentially be the rest of our lives.

It's an incredibly powerful
thought. In that one statement is

the essence of how we can best
serve our Faith, our communities,

our world for the next 25 years.

Wow!

So naturally a podcast series, exploring
this theme makes a ton of sense.

So welcome to THAT series.

Once a month I'll be releasing a new
episode where we can together explore

this theme of society building, and
together we'll discover little by little

what applying these principles to the
challenges of the communities around us

Looks like

I'll talk a bit more about who the
Universal House of Justice is and

what such guidance represents for
Baha'is worldwide in my next episode.

But for now, it's simply important
to appreciate that for a Baha'i,

this guidance is seminal.

For me personally, this
guidance was earth shattering.

It was truly seismic.

It reflected a major paradigm shift.

It got me thinking about my future and
how I could best serve my community, the

planet, how I could make a difference.

Now, I know that sounds incredibly
hokey, but I think deep down, most of

us wanna believe that somehow we matter.

And if dreams could come true, I think
most of us would aspire to finding

that path for our sense of fulfillment,
finding our purpose, finding that

sense that somehow we matter, that
somehow we can make a difference.

Now, I know that sounds lofty and maybe
it is, but it's an aspiration and there

are moments in life where I think we
get a glimpse of that possibility.

And for me, Reading that message
provided exactly that kind of moment

where I got just a glimpse of a
path towards making a difference.

Now if I felt that way, I'm sure there
are others who also had that same

kind of reaction to this guidance, and
we're excited to roll up their sleeves

and dig in, trying to understand the
guidance, and most important, trying

to figure out how to best apply it.

So that's what this series is all about.

It's a journey of discovery.

Now I wanna emphasize, I don't know
what a Baha'i perspective on society

building is, or what it will look like
over the course of the next 25 years.

If you ask two different Baha'is
"today, I think you'll get"

two very different answers.

But this will change over the
course of the next few years.

Soon as a community, we'll develop
deeper insights about what society

building looks and feels like.

Our understanding.

Will harmonize.

It's like the construct
of progressive revelation.

Now, for those of you new to the Faith,
progressive revelation refers to the

Baha'I belief that all religions are
different chapters to the same book.

That different messages of God and
different Prophets all come from

the same God and not from competing
gods, and that they come to different

people and different times responding
to the capacities of their times.

It's an amazing construct, which has a
whole system of meaning behind it, and

it's a distinctively Baha'i worldview.

I mean, if you explain this concept
to someone on the street who's

well-read, they'd turn around and say,
ah, that sounds like Baha'i philosophy.

Now I'm using the construct of
progressive revelation here for a reason.

Because if you ask Baha'is anywhere
in the world what that means, you'll

get a remarkably similar answer.

"And I mean, anywhere."

Go to the highlands of Papua New Guinea and
ask a Bahai tribesman there about

what progressive revelation means, and
you're gonna get largely the same answer.

So in the same way, although we don't
yet have a shared understanding around

"he society building construct today,
there will soon be a day where Baha'is

worldwide will share an understanding
of society building in the same way that

today we share that understanding of
the progressive revelation construct.

And just like progressive revelation,
this new society building construct

will be distinctively Baha'i.

Our understanding of that construct will
largely be shaped by the world around us.

It will be clouded by existing approaches
to society building, which though noble

have fallen short in one way or another.

Our journey will transcend that.

We will be discovering entirely
new approaches to society, building

approaches grounded in the principles
of our Faith approaches, which are both

unifying and positive in their focus.

So discovering how to apply the Baha'i
teachings to society building will be

at once refreshing, stimulating, and
uplifting. Collectively, Baha'is worldwide

will rise to new levels of understanding
and society will increasingly demand

this kind of society building.

From us,

and this is a really important point.

It's not just that as Baha'is we'll
come to better discover what our

approach to society building is.

It's also that the world around
us will also be discovering it.

And as they do, they'll work with
us and increasingly demand it of us.

Now, I've been here before.

I've tasted this before in my life, so
I know what it feels like to have wider

society demand, the Bahai approach.

It was a truly enlightening moment for
me where I got a glimpse of the future.

And so I'd like to share my story with you
so you can understand what I mean when I

say that society will demand this of us.

So here's my story.

Back when I was in college at the
University of Texas, this is many

moons ago, in the late 1980s, we
had an amazing Bahai College Club.

We got together just about every day.

We were all the closest of friends.

We had a great time working to
apply the Baha'i teachings in

some way to life on our campus.

Before each semester started, we'd
have a planning retreat to make our

plans for the upcoming semester.

So it was way back in 1989 and at
our planning retreat, having studied

the Baha'I Writings, we came to the
conclusion that the focus for that

"semester should be on race unity,"
America's most challenging issue.

And to kick things off, we thought it'd
be good to host a conference on campus

around this theme of racial unity.

We spent weeks reaching out to every
organization in town who had anything

to do with race Unity, the NAACP,
the Urban League, black pastors.

I mean, we worked hard to reach
out and invite them to speak at our

conference and join in our conversation.

And we invited Nat Rutstein, a Baha'i,
who had just written the book 'To Be One'

to give the conference keynote address.

Now Nat's book, 'To Be One' is amazing
because he explores how when we

talk about prejudice, we're almost
always pointing the finger at someone

else when what we should be doing
is working to cleanse ourselves.

We all have prejudices.

Even as Baha'is, it's not what we want.

It's not what we aspire to.

But in the book, Nat deals with his
own demons demonstrating how prejudice

is a social pollutant that infects
us all, whether we like it or not.

The book is amazing because it
gets you reflecting on your own

prejudices, and this is a much
tougher journey than simply blaming

others for all the world's problems.

Anyway.

So with Nat and a whole bunch of community
leaders confirmed as speakers, we went

ahead and scheduled our conference to
occur within the first few weeks of

the semester, and we went out there
to promote it, you know, putting up

posters all over campus, uh, doing
everything we could to get people to come.

Now we were a group of
about 30 Baha'i students.

Honestly, we would've done well if we had
doubled our size, if we could get like

50 or 60 people to come to this event.

But we dreamed big and we booked
the largest auditorium on campus,

you know, hoping for the best.

Now, only days before our conference
something happened that none of

us could have anticipated, and
that was the Virginia Beach riots.

This was an event where police and
the National Guard ended up engaging

in a major conflict with thousands of
African-American students who had come to

Virginia Beach for Greek week festivities.

And it resulted in chaos,
Black students being beaten,

you know, scores of injuries,
businesses being torn down.

I mean, it was the George
Floyd protests of our day.

So the Virginia Beach riots
dominated the airwaves.

Everyone was talking about it.

Everyone was grappling with this disease
of racism, and in the midst of this

climate, Our conference was suddenly the
prime outlet for people to come together

to figure out what to do about it all.

I mean, the timing was just surreal.

We had every major community leader
in our town at this conference.

It was incredible.

So our little college club of
30 was suddenly host to the main

forum where everybody could come
together to grapple with this.

And we were packed to capacity.

We had over 500 people
attend the conference.

I mean, it was truly an amazing event.

And Nat's keynote address
was absolutely incredible.

And during his address, Nat floated an
idea as he was explaining how we needed

to grapple with our own prejudices.

Nat suggested that perhaps the local
Baha'i College Club here at the University

of Texas could host something like
Racism Anonymous, a group to help

people heal their own prejudices.

Now, it's kind of an odd term.

I mean, you immediately imagine.

You know, people turning up with
KKK Hoods, wanting to reform their

evil ways, it's, it's kind of almost
a scary image, but it was something

that got people's attention.

Well, the next day we were inundated with
calls from people who wanted to join.

So we called up Nat and we
said, Nat, all these people

want to join Racism Anonymous.

So tell us what it is.

Tell tell us how it works.

And much to our surprise, Nat said, 'I
don't know, it was just something I said.

It sounded kind of neat.'

And so here we were launching
Racism Anonymous with a, a score of

people who were eager to join with
absolutely no clue what we were doing.

Now we initially patterned the
group on Alcoholics Anonymous.

It wasn't, uh, easy for
us to learn about that.

None of us had any experience with AA.

It's not like in those days
you could go on Google or you could

go on YouTube to learn about it.

We had to actually go check out
books in the library, try to read

about it. At our first meeting.

In fact, I remember we literally
went around the room and everybody

introduced themselves, you know: 'hi.

I'm Duane and I'm a racist.'

I mean, we had no clue what
we were doing, so it took a

while for us to get our rhythm.

We had a great Black Baha'i
in our community, Bruce Curry,

who was just absolutely the
most patient man on the planet.

He really helped us.

He helped us study the Baha'i
Writings, but he also helped us come

to terms with the larger discourse
on race, and that was, there was

a whole universe there for us to.

come to terms with, I mean, there was
a whole discourse out there that we

needed to learn about a whole vocabulary.

So we began engaging and we began
collaborating with Black student

organizations on campus, and little by
little we began to fill a critical gap.

What we discovered was what
was necessary to helping.

heal this disease was an interracial
dialogue, a safe space where people

could come together from different
races to learn from each other.

Without that exchange, you just
didn't have the same magic working.

It had to be that kind of dialogue, and
that's what was so unique and that was

what was so different about the way that
as Baha'is, we were engaging with the issue.

We were filling a unique
space in the race discourse.

So, for example, a Black student might
come and he would share his pain.

He'd say, 'you know, when I walk on
campus', and he'd look at someone and

say, 'I see you clutching your purse
tighter when I walk past you, like you

think I'm gonna snatch your purse or
something, and the fact that you clutch

your purse tighter, that really hurts me.'

Or a white student would say, you
know, 'I get hurt where everything

I do is assumed to have some kind
of like racist motive behind it.'

It was an amazing dialogue.

It was eye-opening, it was
self-reflective, it was unifying, it

was uplifting, and it was filling a gap.

There was nowhere else where you could
go for this kind of race discourse.

So every week.

Our little group got better and better.

We grew.

I mean, it was amazing.

All right, you get the picture.

Flash forward now towards the
end of the school year, some

seven, eight months later.

And , it was around April.

It was Greek week on campus, and
this is where fraternities have all

their parties, every party just a little
bit more outrageous than the other one.

Everybody's trying to outdo
each other with just how

outrageous their parties can be.

Now at this time, fraternities
were highly segregated.

I mean, you had Black fraternities,
you had white fraternities, and one

of these white fraternities decided
they'd be really cool if they got an

old car, put it in their their backyard,
and got everybody at the fraternity

jumping up and down, bashing this car.

But with a little bit of a twist, they
painted all over this car, all kinds of.

Frustrations.

And as it happened, almost everything
that was rented on this car were racial

epitaphs against African Americans.

So it was a horrific scene.

All these white hooligans jumping with
these racial epitaphs all over this car.

It was terrible.

And as it happened, somebody took
a photo and that photo was the

cover photo of the Austin American
Statesman the very next day.

Now you can imagine how shocking
this was, and everybody was outraged.

African Americans, other students.

I mean, everybody just thought this
was just the most outrageous thing.

It was horrible.

It was horrific.

And so there was a march that was
organized against this fraternity.

And these protestors came and, you
know, marched up on the fraternity

and instead of being kind of like
apologetic, instead the fraternity

members held up these anti-Black signs.

And so the situation
was rapidly escalating.

Student athletes ended up forming
a wall, separating the protestors

from the fraternity until the police
could come and break things up.

I mean, it was, it was a terrible scene.

So the next day the university president
announced that he'd be coming out and

giving an address about, about this
incident, and everybody was expecting that

the president was gonna come and announce
some serious kind of like repercussions

for this fraternity and their behavior,
you know, the suspension of their.

Student organization status, maybe the
suspension of some of the ring leaders.

I mean something.

But as it happened, the president
walked out, he walked up to the podium

on the West Mall, which was this main
gathering space for speeches like this,

and he walked up to the podium and he
gave a speech about how in America,

We have to respect freedom of speech.

Well, this was not what the
audience wanted to hear.

So the crowd rushed the stage and
campus security literally had to

pick the president up, throw him
over their shoulder and run into the

administrative building and lock up
all the doors, to protect him.

I mean, that was the kind of
tension that was building.

I mean, you can imagine some students
began going on hunger strikes.

It was tense.

And all of us were certain that at any
moment major violence was gonna break out.

I mean, the situation just felt
like it was getting out of control.

And as it happened, that was the
fear that was also shared by the FBI.

And so the FBI contacted the
university administration and they

said that they were worried about
how this was all playing out, that

the situation was clearly getting out
of control, that violence was gonna

follow, that they needed to intervene
immediately to help prevent some

serious blood or potentially even
some deaths from kind of like ensuing.

And so they offered the university
to provide them with mediators to

help navigate through this, this
"terrible, terrible situation.

Now, the university didn't
like this suggestion.

They feared that

yhe further step of bringing the FBI in
would make the situation look even worse.

That, you know, the situation was so
bad that the FBI had to intervene.

So you know, they didn't
want that publicity.

So they turned to the FBI
and they said, 'you know what?

We appreciate your offer, but actually
we have a group on campus called Racism

Anonymous, and that group can help us.

So there's no need for your intervention.'

Next thing you know, we were approached
by the university and they said, we

just told the FBI that we didn't think
they could help us, but we know you can.

So we need your help to navigate
through this critical situation.

Now, I want you to soak in this moment,
I want you to imagine just for a second

what it felt like to be in our shoes.

I mean, we're looking at what was.

The biggest crisis that we
had ever seen on our campus.

I mean, it was just a scary scene.

And we're in the middle of this, and
all of a sudden the university is

turning to us demanding that we help
them to apply our unique approach to,

you know, what was one of the biggest
problems they've faced in decades.

I mean, wow, what a moment.

And that gives you just a glimpse.

Of what I'm talking about here, the
sudden moment when society turns to you,

expecting you to help them because they
see no other viable path going forward.

So it's not just that Baha'is will have
a harmonized view of what society

building means and looks like, but
it's also that society will look at

a very particular kind of approach
to society building and recognize it

as uniquely Baha'i, and it will be an
approach which they will be increasingly

hungry for yearning for like this
is something they will feel they

need, and increasingly society will
turn to us demanding our service.

Now I know you're dying to hear what
happened next in my University of

Texas story, and I'll tell you that
part of the story in a future episode.

But spoiler alert, we fell
short largely because we weren't

prepared for our destiny.

Now, we would've benefit from

this kind of conversation if we had
collectively been preparing for it

way back then, and that's part of
what I hope we can achieve in our

series, is to be better prepared
for these exciting destinies.

So that's why I say in this podcast,
we will together discover what society

building really means and what it
looks like from a Baha'i perspective.

It's a journey of discovery.

I'm not imparting knowledge here.

I don't have the answers.

All I have is an invitation, an invitation
for you to join with me as we together

discover what society building is
all about, and in the next episode

I'll explain how this process
of articulating a vision becomes

a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's truly exhilarating to see in motion,
so make sure you check out that episode,

which I'm calling a history of tomorrow.

So in closing today, I return to the big
picture, to the vision, to that guidance,

the release of the society, building power
of the Faith in ever greater measures.

That's the journey we're now
embarking on, and I hope you'll

join me in this adventure so that
together we discover what society

building is and what it looks like.

So make sure to follow this podcast
so you don't miss any episodes.

Tell your friends about it and go to our
website@societybuilders.com to tell us

what you'd like to see in future episodes.

So thank you for joining the
conversation about social transformation.

We'll see you again next
time on Society Builders.

Society builders paves the way to
a better world, to a better day.

A united approach to building a new society.

There's a crisis facing in humanity.

People suffer from a lack of unity.

It's time for a better
path to a new society.

Join the conversation, for social
Transformation. Society builders.

Join the conversation, for social
Transformation. Society builders.

So engage with your local communities
and explore all the exciting

possibilities we can elevate
the atmosphere in which we move.

The paradigm shifting.

It's so very re uplifting.

It's a new beat, a new song
a brand new groove - join the conversation,

for social transformation - Society Builders

Join the conversation

for social transformation - Society Builders

The Baha'i Faith has a lot to say,
helping people discover a better way

with discourse and social action

framed by Unity. Now the
time has come to lift

our game and apply the teachings of the
Greatest Name and rise to meet the glory

Join the conversation, for social
transformation. Society builders