Monday, September 05, 2005

Baha'is of Plano, Texas helping Katrina Victims

Folks are asking about what the Baha'is are doing for the Katrina victims, and a friedn brought this to my attention. Besides the article above, there is also more information here -- Plano, is, apparently, one of the many places in Texas which has been taking in refugees.

A certain amount of cynicism has set in about Baha'is tending to be inwardly-focused and not doing very much charity. It has always been my contention that there is a tremendous charitable impulse among Baha'is, who really *do* care about humanity -- it's just that the impulse gets stifled by a feeling that Baha'is are working for the long term and shouldn't put a lot of energy for the short term. Another factor is that many Baha'i communities are small, and badly organized -- it's tough to get a charitable effort together when you can't even meet regularly.

However, I would like to commend the Baha'is of Plano for their efforts, and hope that every local Baha'i community that has the capacity to do so follow their example.

2 comments:

Aaron said...

Hi Karen,

I'm confused, where does it say anything about Baha’is being involved in the care for the refugees? The press release only says Faith-based community.

Does Plano have a very large Baha’i population?

I'm not disputing that they are very likely helping, because I truly hope every person of every faith is doing what they can to help those people, but I'm curious as the where exactly the Baha’i connection is.

Thanks for your time!

Karen said...

Dear Aaron,

You have to click on the title of this blog entry to get the Baha'i-specific article.
Or click this link.