> Personally I have no particular objection to door to door work if it
> is acceptable in the society in which we live but like you I think
> think such teaching is not effective and sometimes counter-
> productive.
Dear John,
To me it is not so much a matter of what whether I object to it, as
whether I want to do it. I don't. Like you, I don't find it a
particularly effective way of teaching the Faith. But hey, if a bunch
of kids want to come to my neighborhood and do this, more power to
them!
The point
> I was trying to make was that I don't think Book 2, used in a Western
> context, actually teaches any of the skills needed for home visits.
> My comments about the Internet and books related to this. The topics
> suggested in book 2 for home visits are the type of thing that any
> literate Westerner would already have read. The people being visited
> are declared Baha'is - in Australia they would have received probably
> a fairly formal welcome and introductory material from the LSA or
> similar body, be getting a magazine monthly, and really wouldn't need
> visits to explain that we have a fund etc.
If people have come into the Faith via direct teaching efforts, door
to door, for instance, they would *not* have this background. And just
because people can read doesn't mean they will.
Unfortunately the visit you described wouldn't be
> classified as a home visit in our stats. That is only home visited
> with some degree of regularity for the purpose of teaching or
> deepening. Also, your book 4 Ruhi would not have been counted or
> approved of unless all participants had already completed books 1 to
> 3. Sad really as I liked your story.
<sigh> This kind of rigidity just ruins things. I've done all the
books except Books 3&5 but I never would have gone past Book 1, if
they had made me take them in sequence.
>
> I'm no sociologist or anthropologist and Australia has regional and
> class variation but I think some things are basic.
> One you can knock on strangers doors without notice but it is not rude
> if they tell you to go away as they don't have time or desire to talk
> to you.
> You really can't knock on acquaintance's and casual friends doors
> without notice or some sort of invitation.
I've never heard of home visits being unannounced unless we are
talking about areas where people might not have phones, etc.
> Once in the house it is the host(s) who informally determine the
> social tone and topics of conversation. You can't lay a deepening on
> someone unless they ask for it.
I think that is the only area where Ruhi-style home visits my differ.
But as with the example I gave, this isn't the way I conduct them
anyhow.
warmest, Susan
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