Paid functions in the Faith

All research or scholarship questions
Nowis
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Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 4:43 pm

Paid functions in the Faith

Postby Nowis » Tue Mar 29, 2016 2:30 am

Do any Baha'is (e.g. universal house of justice members, NSA members) receive payment for their service ? if so do we know how much or what is the basis for payment ?
I am currently teaching someone who is innately suspicious of members of religious organisations who make money so it would be useful to be able to show that we are different.
I imagine those called to leave their country, home and career to serve on the UHJ in Haifa will be recompensed to an extent ??
I seem to recall from pilgrimage that those doing a year of service in the BWC are given accommodation but no salary.
Any guidance or knowledge would be useful
Thanks

brettz9
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Re: Paid functions in the Faith

Postby brettz9 » Tue Mar 29, 2016 4:59 pm

Hi Nowis,

IIRC, those who serve at the World Centre are offered a stipend but many do not even take or use it, though of course their basic needs are met.

As far as the National Spiritual Assembly in the U.S., my understanding is that the secretary and possibly now one or two other members whose duties are full-time, are compensated comparably to those in a similar organization or business.

Hopefully someone else can provide a more precise answer.

I think a few items may be helpful here:

1. There are no permanent paid teachers of the Baha'i Faith.
2. We do not solicit or even accept contributions from non-members (unless the contribution is for charity to member the public, and even then, I had heard that the institutions are not supposed to be publicizing this or doing this very actively).
3. Our representatives are elected regularly by the mass of its believers.

Best wishes,
Brett

Nowis
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 4:43 pm

Re: Paid functions in the Faith

Postby Nowis » Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:37 am

Thanks Brett - also do you know if it is true that the faith does not accept government grants / money that are given to other religious organisations ? (certainly lots of grant money is dished to organisations
out in the UK)

brettz9
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Re: Paid functions in the Faith

Postby brettz9 » Thu Mar 31, 2016 4:06 am

IIRC, the institutions may allow applying for grants for Social and Economic development purposes, but if so, I wouldn't think this is very common across the Baha'i world, especially since the scope of SED is to be somewhat limited until communities grow more in numbers, and the Faith is still relatively more distributed rather than large in numbers as a result of past pioneering efforts aimed at bringing at least some small center of the Faith nearby to all peoples of the world. But this could be better answered by your National Spiritual Assembly (or perhaps the Office of Social and Economic Development at the World Centre if they don't know).

MontanaDon
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: Paid functions in the Faith

Postby MontanaDon » Sun Apr 03, 2016 1:49 pm

Baha'i institutions are allowed to receive appropriate compensation for services rendered. For instance, they can rent space to non-Baha'i organizations in a building they own at market value.
At one time, the NSA of Guyana had a contract to provide educational services in the rural areas of that country because they already were running a program similar to FUNDAEC, a kind of SED Extension Service.
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Understood properly, all man's problems are essentially spiritual in nature.


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