Schaefer, Dr. Udo
Presentations by Schaefer, Dr. Udo
Each of the four panelists gives a brief presentation about what this conference has meant to him or her. Some address specific questions they have been working on in their own professions. For example, Dr. Macy is preoccupied with “change” in the process of “transformation”. Dr. Lazlo marvels that Bahá’u’lláh accurately addressed many of these issues covered in this conference more than 100 years earlier.
Questions from the audience to panel members occupies the time of this discussion. A summary sample: 'If the Baha'is Faith says were are in the springtime of peace, what is the evidence?'
On the role of children. The Master said children should deliver eloquent speeches of high quality, which was reinforced by the Guardian's statements on this point. What is being done about this?
Dr. Udo Schaefer explains that the breakdown of the old world order and the instigation of a new one carries with it the concomitant responsibility to revise existing penal laws. He reviews the various theories of crime and punishment from antiquity. He also covers Catholic and Protestant approaches to this subject.
Dr. Schaefer closes with the “implications of Baha’u’llah’s revelation” as it impacts penal law. Baha’is must view the penal conditions of the Kitab-i-Aqdas in the context of future society.