Religion Final Project: Baha'i

During the progression of this course in the religions of the world, I have learned a lot more than I thought I would. I thought that this course would be more about the spirituality of religion and not so much the history or teachings of the specific religions. Fortunately, I was very wrong and I prefer that I was wrong. I went into this course with blinders on; I myself am undecided about my own spirituality and I did not want to be swayed by persuasive writing; I wanted to make a decision based on facts and truths and concepts rather than interpretations and threats or bribes. The easiest way for me to do this was to compare the unknown with the known – for me the known was Christianity. I was raised a Roman Catholic and drug to church weekly and accepted this as a way of life. I knew there was God rather than believed there was God. Once out of my parent’s domain, my spirituality evaporated; there were simply too many unanswered questions out there to pursue Catholicism. So I know Catholicism fairly well, I need to compare an unknown religion that perked my interest. This unknown faith is Baha'i.
The Baha'i faith itself is very easy to wrap one’s head around. It can be summarized in a short excerpt from the Baha'i official website (http://www.bahai.org/):
“Throughout history, God has revealed Himself to humanity through a series of divine Messengers, whose teachings guide and educate us and provide the basis for the advancement of human society. These Messengers have included Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad. Their religions come from the same Source and are in essence successive chapters of one religion from God. Bahá’u’lláh, the latest of these Messengers, brought new spiritual and social teachings for our time. His essential message is of unity. He taught the oneness of God, the oneness of the human family, and the oneness of religion. Bahá'u'lláh said, “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens,” and that, as foretold in all the sacred scriptures of the past, now is the time for humanity to live in unity. Founded more than a century and a half ago, the Bahá'í Faith has spread around the globe. Members of the Bahá'í Faith live in more than 100,000 localities and come from nearly every nation, ethnic group, culture, profession, and social or economic background. Bahá'ís believe the crucial need facing humanity is to find a unifying vision of the nature and purpose of life and of the future of society. Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh.”
I really enjoyed this “Mission Statement” of the faith. The religion really can be summarized in a single word – “Unification.” Something that turned me away at first was the potential of the lack of traditions due to the religion being an “infant” compared to the other mainstream monotheistic religions; perhaps it is my Roman Catholic upbringing but tradition in worship is very important to me. But as I thought more, how can you have more tradition than a religion that combines and unifies all of the other monotheistic religions? One can read all of the research in the world and that can do them well in their pursuit of spirituality; however human beings are social creatures and I felt that in order to more deeply understand Baha'ism, I needed to question and interview a Baha'i, preferably a converted Baha'i.
As it turns out, my direct supervisor at my job is a Baha'i; more so he was raised a devout Roman Catholic in a Catholic orphanage. While I was raised in nowhere near the conditions and situations of an orphan, I thought the basic concepts and key stages of life matched up the same. My manager, Wayne, mentioned something to me about his faith when I was first hired and never hearing of Baha'ism before it perked my interest. Listening with half an ear, I determined that he was more or less talking about Islam which I did not really want anything to do with. However, a year and a half later, I was taking this very course and flipping through the syllabus before the class, flipping through the hundreds of pages of reading material, when my eyes fell onto a heading called Baha'i. Remembering my boss’s faith, I read the brief two page summary and hungered for more knowledge on the topic. What better way to get this information than to ask Wayne, a former Catholic. Planning ahead and knowing what my final project for the course would be, I, Nick Taylor, decided I could knock out two birds with one stone; I could do an interview for my final project in the course and learn something that interested me at the same time. At the warehouse where I work, in my boss Wayne Shepard’s office on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, we began the interview. Please keep in mind that I was typing furiously in my laptop as I asked questions and he answered; the answers I have posted in this assignment are not word for word but as close as I can decipher.
Nick: “Wayne, if you had to describe Baha'i to someone who had never heard the word before, how would you do so in 30 seconds or less?” Wayne: “I think I could probably do better than 30 seconds – unification. Everything in Baha'ism is about unification – unifying major religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, world peace, male and female equality, elimination of extreme poverty and wealth, and the unification and harmony of science and religion.”
Nick: “Wayne, I am aware that you were raised Catholic. But perhaps you can tell me about your introduction in Baha'ism and how you converted from one religion to the other.” Wayne: “I never knew my mother or father as they gave me up for adoption. While I do have a brother and a sister, there were adopted by my “parents” as well. Until being adopted when I was 14, I was raised in a Catholic orphanage and things were different then. There was Jesus and God and what the Sisters told us they said was just how it is. There was no questioning why they said that or why it was that way and not this way; that’s just the way it was. I didn’t like the fact that nothing could be questioned – when I was adopted my foster parents did not push religion onto us and I quickly forgot about Catholicism. As a young man however, I had a lot of experiences that could only be described as there being Someone or Something out there. I had a friend in my band who was a Baha'i and I finally let him start talking about it to me. It all really made sense to me the more he talked. Bahá’ís want you to question things and come up with your own interpretations for things. Bahá’ís know that the times change and things that were taught thousands of years ago are maybe not so relevant now; this is really one of our core beliefs: the different Prophets and Messengers don’t contradict each other but complement each other. Each Prophet’s message over rules the Prophet’s message before his. So while Jesus’ message is true and shapes how we live, it was relevant to the time and Muhammad’s message is more accurate for today’s time.”
Nick: “What do you think the benefits of being Baha'i are? What are the negatives?” Wayne: “Well let me start off by saying that I don’t think that there are any negatives. When I was in the orphanage, I found myself saying, “Well I kind of agree with that statement but it’s not really how I feel.” Then I would just kind of go along with the flow. Being a Baha'i, there is nothing that I do not agree with. I like that there is no “wrong” religion and all of them are really the same religion just a different “dialect of the same language.” I like the fact that the religion is modern and combines science and religion; it’s not Creationism versus Evolutionism – the two exist in harmony. Being a Baha'i I really feel that a lot of the unanswered questions I had are now answered and explained.
Nick: “A lot of religions have a Book of Revelations or Armageddon or some prophecy about the End of Days. Does Baha'ism have one and if so what is it.” Wayne: “Baha'ism has an anti-End of Days prophecy; Baha'ism teaches of world peace. Wayne then showed me an excerpt from a book that he called “The Four Valleys”, one of the core Baha'ism texts. I have found the excerpt online to accurately post it (http://www.ufbahai.org/articles/new-cycle.html):
“This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed as a garden and a paradise. It is the hour of unity of the sons of men and of the drawing together of all races and all classes. You are loosed from ancient superstitions which have kept men ignorant, destroying the foundation of true humanity. The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.”

Nick: “Wayne, thank you very much for your time so far, you’ve been incredibly helpful. We only have five more questions to go. What are the key concepts of the Baha'ism?” Wayne: “Like I said earlier, you can over-simplify the key concepts of Baha'ism by saying that is all about unification. One concept is that all of mankind is unified. You and I are really brothers because we are both created out of God. Your wife is my sister and my wife is your sister. But that is pretty “standard” as Catholicism and other religions believe that as well. Another really big one is that men and women are equal which was something that was really key to me becoming Baha'i. In the Bible, there is obvious preference given to men. Now you can say that it was written originally with male preference or that throughout the years the Bible has been altered and male preference has been installed into the Bible. But if they made men better than women, what else has been tampered with the Bible? Bahá’ís teach that men and women are both equal in God’s eyes. Another one that I said earlier was the need to question your faith. Christianity asks you to blindly believe and do what God says to do. However, in Baha'ism you need to “see God in with your own eyes and not through the eyes of others.” Science and religion need to be in harmony as well. You can’t believe something spiritually and believe something factually that contradict – such as creationism and evolution because that is not synchronous. Religion and science need to complement each other. Another core belief is that there is only one God. This doesn’t mean that Baha'i’s only have one God; it means that all monotheistic religions share one God. The different religions are from God’s messengers being emphasized – Christianity has Jesus, Judaism has Abraham, and Islam has Muhammad. But there is only one God and all of these messengers “work together.” Bahá’ís also believe in world peace. In order for everything to be unified and everyone to be on the same page, there has to be everlasting world peace.”
Nick: “Why is this religion right and the other ones are wrong? Why is this religion the one to follow?” Wayne: “Baha'ism is not right or wrong just as Christianity is not right or wrong. Christianity is a religion that is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ who was the son of God. Baha'i’s believe that this is true. Baha'i’s just also believe that Muhammad was also a prophet of the same God, just as Abraham was. Baha'i just expounds and builds upon other religions combining them all. None of the religions are wrong or wasting their time.”
Nick: “According to my research, this religion originated in the Middle East. Is this confined just to the Middle East or is in the West as well?” Wayne: “-laughing- Well we aren’t in the Middle East and I’m Baha'i! I actually went to Israel to study and learn more about Baha'ism after I converted so that is obviously where the main concentration of Bahá’ís are. But yes the religion really is growing in the West. In my community I think we average a couple new people a month that join us for worship.”
Nick: “I just have one more question Wayne. What would you say to someone who was “spiritually challenged” and you could see needed some help?” Wayne: “I would tell them to come to a Baha'i meeting and give them literature about Baha'ism; that is how I got started on it and I never looked back.”
I thought that this interview was extremely helpful in learning about Baha'ism. It is always one thing to read about the religions online and in books and to compile your own conclusions but it is a whole other matter to talk to someone that is actually Baha'i and to “pick their brain” about the faith. However, I wanted to take Wayne up on his advice and attend a Baha'i meeting and learn as much as I could.
Unfortunately, attending the place of worship did not go as I would have hoped. Wayne is the treasurer of his local “chapter” of Bahá’ís. Baha'i is structured with a local committee, these members nominate and vote for a committee above them, so on and so forth until there is the final committee housed in Israel that is the governing body. Anyone that is currently a Baha'i can attend these committee meetings as anything that is happening in the Baha'i communities is everyone’s business. However, as I am not a Baha'i, I could not really see how these meetings were conducted. I could attend but they would not “talk shop” around. Instead, it was basically another interview, similar to what I had with Wayne but with the whole committee, that reaffirmed my interest in Baha'ism. The meeting was held at Wayne’s house and there were 6 other committee members present and the atmosphere was really inviting. Everyone was laughing and on very good terms with each other and really truly happy; they were more than happy to answer my questions and not act like they were doing me a religious favor but an educational favor and enlightening me. I really enjoyed that aspect of the meeting.
I keep finding how interesting it is that mainstream religions that claim to be so different from each other are so much alike. Baha'ism and Christianity are no different and the similarities, understandably since Bahá’ís acknowledge Christianity, are many. Christianity is based off of a single Prophet and Messenger, Jesus Christ. Baha'ism acknowledges and accepts Jesus Christ a messenger and prophet of God. The main beliefs between Christianity and Baha'ism are very comparable as well. Both religions have a very strong moral code such as peace, respect, and worship. The history of Christianity and Baha'ism is also very comparable; both religions were persecuted in their early years. Christians were persecuted by the Romans for many years before Rome itself adopted Christianity. Bahá'í are even now being persecuted, primarily in Iran. Wayne met his wife when he was in Israel, she had fled Iran because of the persecution and they met in Hafsa which is the seat of Baha'ism.
As there are comparisons between Baha'ism and Christianity, there are certainly differences as well. Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ was the Prophet and Messenger but Baha'ism argues that Jesus Christ was simply a Prophet and Messenger of God. While Jesus Christ is still incredibly influential and should not be overlooked, he was not the only Prophet. Baha'ism also seems make men and women equals as well while Christianity is still struggling with this. While the Vatican has said that women need to be recognized, it is hard to contradict 2,000 years of tradition. Finally, possibly the biggest difference between Christianity and Baha'ism is the obvious one; age. Christianity is over 2,000 years old while Baha'ism is a mere 150 years old.
The interview that I conducted with Wayne was possibly the most beneficial aspect of all of my research. As I have stated before, there is something that is much more convincing and charismatic about hearing someone say something than reading something that someone wrote. I feel that it is also more beneficial to hear someone else’s interpretation of a message and concept to hear another perspective.
Overall, attending the place of worship was very nice. It would have been great to see and participate in actual worship, but interacting with the committee was a pleasant surprise. Again I was surprised how friendly everyone there was; it reminds me of a trip to Thailand. When I was in Thailand where the population was predominately Buddhist, I thought that the people there were the nicest and kindest people I had ever met. This committee reminded me of that; perhaps it is because Baha'ism has also adopted Buddhist teachings and acknowledges the Buddha as one of the early Prophets of God.
It was nice to see the comparisons between Christianity and Baha'ism as well. Perhaps it is because Christianity is familiar to me and Baha'ism is not; by having Christian elements I am not going completely into foreign territory. However the contrast between the two is nice as well because there are obviously some things that I do not agree with about Christianity or I would be a practicing Christian.
I have really enjoyed learning about Baha'ism. It does seem to answer a lot of the questions and issues that I had with Christianity. The religion itself is new and therefore the concepts are modern and practical in today’s world. I also see the growth and popularity of Baha'ism growing rapidly in the near future; it might actually see me joining its ranks before too long.






REFERENCES
Baha'i Official Website. Retrieved May 23, 2008 from http://www.bahai.org/
Baha'i Association of the University of Florida. Retrieved May 23, 2008 from http://www.ufbahai.org/articles/new-cycle.html