A Hollywood Baha'i

I was doing more research on the Baha'i faith, I was actually trying to find some information on the Baha'i teachings and children's classes when I stumbled upon a very surprising and exciting interview. Tons of people love the show "The Office" myself included, and I think one of the characters that makes the show so funny is Dwight Shrute, played by Rainn Wilson. But did you know he was also a Baha'i? I had no idea and it was really interesting to here someone so notorious talk about the faith so openly and articultly. I think a large part of it was I know a lot of people don't know a lot about the faith, so to have someone with such notority be associated with the faith was almost a surprise in a way.
Wilson talked about how he was brought up Baha'i and how he left the faith in his 20's because he wasn't sure he believed in God. However he returned to the faith almost 10 years later when he decided he did in fact believe there was a God. He said, "I couldn't conceive of a universe without someone overseeing it in a compassionate way." I think his most interesting answer however was the answer to the interviewr's question, "Rainn, what was it like to grow up in the Baha'i Faith?" His reply was very honest and intriguing. "When you grow up with a spiritual foundation that asks you to be conscious of the fact that all races are created equal, that men and women are equal and that all religions worship the same (God,) it helps you see the world as one family and not get lost in the traps of political, social and economic belief systems that can lead you astray. I always think of myself as a world citizen. It's a powerful thing."
I think the most intersting thing about this response was it wasn't a really about faith as much as it was about the unity and love for all mankind. Even though this is what the Baha'i faith strives to develope, I think it is a really important thing for anyone to strive for, no matter what your religion is. I think what I'm trying to get at is it doesn't always have to be about what faith you associate yourself with, it's about how you see yourself in the world and how you work to change the injustices and bring a unified peace to society.
Wilson says, "So much about religion has to do with rigid, sacrosanct preciousness. I don't live my life that way" he believes that God wants him to lead a full and rich happy life in service to God and the human family. This ties too one of my previous blogs where I talked about how people choose their faith and to what extent they practice according to what is best for an individual. Wilson didn't neccesarily choose a strong fundamentalist approach to the way he practiced because that wasn't how he believed. Many people believe differently, even if a person doesn't believe in God the point is they still believe and they still make their own investigation and that, as I have learned, is a what the Baha'i faith is so much about.
You can access the Interview with Rainn Wilson here: (http://www.bahai.us/rainn-wilson)

Citation:
Baha'i faith. Rainn Wilson: Hollywood’s funny guy talks straight about being a Baha'i. Electronic Document, http://www.bahai.us/rainn-wilson, accessed 20 April 2008

Another Side

Throughout my research, I kept stumbling upon the same website time and time again and as I was looking for different views on the Baha’i faith, the same website appeared again. The website was entitled “The Baha’i Faith: An Ex-Baha’i Christian View.” it was written by Rev. Eric Stetson who was a Baha’i from 1998 till 2002 and is the founder of Ex-Baha'i Discussion & Support and The Christian Universalist Association. He talked about his purpose of creating the website; he said he wanted to show why he left the faith and he said “question the claims of the Baha'i religion and think critically about it for themselves.” He also wanted people to look at the differences between the Baha’i faith and the Christian faith, and he hoped that people would see the Christian faith as a more sure path to God. He asks this question at the opening of his website, “Should you accept Baha'u'llah and the Baha'i Faith or Jesus Christ and Christianity? Can you accept both?” and says,
"I hope that through my story, other Baha'is perhaps may decide to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and put aside the contrary religion of Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, Baha'u'lla"
I read through his article and I tried not to have a bias opinion about something he said even though I relate to the Baha’i faith as my own since that is what I grew up with and from what I have read have become further intrigued. But I wanted to try and read the website as a person who knew nothing about either the Christian or Baha’i faith and/or had no connection or hard set belief in either. However as I read through there was one common theme throughout. He said he became a Baha’i in his freshman year of college because he was attracted to the faith because of it’s ideals of unity and how he was welcomed in by other Baha’is on campus. He said all around him he saw drugs and alcohol being used and he couldn’t find a social outlet that he felt like he fit into, but then he found the Baha’i faith. He goes into an overview about the Baha’i faith, relatively unscathing and then he talks about what he found to be wrong about the Baha’i faith. He says,
“As I got more deeply involved in the Baha'i community, my illusions about the Baha'i Faith as an open-minded and tolerant organization were shattered. What I found instead was an authoritarian, narrow-minded group hiding behind the rhetoric of universalism. And sadly, for a few years I myself was a Baha'i fundamentalist, an ideological fanatic trying to convert everyone to my Baha'i religious opinions in order to save the world.”

The interesting thing was this is what he kept saying over and over about the faith that was wrong with it. However as I read it I thought well I think every faith has a fundamentalist side and a more moderate side and then everything in between. He talks about the Christian faith being a more perfect path to God and I do not say the Christian faith is better or worse then the Baha’i faith it just is different. Just as both the Christian and the Baha’i faith are different from the Jewish or Catholic or Buddhist or any faith. The Christian faith has a fundamentalist side too and I think you have to choose in faith what is right for you and what you believe. A lot of faiths say don’t drink or have sex before you are married or think homosexuality is right and a lot of people practice one part of the faith but choose to part take in something that might not be considered appropriate or is against the rules. I think it isn’t about the rules, faith is about the connection to God and your own personal connection to God. There are certain things in the Baha’i faith I don’t necessarily agree with but I don’t feel like I am nay less connected to God because I don’t agree to everything in the faith.
I think that Stetson maybe only got one side of the Baha’i religion and what is about. I grew up with a totally polar opposite view of the faith and I also saw lots of in betweens. But I think the point is his article goes to show that just because there is one side to something; it doesn’t mean there isn’t another side as well and as individuals we have the right to decide for ourselves what is best and the right to investigation of the differences. No faith is right or wrong if you feel connected and fulfilled and you don’t bring harm to others but instead you give respect.

Citation:
Stetson, Eric. The Baha'i Faith: An Ex-Baha'i Christian View.
Electronic Document, accessed 20 April 2008.

Images:
http://www.lcmb.org/images/prayer.jpg

Super Baha'i Girl

I watched this video on YouTube at: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVoIEkM0DF0&feature=related) called “Super Baha’i Girl”, which was a movie geared towards children to educate them about the Baha’i faith if they are interested to learn. The movie had a very interesting premise; it was acted by teenagers and although an amateur film, encompassed the central point and goal of the Baha’i faith. Super Baha’i girl was a superhero who was holding a discussion session with various other religious super heroes, Super Christian Man, Super Hindu Man, Super Buddhist Woman, Super Jewish Girl, and Super Islam man. They were all there to discuss what the Baha’i faith is and how it works and to all discuss their own religions. I was confused at first at who the girl who was playing the “evil” part was but I realized later she was supposed to represent the peer pressure surrounding children in life and specifically in their choices of religion. The evil peer pressure villain made all the religious super heroes believe they couldn’t get along or have a civil discussion about their religions because they had different faiths. All the super heroes went to fight crime when they would fight with each other because they believed their super hero power could save the day better. Their fighting was increased by the attack of peer pressure villains. In the end Baha’i girl speaks words of the Baha’i faith and makes all of the super heroes including the villain believe that they can all cooperate and learn something from each other. The message was really interesting and I think was done in a way that children who were trying to understand the message and goal of the Baha’i faith would be able to understand.
The idea behind the movie was sometimes our faith is a way to separate people. People practice different faiths and those different faiths often have different ways of praying, different ceremonies, different rules etc. and sometimes that can feel like it might put distance between people. The idea of the movie was about peer pressure and sometimes how on children and adults alike, there can feel like there is peer pressure to remain strictly within the boundaries of your own religion and a feeling that no one will understand the practices of your own faith and that makes you all too different. However, as I have learned more and more the Baha’i faith stresses the unity of all religions and that more is accomplished as unified religions then it is as divided. Also the movie showed how by the unity of faiths, people can overcome the pressure to be divided. I thought the movie had a strong message about what the faith is about and though it was geared towards children, I think anyone trying to get a better understanding of the Baha’i faith, children and adults alike, will get something from the unified theme within this film.

Citation:
Super Baha’i girl. 8min 51sec. Youtube. accessed 20 April 2008.

Image:
http://www.bahainine.com/yt/yVoIEkM0DF0.jpg

The Voice of One will Speak for Many

One particular story about the Baha’i faith still sticks out in my mind today and I think really encompasses a great deal about what the Baha’i faith is really about. The story of Táhirih still remains with me today and every time I hear her story I am so moved and empowered by what she did. Táhirih was a Persian woman who traveled through Persia attempting to encourage women to rid themselves of the oppression they lived under and teaching the cause of the Bab to all she could. Each town she traveled to she was therefore banned from and stoned repeatedly.
Her cause ran so deep and she was so impassioned by it that she proceeded to do something so daring and ultimately fatal. At the 1848 Babi conference, which was the meeting of the most widely notable religious scholars, Táhirih removed her veil exposing her naked face to all the men in a symbol of women’s freedom and equality, something no woman ever did in the presence of a man. Because of her brave actions.
Táhirih was ordered to be put to death the same summer that the Woman’s right movement took place in Seneca falls in New York. She was executed August 1852 when she was taken to a garden wearing a beautiful white wedding-like dress. The men ordered to commit the act could not do so they had a slave in a half drunken stupor strangle her to death. It was there it is said that she spoke these famous words, “You can kill me, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”
Táhirih became known as one of the most scholarly woman of her time and even men and woman who did not agree with her message believed they had not yet seen such a woman like her and her eloquence and power of her speech left most astonished.
I am so empowered when I hear what she did not only for her faith but really for woman every where in the world. The interesting thing is she is revered as a heroine within the Baha’i faith. I found an interesting quote on http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-7-2.html in Early Baha’i heriones it read:

“The Bahá'í writings offer a potent vision of the qualities for which women must strive and the changes they can effect in the world; and the history of the Bahá'í Faith offers many examples of outstanding women who serve as models or paradigms of this "new womanhood."

I am learning more and more as I study the faith that the Baha’i religion truly believes in a new age of religion. A time when humanity will be one race and there will be equality or all and Baha’i’s of all ages, races, and genders have to play an active role in working towards this goal because the Baha’i is really the religion to bring about this age. It was so interesting to hear about how woman have to strive to achieve the qualities of Táhirih and become strong and active women in not only their religion but within fighting for equality of all. I think the other thing that just fascinates me completely is that she was so motivated by the Baha’i teachings that she could fight so ferociously for the needs of others and could risk her life knowing she was dying for her cause.
I was so incredibly moved by this story when I was younger and revisiting it now I just am so motivated and encouraged by her fearlessness and dedication. The passion she invoked in people and the passion that came from herself is really what I think symbolizes and embodies what the Baha’i faith is trying to encourage within the love and unity of humankind they know will one day occur.

Information found from:
2003 Tahirih Justice Center: Promoting Justice for Women and Girls Worldwide. About Tahirih. Electronic Document, http://www.tahirih.org/tahirih/about/tahirih.html, accessed March 26, 2008.

Lehman, Dale. 2001 Planet Baha’i. Electronic document, http://www.planetbahai.org/cgi-bin/articles.pl?article=92, accessed March 26, 2008

2008 Baha’i faith: a fitting role for a changing world. Electronic document, http://www.bahai.us/tahirih, accessed March 26, 2008.


Quote from:
2006 Baha’i topics: an information resource of the baha’i international community. Early Baha’i heroines. Electronic document, http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-7-2.html, accessed March 26, 2008.

Images from google image:
*http://farrid.20m.com/images/thrfa.jpg
*http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/graphics/vol4/tahirih.gif
*http://tahirih.org/app/img/pool/tahirihpainting.jpg

The Symbols

I know how important symbols are within all religions and within our culture as a whole and so I thought I might use this blog to learn a little bit more about the symbols of the Baha’i faith. I had always known about the nine-pointed star, which is one of the most important symbols in the Baha’i faith but I had never truly known all that was the meaning behind it. I even had necklace given to me for Ayyam-i-Ha, the Baha’i Christmas, but I never felt fully comfortable wearing it because I didn’t think I could really explain what it meant or even what it meant to me if asked. So I did some research and was greatly surprised that what I thought it represented was not quite so.

I found that the Nine-pointed star represents fulfillment and completion as nine is the highest single-digit number and also Bahá'u'lláh received His mission in the dungeon in Teheran nine years after the of the Báb, (meaning “The Gate”) who was the forerunner of the Baha’i faith, appeared in Shiraz. Though I had always believed that the Nine-pointed star represented the nine prophets of the Baha’i faith I was interested to find the difference.

The Ringstone symbol which was called this because it was worn on the rings of many believers was designed by `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son and appointed successor, and made by His friend and main calligrapher in Persia. The first level of the symbol is the world of God, the Creator, the second level is the world of His manifestations, and the third level is the world of man.

The vertical line through them joins the three bars in a representation of the way in which God’s Divine messengers link the world between Man and God.

The two five pointed stars on either side represent the Bab and Bahaullah.

The Greatest Name symbol ("Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá") can be translated to O ‘Glory of Glories’ or ‘O Glory of the All-Glorious’ glory meaning Baha’u’llah when translated.

Symbols within a culture, especially that of a religion, is a real way for people to connect themselves with their faith and with their beliefs. Before when I would see the nine-pointed star I knew it represented something, but I had no real connection I could make to it and I didn’t feel any real attachment. Now that I better understand what it stands for and how it works within the context of the faith, I can better understand the importance.


All the information on symbols came from www.bahai.com and was excerpted from The Bahá'ís, a publication of the Bahá'í International Community:
1997 Baha’i faith. Electronic Document, http://www.bahai.com/Bahaullah/symbol.htm, accessed March 18, 2008.

The Home and Space of Independent Investigation

One of the most interesting and intriguing facts about the Baha’i faith, is that they have no church affiliation and do not practice in a specific place like a church and no clergy. Though there are seven houses of worship, at least one on each continent, and these are the closest to a church, there are not a multitude of places such as churches to worship. I was given an interesting description of the faith when someone said, “it can be a lonely faith.” This is because there is no church to attend, you have to build a sort of community around you. This was something I struggled with to understand when I was younger, why didn't we attend church? And until I investigated further, I was still confused. When we would have Baha’i Sunday school classes or Baha’i functions we would still meet on Sunday, but we would meet at someone’s house who would be a host, and we would all gather together and say prayers. This made everything seem much more casual and laid back, as opposed to church when I was much younger when we had to get dressed up and sit in a pew and we would listen to a minister give a service. When my family decided to join the Baha’i faith I was in about 5th grade and until that point I had gone to church with my grandparents and attended very formal services. I was surprised to see that on the web I could find hardly any information about why there is no particular branch of Churches for the faith. Then I stumbled upon an interesting site www.bahai.com and under the principals of the bahai faith it talked about the independent investigation of truth and I found an interesting quote that read:

"God has given man the eye of investigation by which he may see and recognize truth. He has endowed man with ears that he may hear the message of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment for the investigation of reality. Man is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another's ears nor comprehend with another's brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the creative plan of God."
-Abdu’l-Baha

Basically the quote was talking about how each person must discover truth for themselves what their belief is and we all have the power and responsibility to investigate truth and so this is how the faith becomes more independent and I have better understood this now. I really appreciate this about the faith and the independent investigation is I think vital to a faith. I think it was interesting too how we talk about participant observation where you put yourself in the place of a culture and you understand why that culture works in the way that it does while putting aside your own belief system for the time. I think the idea of independent investigation within the Baha'i faith really correlates to the action of participant observation where anyone can observe and learn while being able to make decisions for themselves as to what they believe.

*The quote posted here was from www.bahai.com:
1997 Baha’i faith. The Principals of the Baha'i faith. Electronic Document, http://www.bahai.com/Bahaullah/principles.htm, accessed March 18, 2008.

The Fast

Over Spring break I made an actual sort of physical cultural encounter with the culture that I was studying. My family is Baha’i and my mother and sister were participating in the spiritual fast that occurs in the month of March. The fast is a process where people participating, don’t eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. Like many religions, the Baha’i faith believes in fasting as a way to cleanse the soul. The fast, which was designated by Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baha’i faith, proceeds over a nineteen day period from March 2nd to March 20^th and it directly proceeds the Baha’i new year and coincides with the Baha’i month of Ala (meaning loftiness). Because of the times it proceeds and coincides with, the fast is meant as a time of rejuvenation and preparation for the New Year.

Of all my years of considering myself a Baha’i, I had never participated in the fast, mainly because I did not fully understand the meaning behind it. However, seeing my sister and my mother maintain such self-discipline for their faith, I began to grasp a better understanding of what they were doing and what they were working to achieve. My mother would read a daily prayer from one of the prayer books before she had her meal. The prayer was not particular; it was something she chose that was personal to her. For instance a common prayer that my sister and I memorized and was often repeated in my house when I was younger was the healing prayer:

“Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.”

Bahá'u'lláh

This is a prayer said when you are wishing someone who is in physical or emotional pain will get better.

I actually felt selfish eating my food when they couldn’t and watching my mom give thanks, "cleansing" herself, and healing herself in a way by saying a prayer, which ever one she chose, made me feel like that was something I should and wanted to be a part of. Actually being aware of the process that my sister and mother went through, asking my mother about the process, and actually making participant observation about the fast, gave me a greater appreciation and fascination for the tradition. It helped to shape my own beliefs about how I think it is important to engage in other people’s traditions and give thanks. Even though it was my own house I felt a little like a stranger watching them say a prayer and not being a part of it and because it was so important to them it made me really want to be a part of it and I think that is why it would have been important to participate in the process.