Sunday, June 18, 2017

Why I am a Baha'i


            Why would a reasonably intelligent person become a  member of a strange-sounding and barely-known movement which most people who have heard of it are unsure whether its adherents believe in God or not?  Why can’t I just concern myself with the current needs and issues in the world instead of turning to religion, which has never done any good anyway, and is totally irrelevant in today’s world?  And if I have to turn to religion (read: superstition) at all, why isn’t Christianity (or Buddhism, if I need to get a little weird) good enough for me, especially since Bahá’ís believe all religions are valid anyway?  Good questions!  And I shall endeavour to answer them.

            Bahá’ís do in fact believe that religions are divinely-inspired, and regard them all as chapters in an ever-unfolding saga of one phenomenon, since if there is only one God, the religions established in His name must be referring to the same thing.  The vision of the Bahá’í Faith is that religious revelation is progressive, needing to be renewed from time to time to meet the needs of an ever-advancing civilization. 

            My hat is off to all those who reject organized religion as everything from fairy tales to oppression to war-mongering.  I agree absolutely.  I also absolutely agree with media figures such as Bill Maher and the late George Carlin who attack religion harshly as a source of evil in our time.  Religion should be a source of light and inspiration, comfort and joy, peace and security, enlightenment and truth, and if it is not, to the devil with it!

            Yet we are endowed with a perception of a reality beyond what we can perceive with our senses; as far as we know, the only creatures given the capacity to do so, and religion persists in spite of a lot of very intelligent people telling us it’s an arkload of superstition.

            I would love to get into my own spiritual journey, but another time.  Suffice it to say it was long and arduous, and continues in the present day.  But back to why Bahá’í?

            I have always leaned toward the mystical essence in my study of any religion or spiritual tradition, and found them remarkably similar in their basic principles.  And one of these resemblances is, that in one way or another, seekers have always been encouraged to separate themselves from the world and find God in contemplative solitude.   

            But Bahá’u’lláh said no!  In this day and age, we have work to do in this world to ensure the progress of our souls, and we must do this socially.  The idea is that we should not be looking for individual salvation; rather the salvation of us all.  The thousand-year mission of the Bahá’ís, (should we accept it) is to effect the organic unity of the entire human race.  This is where people laugh at the absurdity of this fanciful idea, and it is a daunting task, especially since Bahá’u’lláah goes on to say that we can’t even find two people who are united, never mind pushing seven billion. 

            And yet! (and here I am finally approaching the heart of the matter) as in the Lord’s Prayer (which Bahá’ís understand Jesus Christ directed not exactly at the Almighty but to Bahá’u’lláh – again for another time) it says “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – Bahá’u’lláh not only gives this job over to humanity (it just got a whole lot harder than expecting God to do it in answer to our prayers), but lo and behold! He gave us a blueprint of how to do it!  This is absolutely new in the history of religion – unprecedented and uncontemplated, and more astonishing than anything in the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes.  And ever since it was announced, Bahá’ís have been working with this blueprint under the guidance of the Institutions of the Faith (to keep up the synergy of us all being on the same page), and we are working like ants, quietly and persistently (CNN hasn’t given us any attention) in the year 174 of this 1,000 year Impossible Mission.

            Now the one thing that keeps us on this mad task, the pivot and cornerstone of it all, is the acceptance that Bahá’u’lláh is who He says He is, the latest in a series of Messengers with a revelation directly from God, a series with a new installment every thousand years or so.  It’s what keeps the engine purring.

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