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Keeping the Faith While Remaining Unjudging

Thursday November 26, 2009
A recent Baha'i blog post gives a great explanation on how one can be true to the tenets of one's faith without diminishing the choices made by others.
The Baha'i Faith holds that all sex outside of marriage is adultery, including homosexual sex. The faith also holds that marriage is a union between man and woman.
Yet this Baha'i has no issue with the government making gay marriages legal. Why? For one, he sees a difference between religious marriage and legal marriage. Legal marriages is something organized by the state and involves paperwork. If lawmakers want to include homosexuals in this shuffle of paperwork, so be it.
Second, he sees himself responsible only for his own behavior, not for everyone else's. He gives alcohol consumption as an example. He never drinks, yet has no objection to other people drinking. The rules of the Baha'i do not apply to non-Baha'i, and even if a Baha'i chooses to drink, that choice is personal.

Be fair in thy judgement and reflect upon these exalted utterances. Inquire, then, of those who lay claim to knowledge without a proof or testimony from God, and who remain heedless of these days wherein the Orb of knowledge and wisdom hath dawned above the horizon of Divinity, rendering unto each his due and assigning unto all their rank and measure, as to what they can say concerning these allusions. Verily, their meaning hath bewildered the minds of men, and that which they conceal of the consummate wisdom and latent knowledge of God even the most sanctified souls have been powerless to uncover
(Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 5)

Iran bans paper for running photo of Baha'i temple
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI (AP) – 13 hours ago
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities have banned the country's largest-circulation newspaper for publishing a photo of a Baha'i temple, state media reported Monday.
Iran's Shiite cleric-led regime views the Baha'i religion as heretical and has banned it since the 1979 revolution. The photo also gave Iran's leaders an opportunity to silence the Hamshahri daily, which mostly reports on social issues but which has been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad's June re-election has been challenged by opposition activists and others who say massive fraud deprived the hard-line president's main pro-reform challenger of victory. Since then, the government has crushed street demonstrations, closed critical media outlets and silenced reformists with a mass trial.
Hamshahri was ordered closed by the Press Supervisory Board, a government agency run by hard-liners, for printing an advertisement containing a photo of a Baha'i temple that encourages tourists to visit the shrine, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The newspaper's director, Ali Reza Mahak, said he has received no order to close and was preparing to publish Hamshahri's Tuesday edition. But Deputy Culture Minister Mohammad Ali Ramin later confirmed to Iran's state TV that Hamshahri has been ordered closed.
The IRNA report said legal authorities would investigate the newspaper, which is run by Tehran's municipality and supports the capital's mayor, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative who has long been a rival of Ahmadinejad.
Iran's hard-line judiciary has shut down more than 120 pro-reform newspapers and jailed dozens of editors and writers on vague charges of insulting authorities since 2000.
The closure order was also a message to Iran's estimated 300,000 Baha'is.
Authorities have launched periodic crackdowns against Baha'i followers, and state-run media often run articles denouncing the religion, which was founded in the 1860s by Baha'u'llah, a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by the Baha'is.
Islam considers Muhammad to be the last of the prophets.
Iran had been the cradle of the Baha'i faith in the middle of the 19th century. But it has not been recognized in the Iranian constitution as a religious minority since the 1979 revolution toppled the pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought hard-line clerics to power.
Seven Baha'i leaders have been in jail since May 2008 on charges of endangering national security for allegedly proselytizing. Leaders of the minority faith, however, say they are being persecuted by Iran's government for their religious beliefs.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.



In one of the Tablets these words have been revealed: O people of God! Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men. This can best be achieved through pure and holy deeds, through a virtuous life and a goodly behavior. Valiant acts will ensure the triumph of this Cause, and a saintly character will reinforce its power. Cleave unto righteousness, O people of Baha! This, verily, is the commandment which this wronged One hath given unto you, and the first choice of His unrestrained Will for every one of you.

Baha'u'llah
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 93

Banderan becomes gov of Kiwanis Texas-Oklahoma District
www.bccourier.com 2009-10-15
William M. Bishop, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Bandera County, was installed as governor of the Texas-Oklahoma District Kiwanis International on Thursday, Oct. 1. He will serve until 30 September 2010.

Bishop joined Kiwanis in 1990 in Derby, Kansas, where he lived while working for the Boeing Company. He and his wife Ann Gay moved to the Bandera area in 2002 where he joined the Kiwanis Club of Bandera County. He has served as president, secretary, treasurer and director of the club. In addition, he was a lieutenant governor of the Texas-Oklahoma District in 2004-2005.

After arriving in the area, the Bishops quickly became a part of the Bandera community. Bill Bishop served as co-chairman of Celebrate Bandera in 2005 and 2006 and as president of the Bandera Community Foundation in 2007. Ann Gay Bishop recently retired as executive director of the Silver Sage Corral Senior Activity Center. Both he and his wife remain active in the community. Bishop is a retired officer in the United States Air Force.

“Governor Bill” – as he is referred to in the Kiwanis world – noted, “We must all work together to make our community and our world a better place to live. There are several other community service organizations in Bandera and all work for the common good. I am committed to making sure Kiwanis does its share.”

As a Baha’i, he said his favorite Baha’i quotation is “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizen.”

Today nothing but the power of the Word of God which encompasses the realities of things can bring the thoughts, the minds, the hearts and the spirits under the shade of one Tree. He is the potent in all things, the vivifier of souls, the preserver and the controller of the world of mankind. Praise be to God, in this day the light of the Word of God has shone forth upon all regions, and from all sects, communities, nations, tribes, peoples, religions and denominations, souls have gathered under the shadow of the Word of Oneness and have in the most intimate fellowship united and harmonized!

Abdu'l-Baha
Divine Philosophy, p. 184

FAITH IN ACTION
By Katherine Marshall
Last Friday evening, in the quiet sanctuary of an old Catholic church in Brooklyn, a group gathered to talk about a community that works globally for peace and social justice, the Rome-based Community of Sant'Egidio. To understand this group, you have to explore the interwoven notions that they see as their special mark: prayer, friendship, and community.
Earlier that week, I had a conversation with Homa Sabet Tavangar about the challenges of giving today's children a sense that they belong to a common world community at the same time that they understand and savor diverse cultures. Her new book, "Growing up Global: Raising Children to be at Home in the World," is full of ideas for introducing children to the interconnected world they live in. Homa's vision and strength come in part from being part of the Baha'i community, whose members are scattered to the far corners of the world.
These two concepts of community -- Sant'Egidio and Baha'i -- are robust yet complex. In both instances, the sense of membership is strong but there's no signing on the dotted line. Both communities are grounded in faith but see themselves as profoundly part of the larger world, with responsibilities that call them to act on their beliefs, at both local and global levels.
The Community of Sant'Egidio has grown from a small group of high school students to something akin to a federation of locally grounded groups, in some 70 countries. Friendship is a word they use constantly. What they mean by it is a robust type of friendship that is deeply welcoming but not cloying. It encompasses humor, joy in life, and profound caring. Friendship is what draws the community to people who are lonely and excluded, down to living on the street or fleeing from war. They care, and show their caring by the time they spend and the true bond of knowing and appreciating each individual. The community is clearly religious - daily prayer is a central feature - and proudly Catholic. But they are grounded in the earth's problems and skilled in its very secular politics. One senior cleric said to me: "They are what we would like the Church to be."
The Baha'i community that Homa describes is a diverse group (with only about 5 million members worldwide) that, in whatever far flung corner, welcomes and supports those who are born into or adopt the faith. Baha'is have no clergy and no formal rituals, so much of this welcome takes place in homes. Once again, this personal quality of caring is something that conveys the sense of a community that transcends boundaries. The Baha'i belief in the oneness of mankind, in the common values among faiths, of true equality of men and women, lends the community a palpable sense of belonging and of mission, one that encompasses both the spiritual and the secular. The Baha'i are among the faith traditions who are most active in international settings, bringing always their belief that human rights are an integral part of their faith. At a time when understandings of what gender equality really means for daily life are rather convoluted in various faith traditions, the Baha'i conviction that equality means equality is striking.
Religious communities are extraordinarily diverse, of course, and the question of who belongs and what that suggests about those who do not is never easy to answer. Homa and I agreed that of all dimensions of diversity, differences in belief may be the hardest to address. What people believe is often deeply emotional, and deeply part of how they see their identity, on many dimensions. That challenge, however, makes it doubly important to reflect on how to balance belonging and exclusion, diverse community and common purpose. That's what gives the reflections about community by Sant'Egidio and the Baha'is a special significance.
Community is a common term these days but it's not always easy to pin down exactly what it really means. We are, most of us, part of several or many communities, bound by threads that are loose or strong. The language of community can be at the same time as familiar as the street sounds of Brooklyn and as elusive as the soft mutterings of a forgotten foreign language. Community is, in the first instance, the counter to the alienating anonymity that is so easy today, whether the individual is lost on a busy city street, lacking the identity papers that allow them to study or get a job, or dying in an isolated hut of HIV/AIDS or shamed by fistula.
Community is about friendship and caring. It is also about shared beliefs and sense of purpose. Community is one of the great gifts of religious traditions, offering welcome and comfort, and a sense of belonging. Within that framework, the robust, articulate, and welcoming ideas of community that come from two very different faith traditions and histories - the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Baha'i faith - offer a flash of welcome insight into what the social capital of religion can represent.
Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, a Visiting Professor, and a senior adviser for the World Bank.

Today the call of the Kingdom is the magnetic power which draweth to itself the world of mankind, for capacity in men is great. Divine teachings constitute the spirit of this age, nay rather the sun of this age. Every soul must endeavor that the veils that cover men’s eyes may be torn asunder and that instantly the sun may be seen and that heart and sight may be illumined thereby. Now, through the aid and bounty of God, this power of guidance and this merciful bestowal are found in thee. Arise, therefore, in the utmost Power that thou mayest bestow spirit upon moldering bones, give sight to the blind, balm and freshness to the depressed, and liveliness and grace to the dispirited. Every lamp will eventually be extinguished save the lamp of the Kingdom, which increaseth day by day in splendor.

Abdu’l-Bah
Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bah 310