First Parish Unitarian UniversalistOur Bahá’í Neighbors
A sermon preached by the Reverend Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
November 9, 2003
In a recent gathering of Unitarian Universalist colleagues, we were telling about our “spiritual journeys,” much as we do here at First Parish, from time to time and always in the Introduction to Unitarian Universalism class I teach at least twice a year. As an aside, let me mention to those newcomers who missed the class last month, I would be more than pleased to offer another opportunity in January. Please speak to me, leave me a message or drop me an email if you are interested.
Anyway, in the sharing of “spiritual journeys” with UU clergy, I learned that one of my middle-aged colleagues was raised in the Bahá’í Faith. I didn’t betray my surprise, fortunately, because now I know it was borne of ignorance. From my ill-informed impression of the Bahá’í Faith, which was that it is a relatively recent phenomenon in the New Age genre, I thought my colleague much too old to have been raised in it. I did register with myself a “mmm… that’s surprising…better look into it sometime.”
That time has come. I found my brief introductory study of the Baha’i Faith to be very fascinating. Of course, I find religion interesting, that’s why I’m a minister. But, more so, I found this religion fascinating because of the similarities and parallels between the Baha’i tradition and ours. Even more so were the distinctions between the two.
Let me see if I can give you a taste of the similarities and parallels. It will be just a taste and an over-simplification at that.
The Baha’i faith comes out of Shi’a Islam much as Unitarian Universalism comes out of Protestant Christianity. Each tradition seeks—with a little ambivalence—to set itself apart from the context of its roots, yet retains some of its patterns of worship and devotion and many of its basic principles. For example, the Bahá’í tradition includes obligatory prayer as in Islam, but the observer may choose between the Short, the Medium and the Long Obligatory Prayers. Similarly, the order of worship in many Unitarian Universalist services is similar in format and flow to services in the Protestant tradition, including the central place of the sermon.
Both faith traditions emphasize the oneness of God and the truth of all religions.
Social principles and right living are emphasized in each, and both faiths espouse equality, peace, justice, and the oneness of the whole human race, as you heard in the Reading this morning.
The community life in both the Baha’i Faith and Unitarian Universalism stresses “meaning more than form,” as I read on the Bahá’ís of the United States website, and the devotional gatherings (i.e. worship) vary from location to location. Somewhere in my reading I came upon the statement, “the development of rituals is discouraged.” That may be said by some of us.
In addition, the nineteenth century was significant in each. The founder-prophet of the Bahá’í Faith, Baha'u'llah, lived from 1817-1892. It was during that same time period that Unitarianism and Universalism each achieved their greatest definition and spread the word of their faith from New England to the West Coast.
Also, they have Study Circles; we have Covenant Groups. Both peoples like to eat. They have a feast every nineteen days; we have Coffee Hour once a week, and pot-luck suppers intermittently.
But, let me sketch some of the distinctions, too.
The Bahá’í Faith was promulgated around the world intentionally, a process that continues to this day. By contrast, though substantial numbers of Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists can be found today in India, Romania, Great Britain, and in lesser numbers in Mexico, the Philippines, some Southeast Asia countries and the European continent, the distribution of adherents is not the result of intentional evangelism.
There are no Bahá’í clergy, and very few Houses of Worship (only seven, world-wide). There are centers, such as the small Bahá’í Center on Albany Street in Boston, but most gatherings take place in homes or rented halls. With no clergy and no building, I suppose there is less of a need for as the offering or a canvass, a Finance Committee or a Buildings and Grounds work party!
Judging by the prayers and teachings published on the Bahá’ís of the United States website, they have retained the theism of the Islamic tradition much more so than Unitarian Universalism has retained Protestant theology. They also adhere to a dualistic view of human nature, which one may also find in orthodox Christianity, as expressed in this belief that is not, I daresay, shared by many of us,
Every good habit, every noble quality belongs to man’s spiritual nature, whereas all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of his material nature. If a man's Divine nature dominates his human nature, we have a saint ... But if, on the contrary, he rejects the things of God and allows his evil passions to conquer him, then he is no better than a mere animal.
Also, Bahá’í social values are more traditional than ours. Again, the official website declares, “The foundation and precondition for a Bahá’í family is the loving relationship of husband and wife.” Families headed by gay or lesbian couples are not mentioned. In the teachings, though, it is stated that Bahá'í law restricts permissible sexual intercourse to that between a man and the woman to whom he is married, and that homosexual relations are “immoral and against nature.”
Perhaps that is enough of a snapshot of the Bahá’í tradition as compared to ours. Let me tell you something about its history, polity, and present day circumstances.
Publications of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University describe “The Baha'i Faith [as] an independent world religion with several million adherents worldwide, representing almost all nationalities, ethnic groups, classes, professions, and religious backgrounds. The writings that guide the life of the Baha'i community include works by Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith whose birthday is celebrated this Wednesday, and interpretations by his son Abdu'l-Baha (1844-1921), and his great-grandson Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957). Baha'i literature can be read in over 800 languages today.”
But one scholar observes with frustration that most “current translations are made, not from original Arabic or Persian texts, but from the English translations of the Oxford-educated Shoghi Effendi” who wrote in “a somewhat archaic, exaggerated style,” and did not employ the techniques of historical or linguistic criticism. (Denis Maceoin writing on Bahá’ísm in John Hinnel’s Handbook of World Religions, p. 478).
To me, reading Bahá’í writings is like reading the King James Version of the Bible. Listen to this prayer,
I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
Central to the Baha'i Faith are the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of the human race. Baha'u'llah taught that divine revelation is a continuous and progressive process and that the missions of the messengers of God represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society. Baha'u'llah's mission, Bahá’ís believe, is the culmination of the work of Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, and other great religious teachers and messengers.
The Bahá’í Faith was founded in Iran in the 19th century when Baha'u'llah was declared to be the new messenger prophesied by Mirza Ali-Muhammad (1819-1850), also known as the Bab, or the "Gate." Such claims aroused the hostility of the Shiite clergy and Persian authorities. The Bab was executed, and Baha'u'llah, because he openly declared his mission as messenger of God, was exiled from Iran and imprisoned. In prison, he wrote more than 100 volumes on the dawning of a new age and the need for new spiritual principles. He died in 1892, having appointed his son Abdu'l-Baha his successor.
Until his death in 1921, Abdu'l-Baha directed the affairs of the Bahá’í community. He also wrote prolifically, making frequent references to passages in the Qu’ran. Let me share one prophet-like selection from his writings,
O ye dear friends! The world is at war and the human race is in travail and mortal combat. The dark night of hate hath taken over, and the light of good faith is blotted out. The peoples and kindreds of the earth have sharpened their claws, and are hurling themselves one against the other. It is the very foundation of the human race that is being destroyed. It is thousands of households that are vagrant and dispossessed, and every year seeth thousands upon thousands of human beings weltering in their life-blood on dusty battlefields. The tents of life and joy are down. The generals practice their generalship, boasting of the blood they shed, competing one with the next in inciting to violence. `With this sword,' saith one of them, `I beheaded a people!' And another: `I toppled a nation to the ground!' And yet another: `I brought a government down!' On such things do men pride themselves, in such do they glory! Love--righteousness--these are everywhere censured, while despised are harmony, and devotion to the truth.
In 1911, Abdu'l-Baha began promoting the Bahá’í faith in the West. In 1912, he visited the United States and stopped in Boston on his tour. He also began implementing the Bahá’í administrative order prescribed by his father and brought to completion by his own grandson, Shoghi Effendi, who was the last in the line of appointed Bahá’í successors.
By the time of his death in 1957, Shoghi Effendi had overseen the expansion of the Bahá’í community on all the continents, and laid the groundwork for a representative body that would make a successor to himself unnecessary and, hopefully, prevent factionalism. In 1963, that body, the Universal House of Justice was established by election.
Today it governs the affairs of the worldwide Baha'i community. Every year, the adult members of each local Bahá’í community select nine community members to serve on the Local Spiritual Assembly. Also on a yearly basis, delegates from the Local Spiritual Assemblies are elected to assemble at a National Convention to consult on matters affecting the Faith, and to elect a nine-member National Spiritual Assembly. Every five years, all of the members of all the National Spiritual Assemblies meet at an International Convention to elect the Universal House of Justice. It meets at the Bahá’í’ World Center in Haifa, Israel. All Bahá’í elections are by secret ballot in an atmosphere of prayer. Nominations, electioneering, and campaigning are not permitted.
Establishing a global framework for collective security and world peace is central to the Baha'i vision, as is the eradication of racial bigotry and religious intolerance, the achievement of full equality of the sexes, the establishment of universal education, and the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty.
A tangible expression of Bahá'í efforts toward those ends is found in the various social and economic activities of Bahá'í communities around the world. For the most part, these activities are very simple initiatives that take place at the grassroots level. According to the international Bahá’í’ website, there are 1700 such projects, most of them short-term, but 250 are sustained programs such as schools, in many different parts of the world. It is said that they are noteworthy not for their scope or scale, but rather for the new concepts and fresh approaches they utilize to unlock the moral and creative capabilities of individuals and communities, based on Bahá’í’ principles. They count as members those who meet in local assemblies in the vicinity of these projects, thus bringing people around the world to their faith.
The number of members of the Bahá’í faith worldwide may be in some doubt. A local assembly need only have nine members to be such. As one scholar (Maceoin in Hinnels, again, p. 493) observed, excess members are often encouraged to move to another locality and start an assembly there, so in reality many localities only have nine members who are all elected to their Local Assembly. Furthermore, standards of membership are low, but formal withdrawal is required. Because many who are disaffected just slip away informally, the membership numbers are thought by some to be inflated.
That said, official figures show that there are some five million Bahá’ís, representing 2,112 ethnic and tribal groups and living in over 116,000 localities in 188 independent countries and 45 dependent territories or overseas departments. More than 140,000 Bahá’í are said to live in the United States, just under the 156,000 figure listed as Certified Members of Unitarian Universalist congregations, for which congregations pay per capita dues.
The first Baha'i group in Boston was founded as early as 1899, thirteen years before the visit of Abdu'l-Baha. Today there are local Bahá’í communities gathering in such localities as Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Malden, Medford, Newton, Somerville, Waltham, and Watertown. There are Baha'i College Clubs at several local colleges and universities, including Northeastern, Harvard-Radcliffe, Boston University, Berklee School of Music, Tufts, M.I.T., Brandeis and Wellesley.
A small community-wide Baha'i Center was established at 595 Albany Street in Boston in the 1980s. It houses a social and economic development project - The Tahirih Peace Institute - which offers free English as a Second Language classes as well as job and family skills as a public service. The Boston Bahá’í community also hosts the Boston Baha'i Youth Workshop, a youth arts and service group which uses the performing and visual arts to address social issues such as racism, sexism and violence. On Friday evenings they hold devotional/arts gatherings, which foster artistic expression and conversation about current issues and Baha'i teachings, and are highlighted by the musical participation of the One Human Family Gospel Choir. The Center houses a bookstore and a lending library. Boston area Bahá’ís sponsor community dialogues to address individual and institutional racism and to work toward a vision of racial unity. On Wednesday evenings, the community hosts a lecture and discussion series at the Bahá’í Center, on a different topic every week.
Well, I hope by now you have feel you know more than you did an hour ago about our Bahá’í neighbors, local and otherwise. I hope you know now something about how their faith is both similar and distinct when compared to Unitarian Universalism. I hope you will remember that it arose out of Shi-ite Islam in nineteenth century Iran, by a prophet-founder who was succeeded by his son and, later, his great-grandson, after whom a modern representative democratic form of polity followed.
And, I hope that you now know, if you didn’t already, that the Bahá’í faith is not a New Age religion!
Sources
- A Handbook of Living Religions, Edited by John R. Hinnels
- Bahá’ís of the US website: www.us.bahai.org
- The Bahá’í World website: www.bahai.org
- World Religions in Boston website: www.pluralism.org/wrb/index.php
- 2003 InterFaith Calendar published by The National Conference for Community and Justice, Chicago, IL.
Benediction
In the words of Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."