A Better Medium

There is legitimate concern about the future of journalism. Economics and technology have swept away much of the knowledge we need to run a country. Blessedly there are many alternatives to the half-truths of commerce. Two that come immediately to mind are the New Yorker and your neighbor.

Conversations with real people often provide better and more useful information than our over-wrought media. Mr. Adam was at our door a couple days ago. He came to update our termite bond and left me a bit wiser.

Talking with him as he poked around our walls and foundation, I learned, among other things, that he had lived on Canada's Victoria Island. He looked back fondly on that time because "You don't have to worry about things. You can just ... live." He also said that his family has traveled the world. "Military?" I asked, knowing that, historically, people of color have often defaulted to the military when no one else is hiring at a living wage.

"Oh, no. We're Baha'i."

Baha'is care for needy people, not kill them, he wanted me to know. Peace, the Baha'i teach, is both essential and attainable -- a worthy goal.

And here's where my own serious learning began: The organizing principle of Baha'i is justice. Plain and simple.

Well, not so plain, more powerful than simple. They deem justice transformative. Their international "House of Justice" draws pilgrims from around the world to Haifa. Justice is also central in Baha'is' everyday lives. Result: women and men are equal ("like the two wings of a bird," Mr. Adam beamed). Decision making at all levels is done by elected bodies and no one individual is elevated above the others. That means no clergy. And a whole lot more -- or less.

We had no termites. He certainly was not proselytizing and I'm not a prospect anyway. So our visit didn't last long. But it was plenty. It opened a way to talk about the responsibilities of living in a democracy. Plus, Mr. Adam brightened my day. It's encouraging (note "courage") to know that at least one of the world's faith traditions puts justice* where it belongs: front and center.

Regular people (natural people, NOT artificial ones, i.e., corporations) are the bones and the marrow of self-government. I get this kind of nourishment a lot from "the least of these." No pretenses, just grounded wisdom. Every time, I realize how crucial it is to engage with others, especially with people who are not "like" me. But talking is not enough. Mostly, we do well to listen.

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*In a conversation about his book Democracy Matters, Cornel West said to us that the unique opportunity America has looking forward is to unite our traditions: "democratic dialog" from the Greek tradition, "tragi-comic hope" from the African-American tradition and "justice" coming from the Jewish tradition. Without justice, democracy is a fraud.

In The Genesis of Justice, Alan Dershowitz argues that the book of Genesis traces Yaweh's evolution from a vengeful, tribal deity into the arbiter of justice to which Cornel West refers.

 

Comments

[FGlaysher]

05:58 PM on 04/17/2011

"The organizing principle of Baha'i is justice. Plain and simple.... It's encouraging (note "courage") to know that at least one of the world's faith traditions puts justice* where it belongs: front and center."

Apparently the Baha'i you met was a member of the Wilmette, Illinois and Haifa, Israel denomination. He probably didn't even know that, what's called the "administration," de facto clergy, have been unjustly suing several other Bahai denominations in US Federal Courts since 2006, seeking to deprive them of *their* religious freedom and conscience. It's unlikely that he even knew it because the leaders of the Wilmette Baha'i denomination has been desperately attempting to keep all knowledge of their lawsuits off the Internet for years and hidden from the ordinary Baha'i believer.

Lawyer Jeffery Goldberg, of the Orthodox Baha'i Faith, has announced that the US 7th District Court of Appeals decision is now final after *three* judgments defending the smaller denominations, because the larger denomination had no respect for justice.
http://trueseeker.typepad.com/true_seeker/court_case.html

7th Circuit Public online case documents as PDF and oral argument MP3
Opinion in case# 08-2306, Judge Sykes. "the First Amendment line appears to have been crossed."
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?caseno=08-2306&submit=showdkt&yr=08&num=2306

For further details on the unjust harassing of Bahais of conscience and these court cases, see

The Baha'i Faith & Religious Freedom of Conscience
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/

[Jeff Lavezzo]

05:46 PM on 04/06/2011

Here's a style guide for the editors
http://news.bahai.org/media-information/style-guide/
For example, In formal writing Baha'i is an adjective, like Christian; the noun is Baha'i Faith. In informal speech Baha'i is sometimes used as a noun.
So the headline would be better written "A Better Medium: the Baha'i Faith and the Future of Journalism"
You wouldn't write "A Better Medium: Christian and the Future of Journalism", right?

[Wendy1844]

03:10 AM on 04/09/2011

Interesting. I didn't realize we had such a website. Of course, Bahá'u'lláh should be pronounced Ba-HA-ol-lah, but I guess that's close enough. :)

[AggieWolverine]

10:06 AM on 04/05/2011

Growing up, my neighbors were of Iranian birth and Baha'i faith. They fled from Grand Ayatollah Sayyedin, who I always thought would make a great Sean Connery look-alike, in the late 70's (Islam's "convert or die" at its worst). I learned a lot about the Baha'i faith from them. They are lovely people with a lovely religion.

[Wendy1844]

03:14 AM on 04/09/2011

Glad you had a chance to become acquainted with some of us! Thanks for your report though it's really pathetic we still have to put up with all this persecution in Iran. The good part of all that is that it's driven Bahá'ís out of Iran and literally all over the world, carrying the Faith with them to every country on this planet. Probably not the idea the Ayatollahs had in mind...

[Wendy1844]

08:40 PM on 04/04/2011

Nice to see the Bahá'í Faith getting some attention these days. It's not the biggest religion in the bunch, but sometimes good things come in small packages. :) Thanks for sharing your experience!