For years I've pondered the area of religion. My father's family is old Pennsylvania Quaker. My mother is Episcopalian. I went to Episcopal boarding school and Episcopal church. But in college I dated many Catholics. In my thirties, it was atheists and Jews. When I married, it was to someone who rarely thinks about religion of any type whatsoever.
But it is still of interest to me - and more not less than it was say 15 years ago. Just yesterday I was at a friend's house for dinner. She is a Conservative Jew married to a non-practicing Christian. We talked about the differences between being spiritual and being religious. We talked about the differences within religions - between Catholics and Episcopalians and between Orthodox and Conservative Jews, etc. It was really interesting. She is so clear and grounded in her faith. I am so conflicted. My views and values are clear. But, I find the practice of organized religion - virtually any of them - confusing. Each of the major faiths in the world has something I value and respect and am moved by. But each also seems to have something I find disturbing or jarring with who I am and what I stand for. Perhaps that's why I have most recently gravitated more toward the Quaker faith as it feels to me to involve a basic and fundamental spiritual sense, with limited ritual and ceremony but a lot of substance.
That was until a few weeks ago when I learned about a whole new faith - one I knew virtually nothing about until then.
Having lived literally all over the world, it was pretty surprising to me to find what I think is perhaps the ultimate in global religion right here, down the street, in Wilmette Illinois. At the Baha'i Temple. I am certainly no expert - having only spent a few hours studying it thus far - but its core principles are why I say it may be the ultimate global religion. According to the brochure I picked up at the temple, the core principles of the Baha'i faith are as follows:
• Elimination of all forms of prejudice
• Equality between men and women
• Harmony of science and religion
• World peace upheld by a world government
• Spiritual solutions to economic problems
• Universal education
I know there are many in the world that would not choose to live with these principles but for me I thought, wow! This is the closest I've come to finding a group where - on the surface at least - there was nothing for me to disagree with. I'm not fully sure I understand what "spiritual solutions for economic problems" means, but I kinda like the sound of it if it means we'll have to use more than a calculator to solve the economic inequalities in the world between the "haves" and "have nots". So, I for one found this religion an intriguing discovery. (For those who've known about it forever, pardon my ignorance. I am not nor have ever been anything like a religious expert or scholar and so it's not surprising I guess that my religious education was clearly incomplete.)
Anyway, I am not trying to convert anyone here. I'm not even sure what I myself will actually do with this learning. But in times like these where religion is at the heart of so many problems in the world, I think it is worth reflecting on how and whether it is possible for us all to move to a more global approach, one based on faith and spirituality more than dogma. And whether we could, without losing our own identities, opt for a broader, more inclusive approach to the questions we face as global citizens in order to perhaps find some lasting solutions to long term disputes. Naïve perhaps but perhaps that's just what we need. To look beyond the experts and the entrenched and move toward a more pragmatic and inclusive solution. Perhaps less is more when it comes to a global approach to these types of questions and perhaps the Baha'i Faith has something to teach us all... Just a thought...from someone still searching for her own answer...
Perry Yeatman is an SVP at Kraft Foods and co-author of the award-winning book, Get Ahead by Going Abroad.
Follow Perry Yeatman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@perryyeatman
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The only way properly to judge this religion is to spend some time reading the writings of its Founder. When I was young I had an intellectu
Anyway, I went on a family holiday to Cyprus and spent my time reading an entire volume of the Writings. By the end of the fortnight I was a completely transforme
My advice to everyone is read the Writings and don't waste your time reading the views of anonymous strangers on the internet!
Fostering unity of purpose among individual
Finally, every major world religion tells us we have certain parts of our make up that get us trapped in patterns of life that limit our potential. All major religions prescribe laws not to oppress, but to liberate us from our own lower selves. That this gets turned into oppression is one of the reasons Baha'u'lla
This might sound good at first, but it could also lead to tyranny on a global scale unseen of in history. Atleast now the tyranny of Zimbabwe and NK are limited to those nations...
...by the way, Baha'is do not believe in hell - just the mess we create ourselves
1) That Baha'i is wrong on a key issue: the example of the proscripti
2) World government
3) The whole religion thing: I really don't think religion is going away. So, like electricit
4) Unity of religion: Baha'u'lla
"The purpose hath rather been to ... purge and purify the peoples of the world from the strife and dissension which religious difference
5. On looking within ourselves for answers:
"God grant that all men may turn unto the treasuries latent within their own beings. "
6. On the "Ultimate Global Religion."
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Actually, rules aren't the problem at all. Any society has rules, including religious societies.
The question is, for any society: are those rules wise? You actually refer to that question in your comment above.
One important way to decide if a rule is wise is to determine whether it confilcts with science, or supports it. The Bahai faith agrees with that, claiming that it is interested in the reconcilia
Bias against homosexual
If you do, you will meet homosexual singles and couples who - except for their gender attraction - look and act exactly like anyone else in the congregati
The Episcopal Church right now is riven by the homosexual
That is pretty enlightene
It might be a pipe dream, but it just might be true.
Not a religion in the strictest sense, but pretty interestin
That said, it seems to me that any religious or spiritual path that somehow diminishes homosexual
If Bahai is truly interested in the reconcilia
http://en.
Prejudice against someone identifyin
The Wikipedia article you cite seems to represent the Baha'i point of view pretty well. It's very easy to see how the position of the Baha'is on homosexual
"O CHILDREN OF MEN! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory." --Baha'u'l
The Baha'i has too many restrictio