Twin Anniversaries
Sunday, November 3, 10:30am
Zoom Room opens at 10:15
Across the planet, during the days of November 2 and 3, the worldwide Baha'i community and their friends observe the dual celebration of two birthdays. The Baha’i Faith began with the mission entrusted by God to two Divine Messengers—the Bab (1819-1850), the herald of the Baha'i Faith, and Baha’u’llah (1817-1892), the “Glory of God” foretold by the Bab and all the Divine Messengers of the past. Baha’u’llah outlined components of a global civilization which considers both the spiritual and material dimensions of human life.
All are welcome to enjoy fellowship, readings, and discussion.
Performative or real allyship?
As many of you likely know, allies are people of more privileged demographics who advocate for victims of discrimination. There are different types of allyship.
Performative allyship is a form of disingenuous and superficial advocacy based on self-gratification, not personal responsibility. It entails actions taken primarily to alleviate personal guilt, to prove one’s lack of prejudice, to cultivate a particular image for others, or to follow a trend.
Between 1935 and 1957, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, wrote:
People today indeed do tend to be very superficial in their thinking, and it would seem as if the educational systems in use are sorely lacking in ability to produce a mature mind in a person who has reached supposedly adult life! All the outside influences that surround the individual seem to have an intensely distracting effect, and it is a hard job to get the average person to do any deep thinking or even a little meditation on the problems facing him and the world at large.
Read the full essay here.
Is Juneteenth America's Real Independence Day?
by Timothy Conley
America celebrates Independence Day every July 4th with symbolic, colorful fireworks displays. However, as the inaugural celebration took place in 1776, the day designated as the birth of the United States, there was no joy for many in the African American community. While many enslaved Africans fought alongside the colonists against the British in the Revolutionary War, the hope of freedom was a narrative that did not come to fruition. I’m reminded as I reflect on how in 1619, the first enslaved Africans were forced on the land known as the Virginia Colony to begin hell on earth. For the full article, click here.
New Baha'i House of Worship in Papua New Guinea
"This physical edifice, nestled in the hills of Port Moresby that overlook the Coral Sea, has a profound spiritual significance. By welcoming all within its walls, it expresses the unity of the human race and the oneness of all religions. It weaves together the diverse peoples of this mighty nation by inviting them all to come together in service to humanity.”For a video and article, click here.
Baha'i International Community: United Nations Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, Kenya
The conference, organized to facilitate preliminary discussions for the upcoming Summit of the Future, brought together over 2,500 participants from more than 100 countries. Attendees included member state representatives, senior UN officials, and civil society representatives, who gathered to discuss the theme “Shaping a Future of Global and Sustainable Progress.” BIC representatives from the New York and Addis Ababa offices were present as well as representatives of the national Baha'i communities of Kenya, Malaysia, Tanzania, and the U.S. For the full story,. click here.
Global Campaign to Honor Ten Baha’i Women
May 15, 2023 11:33 ET| Source: Baha'i National Center
Geneva, May 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The day of 18 June 2023 will mark 40 years since the Islamic Republic of Iran hanged 10 Baha'i women in a single night in a square in the city of Shiraz. Their crime was refusing to renounce their beliefs in a faith that promotes the principles of gender equality—absent and criminalized in Iran—as well as unity, justice and truthfulness.
The women were hanged one by one, each forced to watch the next woman’s death in a harrowing attempt to coerce them into recanting their faith. One was only 17; most were in their 20s. Human rights groups and ordinary citizens around the world were shocked and outraged at this barbaric act by the Iranian authorities.
For the full story, click here
Remembering Reuben and Mary Jane Shiipley
A short 15-minute video, The Journey, has been produced by former Philomath Mayor Eric Niemann and Kings Valley Production on Reuben and Mary Jane Shipley and the recently placed Shipley Historical marker. The video tells the story of how Mr. Shipley came to Oregon and how and why he and his wife came to donate land for Mt. Union Cemetary in Philomath. The film also features portions of the historical marker dedication last summer for which local Baha’i communities played such an important part.
Change and Free Will
While I was developing ideas for writing this article, I began by looking for quotations on “Groundhog Day.” To my surprise, almost every quotation was about change rather than the calendar event. One of my favorites is this one from Tolstoy, reminding us that change begins with ourselves: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” While I doubt that “no one” is literally true, the essence of this quotation – that change is ultimately an individual’s responsibility – is surely true.
We humans have been blessed with free will, and that allows us to influence our own path through life. We cannot always have everything we want, but we can at least choose how to react to what happens. Abdu’l-Baha frequently wrote about free will. This passage from his book Some Answered Questions sums it up:
"Certain matters are subject to the free will of man, such as acting with justice and fairness, or injustice and iniquity — in other words, the choice of good or evil actions. It is clear and evident that the will of man figures greatly in these actions."
Clearly, we each have choices with potentially great impact. But is it enough to make a choice, to do something once or twice, and then consider the change made?
to read the full article, click here.
The Question of the Creator and Creation--the Chicken and Egg Question
Someone posed the old chicken and egg argument--in a discussion of Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion. They said that believing in a creator means we have to explain what created God.
That is certainly true, I pointed out, if you conceive of God as being the same sort of being we humans are, and therefore subject to the same natural laws.
As a writer of fiction, I find this concept comprehensible because of the relationship that exists between me and my creations. As their creator, I am in my books, but I am not in my books. I create the laws that operate in my books, and yet I am not bound by those laws. The characters in my books may look human and act human and sound human, but they are only reflections of humanity.
So, from my point of view, to deny the existence of a Creator because we can’t imagine what sort of being He might be--using only ourselves as a point of reference--would be very much like my characters being unable to imagine that there is a writer who conceived of them and put them into a book. They might theorize my existence and, if they looked carefully at themselves, they would see my reflection in them--but they would not see or comprehend or understand the totality of me.
To read the full essay by writer Maya Bohnhoff click here.
How Our Communities Can Foster Resilience
In this age of fractious disunity and conflict in our cultures, the Baha’i teachings offer inspiration, principles, and concepts that can help humanity remedy society’s polarization and separatism.
Baha’i communities exist all over the world, in every country and among all classes and types of people.
Baha’is come from all walks of life, from every religious tradition, and from no religious background at all. Baha’is have widely varying levels of education. Baha’is represent every racial group on Earth. As you might imagine, it poses significant challenges to unite those diverse human beings into one coherent, caring community.
But the planet’s Baha’is have succeeded in doing just that.
Click here to read the full essay.
Are the major faiths actually one faith?
"Consider for a moment the possibility the three Faiths that arise from the children of Abraham – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – are in fact one Faith. I’m not talking about the oneness of their religious practices and customs; clearly these are different.
"I’m talking about the possibility that each of these three Faiths come from the same God and act as agents of a single unfolding," writes Tom Tai-Seale.
There are differences in the theologies and practices of these religions (especially between Christianity and the other two), but they arise from interpretative inventions, not from the original views of the founders. For the full essay by Tom Tai-Seale from Baha'i Teachings, click here.
Global Conferences: The arts promote peace, inspire service to society
April 26, 2022
BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTRE — As the wave of Baha'i conferences sweeping across the globe continues, artistic expressions emerging from these gatherings convey an essential longing of the human soul: the need to seek harmony and to selflessly serve society.
Through these artistic works—whether music, theater, visual art, traditional dance, crafts, or other art forms—participants at the grassroots in virtually every part of the world are exploring profound spiritual concepts, such as justice, peace, and unity. See examples from Pakistan, Macedonia, Niger, Australia, and other countries. For the full story, click here.
"The Problem of Prejudice"--University course on peace impacts students' thinking
BAHA'I WORLD NEWS SERVICE | JUL 31, 2021
Each academic year, the Baha’i Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland offers a unique course that assists students to identify root causes of societal challenges in the light of spiritual principles, such as the elimination of all forms of prejudice, the equality of women and men, and consultation.
“Throughout college I took 35 classes, but this is the only one that changed the fundamentals of how I look at the world,” says Emily Gorey, a former student of the class.
“It was here that I learned how different the world looks outside of Howard County, Maryland, where I grew up. I learned how quietly inequality is ingrained into our systems, thoughts, and environments. I saw the power of empathy take hold in myself and others. For the full story, click here.
"This Must Stop"--anti-Baha'i propoganda intensifies in Iran evoking global outcry
BIC GENEVA, 13 July 2021, (BWNS) — In recent months, the Iranian government’s decades-long campaign of hate speech and propaganda against the Bahá’ís in Iran has reached new levels, increasing in both sophistication and scale. The unfolding strategy to demonize the Bahá’í community is reflected in a growing and coordinated network of hundreds of websites, Instagram accounts, Telegram channels, and Clubhouse rooms.
“History is replete with the victims of grievous crimes incited by hate speech,” says Diane Ala’i, Representative of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) to the United Nations in Geneva. “We are concerned that the increasing spread of disinformation targeting the Bahá’ís may signal a severe increase in the persecution meted out against them.” click here to read more.
Baha'is in Minneapolis Respond After George Floyd's Death
by Anne Gordon Perry, March 29, 2021
On May 25, 2020, I watched the news in horror. It had happened again: Another Black person in the United States had been killed by police.
It was Memorial Day — a day to mourn the fallen heroes of wars fought largely overseas. I live in Dallas and, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of participating in public observances or attending a barbecue with friends, I was at home. And like many people, I was seeing the unbearable video footage of 46-year-old George Floyd being handcuffed, pinned to the ground, and asphyxiated. A white Minneapolis Police Department officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd spent the last few minutes of his life choking out the plea, “I can’t breathe,” and calling upon his deceased mother to help him from the next world.
Now we faced another kind of mourning: a reckoning of the deep and insidious scars of the racism we have never healed, within a country that pledges “liberty and justice for all.”
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The wound felt deep and intensive, and the effects of it have been painful and long-lasting. My friend Nwandi Lawson, a Baha’i who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, told me that she remembers where she was and what she was doing when she heard about the killing of Floyd.
“I was washing the dishes when I heard the news,” Nwandi says. “In my home, nothing was out of the ordinary. We had eaten stir fry for dinner and planned to play a board game after homework was completed. But now as I heard the first gruesome details surrounding the death of George Floyd, I glanced down on my soapy hands and noticed that my own tears had begun to mix with the water in the sink. It had happened once again.
“How, on a spring day in 2020, in a grocery parking lot, could another Black man have been killed by a police officer? Beyond crying, how could I respond in this season when a global pandemic and racial injustice were swirling together like the dishwater when I removed the stopper?"
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Due to Derek Chauvin’s trial, renewed attention is being placed on Minneapolis and many people are again asking themselves: What can we learn from this potent crisis of our times? How might we take action in our own localities, to help create a society based on respect and justice?
These are questions I’ve also pondered. I was privileged to find some answers through my involvement with the team that produced “Minneapolis: Playing our Humble Part,” a five-part video series that follows the story of how Baha’is in Minneapolis responded to the unfolding events in the neighborhood where George Floyd was killed.
For the full article, click here.
What is Hope?
Sandi Bean
A friend gave me a book for my birthday. The Book of Hope: a Survival Guide for Trying Times is the record of interviews that writer Douglas Adams carried out with naturalist Jane Goodall across several months and three continents. Goodall left England in her twenties to study behavior patterns of chimpanzees in Tanzania. Her observations upended scientific convention and set her on a path of saving not only these intelligent animals, but the entire planet.
Hope is not the same as optimism, which seems to be more innate than hope: you are born optimistic or you are not. Hope is cultivated and grows with practice.
The Bahá’í writings admonish, “however confused the scene, however dismal the present outlook, however circumscribed the resources, (we must) … labor serenely, confidently, and unremittingly to lend our share of assistance, in whichever way circumstances may enable us, to the operation of the forces which … are leading humanity out of the valley of misery. . . .”
In The Book of Hope, Goodall describes her four reasons for hope: the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of young people, and the indomitable human spirit.
First, the human intellect: we are a visionary and problem-solving species. We invented language and language made us human. Our intellect enables us to see ourselves in others and allows us to understand and forgive. A friend says that learning to read saved his life—he taught himself to read when he was 35.
Second: the resilience of nature. Every gardener understands this as we see year after year the robustness and tenacity of the plants we call weeds. I saw a video recently showing abandoned factories in a Midwest city. Every single factory had trees growing on the roof.
Third: the power of youth. Among the hopeful organizations of youth worldwide and across the U.S, the Jane Goodall Institute lists a collection of 187 youth groups, under its “Roots and Shoots” umbrella (rootsandshoots.org). The most recent such group formed last week in California. One of the oldest comprises a group of teens in a Ugandan village who started a recycling program for their community. Another is a group of children in the Bronx who succeeded in banning Styrofoam from their school cafeteria. Each group of young people creates its own projects and carries them out, consulting together, reaching consensus and then taking action.
And, finally, here’s one story to illustrate the indomitable human spirit. Two Chinese men surnamed Jia were friends since childhood. Jia Haixia was blind and Jai Wenqi had lost both arms in a childhood accident. The friends decided that feeling hopeless was not helping them or anyone else, so they came up with a scheme to plant trees in their village, to bring hope and to start to heal devastating environmental damage. But they had no money and their abilities were limited. Well, Wenqi decided he would find branches to plant and Haixia would plant and tend them. After several false starts, the trees grew. By now, they have planted 13,000 trees and the entire village is involved. In a documentary about them, the two friends said “Though we are limited physically, our spirit is limitless. So let the generations after us . . . see what two handicapped individuals have accomplished. Even after we are gone, they will see that a blind man and an armless man have left them a forest.” A forest of 13,000 trees.
The two Jias demonstrate how the actions of a few give hope to many, as these friends “labor serenely, confidently, and unremittingly.”
This article first appeared in the Corvallis Gazette-Times Interfaith Voices column for February 6, 2022.
Sandra J. Bean became a Bahá’í in 1971. She served as Information Officer at the Baha'i World Center in Haifa in the late 1980s.
Forging a Path to Racial Justice
“The Baha’is of the United States join our fellow-citizens in heartfelt grief at the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others whose lives were suddenly taken by appalling acts of violence. These heartbreaking violations against fellow human beings, due only to the color of their skin, have deepened the dismay caused by a pandemic whose consequences to the health and livelihoods of people of color have been disproportionately severe. This has come to pass against a backdrop of longstanding racial injustice in virtually every aspect of American life. It is clear that racial prejudice is the most vital and challenging issue we face as a country.”
The full statement from the national Baha'i administrative body can be found here.
You can find a booklet of the racial justice statement
. You may download this version, print it, and distribute it to your own circle of friends as you wish.
Events are postponed during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Please limit your social contacts in order to protect healthcare workers and the most vulnerable among us. Look for the helpers, and help them, if you can. Now, more than ever, we are indeed one human family, "the waves of one sea" and "the leaves of one branch."
Please visit the U.S. Baha'i website to learn more--www.bahai.us
Practicing patience during a pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has many of us in tough positions, and in the current global climate, we are all subject to a certain level of uncertainty and lack of control.
Some of us worry about how we will afford our expenses, some of us don’t know when we will see family members again, and we are all concerned for our health. As we brace ourselves for this journey of collective healing and change, patience will be key. The writer reflects on different forms of patience that she will need to effectively navigate the situation. Read the full essay here.
How might a united world address a pandemic?
Imagine this scenario: a novel pandemic breaks out somewhere in the world, one even more serious and deadly than Covid-19, and a newly-established global government quickly acts to solve the crisis.
Because the health departments and research agencies of the world’s various countries – finally connected, linked and properly funded for the investigation and reporting of new outbreaks – have the ability to rapidly discover and isolate emerging viral infections faster than ever before, we now can identify a novel disease quickly, even before it spreads beyond the country where it first emerges.
Once that scientific process happens, the world’s parliament goes into emergency session, deciding to seal the borders of the new disease’s country of origin and idle its factories and industries. In that now-quarantined country, no planes fly and no trains or cars or ships move outside the nation’s boundaries – but doctors and nurses from the world’s NGOs and relief agencies flood into the country to help save the spate of new patients sickened by the virus.
Then, in the spirit of unity, the rest of humanity rapidly and nimbly mobilizes to help their fellow human beings in the newly-afflicted nation. Scientists and the organizations they work for, now free of restrictive regulations and bureaucracy, fast-track new vaccines and treatments. Economic aid from all other countries flows in to help those whose jobs have temporarily halted or whose businesses have suffered. The entire planet and all of its massed resources turn every effort toward containing, isolating and alleviating the crisis in one place before it can spread to every other place. For the full story, click here.
To learn more about how Baha'is around the world are engaging with their communities, click here.
Who Are the Bahá'ís?
The Baha’is of Linn and Benton counties are as diverse as the area where we live. All races, ages, and social classes come together to create a warm and authentic sense of community. What the members of this community share in common is their adherence to the Bahá'í Faith, and this includes a commitment to social justice and racial equality.
The Bahá'í Faith is the youngest of the world’s independent monotheistic religions. Founded in Iran in 1844, it now has more than five million adherents in 236 countries and territories. Bahá'ís come from nearly every national, ethnic and religious background, making the Bahá'í Faith the second-most-widespread religion in the world.
Justice, Compassion, and Forgiveness in Baha'i Law
by John Hatcher, PhD
The laws of religion, meant primarily to elevate the human soul, also have another important function—the advancement and protection of civilization.
While a number of the laws of Baha’u’llah’s Most Holy Book offer various avenues of compliance with duly-established legal systems, for a number of reasons the abiding rationale for all variable responses would seem to lie in Baha’u’llah’s demonstration of the fairness, the justice, and the educative function of law in general. Read more here.
Becoming a Baha'i: My Quest for the Beautiful
by Brad Miller
I suspected that our world required something extraordinary to fix it, something unprecedented, something new and as yet undiscovered, something beautiful to mitigate its murderous ways.
So, disturbed by the war in Vietnam, perplexed by the scourge of racism in America, and dismayed by the lack of kindness in American politics, my girlfriend and I, as illogical as it may sound, rode our bikes to Portland, Maine, and, like the hippies of those times, searched for a solution, for a way to reverse the world, as environmentalist Laura Sewall would say, and there for the first time bowed to spiritual authority, became Baha’is and got married, in 1971. Our equilibrium upset, we were revolutionized.. Click here for the full story.
Meaningful Conversation Leads to Friendship
by Joe Fradella
At the invitation of one of my students, I agreed to be the "non-Christian" participant in an OSU Veritas forum on the question "Does Science End Religious Belief?" The goal of these forums is to facilitate a constructive dialogue between a Christian and non-Christian on a particular topic with questions from the audience. Since the Baha'i Faith teaches that we should "consort with the followers all of religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship," I was happy to participate.
My intention here is not to describe the forum itself (the video is found at http://www.veritas.org/science-end-religious-belief/), but rather to recount an unexpected outcome. The day after the forum, a Christian colleague of mine who had attended emailed me saying he enjoyed the forum and had some questions he would like to discuss with me. His email was very courteous (and even cautious) about the subject of religion and was very sensitive to our differences in religious belief.
My colleague's caution in bringing up religion is understandable, given that religion is one of the topics generally advised against discussing at work, the dinner table, or perhaps anywhere else. While the wisdom behind this avoidance is easily understood, upon reflection, it may strike us as a bit odd. We eagerly share mundane details of our lives through social media and in casual conversation, often with volumes of equally mundane feedback from our friends. Wouldn't it seem we should be at least as eager to share with others the fundamental beliefs that are most dear to us? Shouldn't we be excited to discuss how these beliefs translate into action in our everyday lives and how they can transform our families, communities, and society? While there is value in small talk over nonthreatening, trivial matters — namely that it can build a sense of comfort and trust among people — perhaps we should not be so hesitant to take these initial conversations further.
The Baha'i teachings encourage us to spend time with others "engaging in meaningful conversation and weaving bonds of affection and solidarity." Such discourse enables everyone to discuss the world around us and "participate in a collective effort to transform it." It seems that our society needs, but often avoids, to learn about how discourse of this nature can contribute to the betterment of society and an ever-advancing civilization.
So back to my colleague. After our initial exchange, we met to discuss his questions and some other topics. We both enjoyed it sufficiently that we have been meeting somewhat regularly for the past two years for lunch, "meaningful conversation," reading of the Bible, and even a bit of less-than-meaningful conversation (that's still OK, by the way). Over time, we've both grown more comfortable offering frank and open comments, asking challenging questions, and even respectfully accepting disagreement with each other. My colleague, who I now call my friend, has commented often that our conversations have made him rethink his own beliefs and consider points of view he hadn't previously considered, and that they have ultimately made him a better Christian. From my side, I now have a better understanding of Christian beliefs and how the Bible relates to Baha'i teachings.
The trust and comfort we've built with each other during this process is such that we can now discuss the previously taboo topic of religion as easily as we discuss local sports or the weather. More importantly, these ongoing "meaningful conversations" have given each of us a new friend, and perhaps such friendships, based on mutual respect and understanding and rooted in shared spiritual aspirations, are a fundamental part of what religion is all about.
Joe Fradella is a senior instructor in civil and construction engineering at Oregon State University and lives in Albany with his wife and two children.
Published in the Corvallis Gazette-Times on Saturday, July 14, 2018:
Addressing hidden poverty--how we can do it
To achieve unity throughout the world, Baha’is are trying to learn how we can help create unity through localized free educational programs that address the spiritual nature in all of us. Baha’is do this by hosting children’s classes, where children from all religious backgrounds learn about spiritual virtues; junior youth programs in which youth from the ages of 12 to 15 are aided to use their growing energies, talents and abilities to serve others; and a series of institute courses that increase the capacity of adults and youth to offer more and more complex acts of service to their communities. To read the full story, click here.
How do we understand poverty?
2 February 2018
BIC NEW YORK — Ending poverty demands more than modifications in social and economic policies, no matter how skillfully conceived and executed these may be. It requires a profound rethinking of how the issue of poverty is understood and approached. This idea was at the heart of the remarksof a representative of the Baha’i International Community that opened the 56th UN Commission for Social Development on 29 January 2018.
“Humanity’s collective life suffers when any one group thinks of its own well-being in isolation from that of its neighbors,” said Daniel Perell, BIC representative and chairperson of the NGO Committee for Social Development, during the opening session of the conference in New York City. For the full story, click here.
A story of courage
After enduring ten years of unjust imprisonment and harsh treatment, Mahvash Sabet's sentence has come to an end. She is one of the seven members of the former leadership group of the Baha'is in Iran known as the Yaran, who were jailed on false and baseless charges.
As has occurred with prisoners of conscience, writers, thought-leaders, and poets who have been wrongly imprisoned throughout history, the power of Mrs. Sabet's ideas and beliefs was only amplified by her persecution.
The plight of its author attracted attention to this deeply moving collection of poetry, inspiring PEN International to feature Mrs. Sabet in a campaign to defend persecuted writers. Her poems also inspired a musical composition by award-winning composer Lasse Thoresen, performed at an international music festival in Oslo earlier this year.
Mrs. Sabet, now 64 years old, was arrested in March 2008. The full story is here.
Who was Bahá’u’lláh?
Baha’u’llah made two bold claims. First of all, he declared he was God’s messenger for this age, having the same divine authority, the same Holy Spirit, the same divine power, as Moses, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, and the other founders of the world’s major religions.
His second claim is even more challenging. He declared he was the promised messiah foretold in all the prophecies, in all the Holy Books, of the religions of the world.
Baha’u’llah declared his mission as nothing less than the establishment of God’s kingdom on Earth—the unification of the entire human race into an all-embracing, spiritual global civilization based on divine principles of justice and love, and whose watchword will be “unity in diversity” not uniformity. Read more here.
Time to stop misunderstanding Mohammad
In the West, we’ve misunderstood Muhammad and Islam for centuries. Now it’s time to stop that pattern and begin to understand what makes Islam a great Faith. Read more here.
Two Wings of a Bird -- The equality of women and men
The oneness of humanity is the animating principle of the Bahá’í faith. A corollary is that women and men are equal partners in advancing civilization. The Bahá’í writings aver that “The world of humanity has two wings—one women, the other men. Not until both wings are equally developed can the bird fly,” words penned in 19th century Persia by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá’u’lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá’í religion. Yet worldwide, the progress of women to achieve full equality has been uneven—for example, even in the U.S., our legislature has yet to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
At a time when women worldwide were largely confined to the home, the Bahá’í teachings encouraged women to study science, engineering, agriculture, and other subjects designed to improve the human condition. In the 1870s, Bahá’ís in Iran established schools that taught a curriculum highlighting science and math. In 1911, Bahá’ís established the Tarbiyat School for Girls in Tehran, offering science, languages, math, and even gymnastics, more than 15 years before the government allowed physical education for girls. By 1934 when these schools were closed by government decree, at least 25 Bahá’í-run schools for girls were thriving in Iran. Against custom, no classes on religion were offered in these schools, and the schools were open to Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís alike.
In 1918, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote that education must be compulsory, and added that if funds in a family were insufficient to educate both the girl and the boy, “the money must be dedicated to the girl’s education”—a profound and radical challenge to the status quo.
More recently, in 1995, Beijing was host to the Fourth World Conference on Women, drawing 30,000 participants from around the world. The Bahá’í International Community launched a platform for action in advancing women “from the standpoint of moral principle, as distinct from pure pragmatism.” The BIC named the education of women and girls as the key to every country’s development, a theme adopted by the World Bank and now central to global development efforts.
Another example is the Tahirih Justice Center. As a law student, Layli Miller-Muro was first shocked, and then galvanized by her experience with the plight of women seeking refuge from physical abuse in their home countries. In 1997, inspired by the principles of her Bahá’í faith, she launched the TJC in Washington, D.C. TJC’s advocacy led to changes in the law, and the center continues to advocate through the courts and legislatures. Since its founding, it has helped more than 22,000 persons. Today, with offices in four U.S. cities, it is a national non-governmental legal services and advocacy group that focuses primarily on immigrant women and girls. A wealth of information about the center is available online. This April, its fierce advocacy for immigrant women and children was described in The New York Times. Under the recent executive orders, immigrant women are less and less likely to seek help, especially as U.S. courts and churches cease to be places of protection and refuge. In an April 5, 2017, interview with Nicolas Kristof of The New York Times, Miller-Muro explains this situation in detail (click here for the interview).
Our faith must lead us to action, to enacting laws and regulations that promote education for women and ensure their equality and legal protection. The still-undeveloped female wing cripples the entire human race—every country, every political and economic system testifies to this weakness. Only when women equal men in strength, capacity, and knowledge will humanity truly soar.
The Bahá'í House of Worship
The Bahá'í House of Worship for north America is in Wilmette, Illinois. To take a virtual tour of that sacred place and to see its gardens in bloom, click here.
The worldwide Bahá'í community, composed of people from virtually every racial, ethnic and religious background, is working to give practical expression to Bahá'u'llah’s vision of world unity. Bahá'ís invite one and all to learn more about the Bahá'í Faith and benefit from the spiritual and practical insights found in the Revelation of Bahá'u'llah, God's message for humanity in this day.
The Bahá’í Faith has had a presence in Corvallis for more than 50 years.
Bahá’ís are all around you as your neighbors in Benton County—we are college and high school students, we are retired and employed. We include a retired chemist, public health workers, physicians, professors, college instructors. We are a professional baker, a landscape architect, entrepreneurs, artists, and engineers. We are native speakers of Spanish, Chinese, German, Hindi, Persian, and English. Many of us are mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. We want our children to receive the best education possible and so we send them to school or we home-school them. We also organize spiritual and moral educational experiences for ourselves, our children, and our friends. We carry out programs for children, pre-teens, and youth. We work for positive social change. We do not participate in partisan politics, but vote in general elections.
We share the hopes, dreams, and concerns of our communities, and we volunteer in our communities. We work for social change. Bahá’ís seel to inform others about our faith, but we do not mount active programs for conversion.
Our faith, like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikkhism, Buddhism, Toaism and others, did not originate in Europe or the United States. The Bahá’í faith began in the Middle East—in Persia (today’s Iran), to be precise. From Persia/Iran, Bahá’ís dispersed in the late 1890s and early 1900s across the world where their faith found new roots in India, Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Europe. Many of today’s Baha’is were raised in other faiths and found the Bahá’í faith as young adults, drawn to its wide embrace of all humanity and all religious traditions and its attractive social and ethical teachings. In Benton County, we come from Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, and Hindu backgrounds.
Want to know more? Please contact us at 541-753-5752 or check this website for events you may wish to attend. All are welcome, and no donations are requested or accepted at any Bahá’í events.
Unity: The essential truth of religion
During the course of his travels in the West Abdu’l-Baha gave many public talks in churches, synagogues, mosques, universities, societies for specific social causes, conferences and conventions of various kinds, charitable institutions, hotels, private residences, and many other venues. He gave numerous newspaper and magazine interviews, and became well-known in the process. His comings and goings brought him into contact with some of the leading figures of the time, such as Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, Admiral Peary, and Theodore Roosevelt.
The sheer physical demands of such an undertaking would have proved daunting, if not impossible, to a young person in the prime of life. But Abdu’l-Baha was at this time in the evening of his life, his constitution taxed by many years of hardship. It is worth remembering that he had spent virtually his entire life as a prisoner. Before his trip to the West, he had never given a public talk even to people in his own part of the world, let alone to Westerners.
In spite of these seeming disadvantages, Abdu’l-Baha moved with ease through every circle of society, spreading the news of his Father’s new Faith and describing its essential teachings. In most cases he was warmly welcomed, and, due to his breadth of knowledge and powerful spiritual qualities, created deep and lasting impressions upon those who met him. For the rest of the story, click here.
What We Do
Devotional Gatherings
Devotional Gatherings feature prayers, music and readings from the Bahá'í and other faiths, followed by informal group discussion.
Many members of the Bahá’í Faith also host devotional gatherings regularly in their own homes. Check this website to see when a devotional gathering is happening in your neighborhood.
Study Circles
Each study circle follows a specified curriculum based on the teachings, principles and beliefs of the Bahá’í Faith. Courses are open to all and include discussions for those seeking to enrich their spiritual lives in smaller group settings. The first course in the sequence, titled Reflections on the Life of the Spirit, discusses themes such as prayer, the purpose of human existence, and the journey of the soul. Contact each community (Corvallis, Benton County, Corvallis, Albany, Philomath, and Lebanon) to find out how to enroll in an upcoming study circle.
Spiritual Education Classes for Children
Classes that teach moral education, service to humanity and Bahá’í history and principles are held in neighborhoods throughout the area and may take place after school or on weekends. These sessions, which focus on teaching children spiritual virtues from a Bahá’í perspective, are open to all children five years of age and older.
Junior Youth Activities
This non-denominational program focusing on the spiritual empowerment of junior youth (ages 12–15) seeks to enhance the spiritual and intellectual capacities of the youth and to prepare them for active participation in the affairs of their communities. The objectives are threefold: to develop personal and spiritual excellence, to carry out acts of service and to develop bonds of friendship through activities incorporating the arts and games.
Links
Official United States Bahá'í website with general descriptions of the Bahá'í Faith: www.bahai.us
Official international Bahá'í website with information in many languages (in revision): bahai.org
Official site to read and search the Bahá'í writings: http://www.bahai.org/library/
Become a Bahá'í online: join.bahai.us
For information on the Bahá’í Faith and Bahá’í community activities in your town, call 541-753-5752, or 1-800-22UNITE.
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