On Wednesday Night, October 15^th, we will discuss a relatively new and growing world religion called “Baha’i.” Several of our members brought me a recent article from the Gainesville Times about Baha’i called “A Unifying Faith.”  Baha’i   began in 1844 with a Persian nobleman named Baha’u’llah who claimed to be the most recent manifestation of God. Baha’i’s believe that God has revealed His truth to mankind periodically and progressively through a variety of messengers like Moses, Christ, Zoroaster, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, and now Baha’u’llah.

According to their website – bahai.org – Baha’i’s believe there is “one God who has sent these Divine Messengers whom people have seen chiefly as the founders of separate religious systems but whose common purpose has been to bring the human race to spiritual and moral maturity….  Humanity is now coming of age…[which] makes possible the unification of the human family and the building of a peaceful, global society. Among the principles which the Baha’i faith promotes as vital to the achievement of this goal are:

-the abandonment of all forms of prejudice

-assurance to women of full equality of opportunity with men

-recognition of the unity and relativity of religious truth

-the elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth

-the realization of universal education

-the responsibility of each person to independently search for truth

-the establishment of a global commonwealth of nations

-recognition that true religion is in harmony with reason and the pursuit of scientific knowledge

-world peace is the crying need of our time. ”

Baha’i’s do not see their religion as competitive with other religions. They believe Baha’i is complementary with other world religions bringing out the best in all religions and trimming away the negative and fanatical elements. Maybe that is why Baha’i is growing so rapidly. Currently there are over 6 million adherents worldwide in over 235 countries. In the USA, there are 170,000 and that number is supposedly doubling every 20 years. The largest concentrations are in California, Illinois, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia. According to the Gainesville Times, Baha’i is growing even in Gainesville, Georgia.

So, what do you think?

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