I love being a Baha’i. I love the diversity (of cultures, backgrounds, experiences; of age, race and socio-economic status) that throughouly integrates every gathering and even the diversity of attitudes and personalities which help us to grow spiritually. Especially rewarding is the collective respect and support Baha’is give to one another by accentuating the positive. This reinforces our strengths and subsequently minimizes our individual and collective weaknesses.
From the writings of Baha’u’llah we read “If a man has nine bad qualities and one good one, forget the nine and concentrate upon the one.” It is not just good or wise philosophy, it is one of many such principles constantly being reinforced in the ever growing study circles, institutes, deepening’s and other regular spiritual gatherings which provide the playing field for training to become true instruments of divinely orchestrated peace and love within our hearts and throughout the world. This may even sound boring to a society which is “hooked on hype” but nothing could be more exciting than love, the subject for poets, philosophers, song writers and sages throughout time and a peaceful heart and conscience which elevates one above the counterfeit to the reality of life during our brief time span on this planet.
Also in the Revelation of Baha’u’llah the embryonic model of world unity, there are no individual leaders, but firm and loving leadership through divinely organized and controlled institutions of elected bodies of nine members on the local, national, and universal levels. It is from the universal level, the supreme governing body located at the World Center in Haifa, Israel (on prophesied “side of Mt. Carmel” that all plans derive and dispensed throughout the world accordingly for each phase of the formation of a unified world society built on the twin pillars of “justice and love”.
The Baha’i unit conference held in Roanoke served to reinforce the hope and excitement that can be found in such love and unity as Baha’is gathered from four states to elect a delegate from our electoral unit to attend the National Convention and to elect the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly for this country.
Even the electoral process is unique to any other as there is no campaigning for names to be placed on the ballot. All names within an electoral unit are on it! Through prayer and meditation only one name is selected by each voter and the individual with the highest number of votes is elected.
Distinctively different also in the Baha’i electoral process is that those elected to any position, whether on local, national, or universal level, receive no monetary compensation for the honor!
Imagine what monies would be available for education, medical, science, and technology and for the general health and welfare of the people of the world if we removed the high cost of electing and maintaining the religious and political leaders of this nation alone.
The Divine Plan is now over 160 years young among other religious dispensations, which are thousands of years old, and the process is being perfected continuously. From the writings of this unparalleled Revelation we can better organize efforts toward World Peace which is not only possible but inevitable! However whether it is to be reached only through unimaginable horrors or embraced through “an act of consultative will is the choice before all who inherit the earth!”
To continue doing what we historically have always done is to remain where we’ve always been, and to continue getting the same reactions, retaliation and results.
“In the world of existence there is no force greater than the magnet of love,” we are told in the Baha’i Writings. The pivotal point and magnetic core of this divine Revelation is our mutual love and respect for our obedience to the three Central Figures of the Baha’i Revelation and to subsequent institutions of the Faith. To do so will not affect the movement, however, only our lives.
In the Holy Bible we read “By their fruit ye shall know them.” St. Mathew 7:20. That is why I am still striving to be a Baha’i!
