The Christian Century, Volume 74, Number 15 (April
10, 1957): pp. 449-451
Baha'i: A Second Look
Fourth Article in a Series on Sects and Cults
By Marcus Bach
[page 449]
"IF THESE BAHA'IS ever get going, they may take the country by storm."
So said a discerning Protestant minister as we talked one evening about
America's most "ecumenical" faith. He felt the Baha'is were held captive
on two counts: their insistence that a new prophet had appeared in the
person of Baha'u'llah, and their lack of emphasis on a personalized
faith.
This comment prompted me to take a second look at the Baha'i group,
which has a $3 million temple in Wilmette, Illinois, an American
membership of perhaps 18,000, and sizable assemblies in most of our
major cities. All of which may be regarded as substantial for a religion
which came to the United States some sixty years ago.
Whenever a Baha'i representative addressed a group of my students there
was a deep-seated response to the social and ethical teachings he set
forth. College students generally are as tired of sectarian squabbles as
they are tantalized by efforts toward spiritual unity. They liked the
Baha'i emphasis and were interested not only by what Baha'ism is but by
what it may become. Also, they were not unwilling to accept the Baha'i
claim that Woodrow Wilson in his plans for the League of Nations was
influenced by Baha'u'llah, that the steps toward world understanding
might be the result of Baha'u'llah's mystical presence, and that the
development of the United Nations might be the substance of the imposing
shadow cast by the Persian seer. So far so good. But when they learned
that in order cept the precepts they must also accept the preceptor,
that to become true Baha'is they must recognise Baha'u'llah as the
Promised One - this simply spelled out another and new kind of
sectarianism.
Cornerstone and Stumbling Block
It seemed that any second look would only confirm the minister's
contention of captivity: the Baha'i cause is held down by the
unwillingness of Americans to accept seriously the claim that another
messiah has appeared or that Christ has returned. Though Baha'u'llah
might represent the cornerstone of Baha'i faith, he was still the
stumbling block to Baha'i growth throughout the Christian world.
I went to Israel recently, to the harbor city of Akka, for it was there
that Baha'u'llah, banished from Baghdad, spent his years of exile. To
this windswept land, where Francis of Assisi once walked, Baha'u'llah
came in chains in 1865. I went to the old prison where he was held
captive for 25 years and where his son, Abdul-Baha, was a prisoner for
40 years. As I poked around behind the old walls and peered into the
dungeons, the Baha'i story came to life. Baha'u'llah, like Jesus, had a
forerunner who called himself the Bab, which means "the Gate." In the
midst of the religious and political wrangling of Moslem, Christian and
Jew, the Bab said in effect: "A plague on all your houses. You have all
lost sight of your common origin." He preached that God is the Father of
all men and the Founder of all faiths, and that the time had come when
heaven would personify this truth. Like John the Baptist, the Bab
announced the coming of a messiah: Baha'u'llah, who proclaimed himself
in 1863.
I went to Bahji, some six kilometers inland. Here is the sheik's mansion
where Baha'u'llah lived like a prince after his release from prison and
where he died in 1892. Here is the holy spot where Christians, Jews,
Moslems, Zoroastrians and Buddhists came to "lament the loss and magnify
the greatness of the herald of God." Baha'is even today do not speak of
the death of Baha'u'llah but, rather, of his ascension. In reverence, I
knelt beside the bier.
An Orientalist's Impressions
As I walked through the majestic rooms I was reminded that it was here,
years ago, that the noted Cambridge University Orientalist, Edward G.
Browne, visited Baha'u'llah. His impressions, widely quoted, are
precious to every ardent Baha'i: "The face of him on whom I gazed I can
never forget. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul.... No
need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before One who
is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors
sigh for in vain!"
This was Baha'u'llah whose power and grace Baha'is saw reflected in his
successor, Abdul-Baha, and which they see mirrored today in the present
leader, Shoghi Effendi, the eldest son of the eldest daughter of
Abdul-Baha, and a distant relative of the Bab. This was Baha'u'llah who,
as my minister friend insisted, "can never be sold to Americans; even
his name is against him."
But quietly in the heart of every Baha'i there lives a feeling that he
and his fellows are children of destiny as well as children of light.
Baha'u'llah assured them in his writings: "Be not dismayed! Arise to
further my cause and to exalt my word among men..... We are truly
almighty. Whoso hath recognized me will arise and truly serve me with
such determination that the powers of earth and heaven shall be unable
to defeat his purpose."
Cut to the Same Pattern
I have met Baha'is in many parts of the world. They are all cut to the
same pattern: heartfelt dedication to the cause and person of
Baha'u'llah, zeal in the advancement of their ideals. They ask no
salaries, want no honor, and are literally more interested in
giving than in receiving. Typical were two Baha'i women I met in
Chichicastenango. They had been in this Guatemalan village for two years
and had won two converts among the Maya-Quichés. "Isn't this slow
progress?" I asked. "That all depends on how you figure it," I was told.
"Who knows the power or the value of one soul?"
For them it is unthinkable that anyone will ever rob Baha'u'llah of his
deification: he is the true reincarnation
[page 450]
of Christ. They plan to "get loose" from Christian resistance to this
claim through demonstration, through dedicated effort in the cause which
he proclaimed: the oneness of all mankind. How can he be a stumbling
block? How can he hold them captive? Many there were in the days of
Jesus who rejected him, and some there are who even today have not
accepted him. Baha'is believe that as Jesus brought the message of the
sanctity of the individual, so Baha'u'llah came to reveal the sanctity
of all races and faiths. God sends his prophets at stated periods with a
universal message for their time.
But for the Christian world this belief also presents a question and a
problem. Most Christians feel that the world has not caught up with the
teachings of Jesus, has not yet lived his life or met his challenge.
Baha'u'llah came too soon. Given time, we might somehow find the courage
and the will to live out the principles of Christ. And if we did that we
would automatically establish the kind of better world which Baha'u'llah
foresaw.
Baha'is do not agree that this can be accomplished through Christianity.
They contend that the truest and deepest teachings of Jesus are obscured
by the sectarian exclusiveness of the Christian faith. Christianity is
as divisive as Judaism, Buddhism or Islam. Baha'u'llah came to show us a
better way: we can find the treasure of true faith only by looking
beneath the "welter of intolerance and bigotry, formalism and hypocrisy,
corruption and misrepresentation, schism and contention." In other
words, we must accept a new prophet before we can rediscover the old. As
of now it is mockery to say, "In the spirit of Jesus we unite for the
worship of God and the service of man," since Christianity insists upon
excluding certain races and people and colors and creeds from its
fellowship. So say the Baha'is; and they add that this could never
happen in the name of Christ reborn, Baha'u'llah.
Nine Doors in the Temple
You will see a demonstration of this idea at a Baha'i service. It is an
ecumenical service, without the benefit of priest or cleric, a simple
and solemn service with readings and music from the living faiths of all
the world. It is worship in which Protestant and Catholic and every
other Christian, Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu and person of every other
faith and race may participate. The temple in Wilmette has nine doors,
as if to declare that each of the world's great living religions may
enter through its own portal and unite with every other belief under the
single dome of God. Passages from Baha'u'llah's inspired writings adorn
each alabaster entrance and the words are always significant: "The earth
is one country and mankind its citizens"; "Make mention of me on my
earth that in my heaven I may remember thee"; "My love is my stronghold;
he that entereth therein is safe and secure."
But what about the second point of "captivity" which holds back the
progress of Baha'i religion in America? What about the accusation that
it lacks emphasis in the area of the "personal gospel"? Are Baha'is
laboring under the illusion that people are more interested in saving
the world than in saving themselves? Do they realize that we are in the
whirr of the gospel of self-advancement? Haven't they caught on to the
fact that never before have so many in religious circles offered so much
to those who want more? Can't they see that the great masses of people,
weary of talk about the insecurity of the big world, are eager to make
their own little worlds safe and secure?
The Baha'i answer to such impertinences has always been a patient smile
and a quiet word: "It is not what people want but what people need that
will save them. Life is intricately bound up with life. Individuals are
interwoven with individuals. The need of one is the need of all. The
concern of each is the concern of everyone. Your true self is every other
the world than in saving themselves? Do they realize that we are in the
A 'Tenth Door' Opening?
But now a second look shows something quite revealing: the opening - so
it seems to me - of a "tenth door" to the Baha'i cause, a door for those
who insist that religion must meet their daily needs, help them over
life's rough spots, and supply what so many of our major faiths today
promise their followers. This "tenth door" is just now beginning to open
slowly and silently, and the Baha'is have a motto to engrave over its
symbolic entrance: "The Power of the Holy Spirit heals both material and
spiritual ills!" And I hear the voices of Baha'is saying: "Didn't you
know that personal techniques have always been basic in our teachings?
Has it escaped you that we have always believed in health and healing
and help through the power of faith and prayer?"
Abdul-Baha had much to say on this matter, and just now his words invite
the modern searcher to investigate the Baha'i claims. Let all who are
interested in the gospel of the abundant life take heed! It may be that
the Baha'is are coming.
"The healing that is by the power of the Holy Spirit needs no special
concentration or contact. Healing is through the wish or desire and the
prayer of the holy person.... as soon as that holy person turns his heart
to God and begins to pray, the sick one is healed." Thus Abdul-Baha.
Baha'u'llah is being rediscovered in the area of mental therapy: "Verily
the most necessary thing is contentment under all circumstances.... Yield
not to grief and sorrow, they cause the greatest misery. Jealousy consumes
the body and anger burns the liver."
Baha'u'llah is being found in the field of mental health: "Joy gives us
wings. In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect keener."
Baha'u'llah appears in the arena of diet and health: "The food of the
future will be fruit and grain. Renouncing of tobacco, wine and opium gives
health, strength, intellectual enjoyment, penetration of judgement and
physical vigor."
Baha'u'llah speaks in the province of mystical prayer: "All of us, when
we attain to a truly spiritual condition, can hear the voice of God."
These and many other injunctions covering the ethics of wealth, the
oneness of religion and science, the spiritual content of work and play,
the role of religion in education are part of the "tenth door." From here
on when someone cries out, "Poor me! All is lost! And you want me to save
the world?" the Baha'i answer is clear: "Look again and you will find in
the teachings of our Prophet not only a way to save the world, but a method
to save
[page 451]
yourself as well." And, as in other instances of this kind, the
consciousness of need will be a definite factor in the consciousness of
discovery.
The Baha'i faith may have been slow in getting started in America because
of its ambitious and altruistic world-uniting program. It may have put the
cart before the horse. It may have oversold Baha'u'llah on the basis of
the oneness of all faiths. But a second look shows that by way of its
devotion and the opening door, it may loose itself from captivity. It may
also be that the minister was quite right when he said, "If these Baha'is
ever get going, they may take the country by storm!"