Defending the Baha'is in Iran

(Photo on the right: Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire has released a statement calling on the international community to pay attention to the Iranian government's ongoing persecution of its country's Baha'is.)

Two recent articles in Baha'i media highlight efforts to defend the lives of the long suffering Baha'i community of Iran:

A spotlight fell on the Iranian Baha'i community Sept. 19 as the U.S. House of Representatives debated and passed a resolution condemning the repression of Iran's Baha'is and calling for their emancipation.

House Concurrent Resolution 415, whose identical version the Senate must pass before it can be adopted as a congressional resolution, notes that eight previous congressional resolutions have passed since 1982. It declares that Congress "holds the Government of Iran responsible for upholding the rights of all Iranian nationals, including members of the Baha'i Faith."

Several members of Congress made statements on the resolution, including its two original cosponsors, Representatives Mark Kirk (Illinois) and Tom Lantos (California).(Read the whole thing here)

And furthermore....

OTTAWA, 29 September 2006 (BWNS) -- Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian senator and retired general who commanded the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda at the height of the genocide there, has issued a statement saying that the international community should be prepared to act to protect Iranian Baha'is from possible atrocities.

"In Iran, as in other areas like Darfur where evil is at work, the international community must be ready to act before civilians are harmed," said General Dallaire, in a statement issued on 26 September 2006.(Read the whole thing here)

Holy Spirit Rain Down On Me

I just read an awesome article in Christianity Today (one of my favorite weekly reads, I highly recommend it!) about how Pentacostal styles of worship are beginning to change the devotional lives of Christians beyond Pentacostal churches. A selection from this article is below:

Until that moment, I had been dutifully following scholarly debates about whether baptism in the Holy Spirit was primarily about holiness or power. But these testifying scholars described Spirit baptism in terms of something deeper than either one. Indeed, they all put their finger on one main effect: a new, joyous sense of communion with a loving God who counted every hair on their heads and watched over them every minute. The central moment of their Pentecostal experience had opened them to a deep well of living water from which everything else flowed; it had opened them to the personal, relational presence of the Living God. (Read the whole thing here).

This article reminded me of a wonderful lecture given by Baha'i artist and professor,
Erica Batdorf at the Baha'i Association of Mental Health Professionals Annual Conference this year which was focused on "Authentic Morality, Mental Health and Healing". Erica talked about the importance of the mind/body/spirit connection to the healing process and that worship itself can promote healing when it is allowed to be experienced fully in mind, body and spirit. She encouraged devotional experience that allows for deep physical experience of the divine through both sound and movement. It was a wonderful talk she gave and I'm still thinking about its implications for my own spiritual life as I tend to experience Baha'i spirituality in the way that she describes. Just as the Pentacostal style of worship is exerting a transforming influence on Christians, there is a parallel process occuring in the Baha'i world where forms of worship such as Baha'i gospel music and the devotional style of the Black Men's Gathering are becoming increasingly popular, appealing to Baha'is of all backgrounds. I believe that as time goes on, and the global, grass roots movement of encouraging decentralized, home-based worship that Baha'is are currently involved in (referred to by the deceptively simple term "devotional gathering") spreads and is influenced by the kind of worship detailed in the Christianity Today article, that Baha'is will discover that they too have a "holy spirit religion".

Then will the manifold favors and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. He will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe, and will penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul. Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of Divine Revelation, and the evidences of an everlasting Manifestation.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 267)

It is my hope that the breaths of the Holy Spirit will so be breathed into your hearts that your tongues will disclose the mysteries, and set forth and expound the inner meanings of the Holy Books; that the friends will become physicians, and will, through the potent medicine of the heavenly Teachings, heal the long-standing diseases that afflict the body of this world; that they will make the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dead to come alive; that they will awaken those who are sound asleep.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 274)

Egyptian Baha'is Still Fighting for Freedom

The Baha'i World News Service has offered an update on the situation of the Baha'is in Egypt:

CAIRO, 21 September (BWNS)-- The Supreme Administrative Court here has again postponed its hearing on the government appeal of a lower court's ruling upholding the right of a Baha'i couple to have their religion properly identified on government documents.

In a brief hearing on Saturday, 16 September 2006, the Court continued the case until 20 November in order to await the completion of an advisory report from the State Commissioner's Authority on the case. (Read the whole thing here)

Michigan on My Mind

I'm off to Michigan tomorrow to attend the annual conference of the Baha'i Association of Mental Health Professionals, whose Board of Directors I'm currently serving on (only God knows why!) The conference looks to be quite awesome and I'm looking forward to bloggin' about it once I return. The conference information is included below. You can also visit our website at www.bamhp.org.

2006 Conference Announcement

2006 marks the 8th Annual Conference of the Bahá’í Association of Mental Health Professionals. This year’s conference will be dedicated to the memory of Dr. William Hatcher, one of the founding members of the Association.


The conference will be held September 21-24th at the Louhelen Bahá’í School in Davison, Michigan

Theme: Authentic Morality, Mental Health, and Healing

The conference will feature presentations by the following distinguished speakers:

- Dr. John Hatcher, The Relationship between the Human Soul, Human Emotions, and Moral Growth.
- Dr. Steven Handwerker: The Spiritual Dimension: Authentic Resources for Mental Health and Healing.
- Dr. Sharon Eakes, focusing on the Moral Challenge of Addiction.
- Dr. Phil Squires, on the Etiology of Depression.

The conference will also feature the following programs:

- A Workshop on the Resolution of Moral Dilemmas by Authenticity Project presenters Dr. Sheri Dressler, Dr. Michael Penn and Mary K. Radpour

- Panel presentations on:
Bridging Theory and Practice and
Integrating Spirituality into Clinical Practice

- Case consultations, focusing on cases relevant to moral development

- A study process focused upon those Bahá’í writings relevant to the dynamics of moral development -An exciting arts program featuring:
Gospel singer Adrienne Ewing-Roush
Actress, dancer and expert on bodywork and healing Erika Batdorf

Egyptian Baha'i Blog

Just wanted to make people aware of a new Baha'i blog about the Baha'i Faith in Egypt. You can check it out at http://bahai-egypt.blogspot.com. I intend to become a regular reader.

A Famous Baha'i Actor Tells His Tale

(Actor Earl Cameron is on the right with other members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the Solomon Islands, 1988)

Just chanced upon this really great story of the Bermudan Baha'i actor, Earl Cameron who starred as the fictional African dictator in the Sidney Pollack film The Interpreter
which also starred Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. A selection from the article is below:

When veteran actor Earl Cameron stood at the lectern in the United Nations General Assembly hall, portraying an African despot for the film The Interpreter, he had one of those strange moments where the larger reality of things snaps into focus. On the one hand, he was playing the corrupt and unsavoury president of a fictional African country – a role he had no hesitation in accepting. "I feel that an actor must portray life, and despotic characters need to be portrayed and shown up," he said. On the other hand, as a Baha'i, the scene reminded him very much of the Baha'i belief in the need for world unity. "There I was," said Mr. Cameron, "standing at the lectern in front of 2,000 extras playing all the ambassadors. Seeing the names of all the countries on the desks in front of me, I got a real sense of the importance of the UN. "The world is desperate for peace and there's no other way it can go but towards greater co-operation at a global level," he said. "Solutions have to be found at a level above national interests – and so far there isn't any other organisation which can establish these first steps towards lasting peace." (Read the whole article here)

Zoroastrianism and the Baha'i Faith

The New York Times ran a really interesting, if rather sad story about the decline of the Zoroastrian community world wide. In the article, a priest in Chicago comments:

“We were once at least 40, 50 million — can you imagine?” said Mr. Antia, senior priest at the fire temple here in suburban Chicago. “At one point we had reached the pinnacle of glory of the Persian Empire and had a beautiful religious philosophy that governed the Persian kings.

“Where are we now? Completely wiped out,” he said. “It pains me to say, in 100 years we won’t have many Zoroastrians.” (Read the entire article here)

It was nice to see an article about a religion that few people, particularly in the West have heard anything about and at least some acknowledgement that Iran has contributed something other than Islamic fundamentalism to the world.

Recently, a new collection of Writings of Baha'u'llah has been published that are addressed to the followers of Zoroaster (or Zarathustra). The Baha'i World New Service ran an article on this exciting to new publication:

HAIFA, Israel, 31 July 2006 (BWNS) -- A new volume of selected writings by Baha'u'llah, entitled "The Tabernacle of Unity," has been recently translated and published in English.

This latest publication of the Baha'i World Centre contains five "tablets" - letters - written by Baha'u'llah to individuals of Zoroastrian background in the 1800s. As such, these tablets provide important insights into the interrelatedness of religion. (Read the whole article here)