B.M.G In N.Y.C.

O ye servants of the Sacred Threshold! The triumphant hosts of the Celestial Concourse, arrayed and marshalled in the Realms above, stand ready and expectant to assist and assure victory to that valiant horseman who with confidence spurs on his charger into the arena of service. Well is it with that fearless warrior, who armed with the power of true Knowledge, hastens unto the field, disperses the armies of ignorance, and scatters the hosts of error, who holds aloft the Standard of Divine Guidance, and sounds the Clarion of Victory. By the righteousness of the Lord! He hath achieved a glorious triumph and obtained the true victory.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 264)


Once again I had the pleasure of gathering for prayer, study and fellowship with men of African Descent, this time in New York City. I arrived on Friday night and was taken by my long time friend and spiritual warrior Bruce Grover to a monthly program at the New York Baha'i Center called "The Urban Juke Joint" hosted by brilliant Baha'i artists and master organizers Lloyd and Ken. A standing room only crowd listen to young people of color speaking their minds through beats and rhymes (yes I made that line up myself). Politics, spirituality, relationships, social justice, sexuality, all were fair game for this young, black and gifted crowd. I spent most of the evening with my back pressed against a back wall and a cold wind coming through a nearby door, but what I heard made me smile. I thought, "this is what I'm talkin' about". On Saturday we began the Black Men's Gathering New York in our customary way with high energy drumming, song and prayer. We then took the time to introduce ourselves and say where we were from and why we were there. We received words of wisdom from Dr. William Roberts who founded the Gathering 20 years ago and then stories were shared from those of us who had the good fortune to travel to Ghana and the Baha'i World Center in Israel this past December. ( You can read my personal account of this life changing journey here) After lunch we reconvened and studied the guidance from the Universal House of Justice, the International Governing Council of the Baha'i Faith that has recently been shared with Baha'is throughout the world about the spiritual and social forces at work in society and the role of Baha'is in advancing the oneness of humanity. We reflected on what this guidance meant for each of us as black men and what we intended to do to support the world embracing mission of our Faith. That evening I enjoyed the atomic intellect of Artemus Stover, A.K.A Shahid Pa of the rap group Fort Tabarsi as we eached waxed philosophical on the Revelation of Baha'u'llah and the destiny of African Americans. On Sunday the brothers hosted the ever popular "Hush Harbor" devotional at the New York Baha'i Center. We had a full house and raised the roof with thunderous drumming, singing, chanting, dancing and clapping. The power of the Holy Spirit was felt by all and you could see the spirits being set free from material bondage and the oppression of the ego. It. Was. Fabulous.

Blogwarriors: Favorite Baha'i Bloggin' Feb. 19th

As a new offering to the readers of Baha'i Thought, I've decided to spice up my periodic, essay length posts with sharing some of my favorite bloggin' from fellow Baha'i blogwarriors around the world. Here goes:

My brothaman, Malik at The Struggle Within has video of writer Diane Dickerson (of Obama isn't black fame) talking about race.

My friend Phyllis the awesome columnist on Religion and Spirituality.com, has a nice piece about her efforts to collect the narratives of African Americans.

Author Druzelle Cederquist at Lumious Realities has a series of posts from a writer's workshop she is involved with.

Representin' the U.K. Barney Leith, whom I've come to love has been following the international responses to the 'makes my blood boil' treatment of the heroic Baha'is of Egypt.

Bilo at Baha'i Faith in Egypt, has the most comprehensive news about what is happening to the Baha'is in that country. This latest is about legal minds weighing in on the ID crisis.

Baha'i Journal has a link to a Townhall.com column by Linda Chavez making one of the most interesting suggestions I've heard regarding the rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The president of Iran should become a Baha'i!

David at Correlating, a new blog I've recently discovered has a fascinating post about the decline of inter-racial marriage and the ongoing challenge of de facto segregation.

Victor at Anxiously Concerned, another blogger who attempts to relate the Baha'i teachings to contemporary social issues, has a cool post about the science of fasting, in preparation for the Baha'i Fast which begins on March 2 and is one of the most spiritually powerful times of year for Baha'is.

The Baha'i Blog New Legal World Order has all kinds of neat information, including this recent post about the Baha'i principle of obedience to government and how it relates to the Baha'i commitment to fighting injustice.

Black Baha'is Testify: 2007

A Whole Bunch of Black Baha'i Men at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, Maine in 2005


A friend who is learning about the Baha'i Faith recently seemed puzzled about what it is that attracts black people around the world to embrace the teachings of Baha'u'llah. Here is the testimony of a few black Baha'is in their own words:

What attracted me most during my initial contact with the
Message of Baha'u'llah was how He not only shows humanity the
interconnectedness of the Religions of the world and its peoples,
but His Revelation caused such a transformation in the hearts and
minds of the white and black Baha'is I met in Mississippi during
the 60's that whenever I was with them they always made me feel
welcomed and respected in a genuine way. Separation of the races
within the Baha'i Faith was not sanctioned in the least---it was,
and is, antithetical to the spiritual principles
laid down by Baha'u'llah and applies to the world-wide Baha'i
community, and to humanity as a whole.

Aaron Fowlkes, Manager of An Apartment Complex

I love the concept of unity and equality. Through my own life journey, other people want to put people in a hierarchy to themselves and they want to be better than someone else and let them know that. So in terms of race you have the majority population telling minorities they aren’t worth anything, the same thing with men and women and its so strong that you can feel it throughout the universe and mankind is off balance and with these spiritual teaching people can get back in balance.

Dr. Katherine Morrison
Social Scientist

I love that I don’t have to think about being a Baha’i as being a ‘Black Baha’i’ or a female Baha’i, but just as a human being.

Nuri Chandler-Smith, Educator

What I love most about being a Bahá’í is the feeling I get when I go to feast or other Bahá’í events and can talk about and listen to the blessing that Baha’u’allah has given me and the world. And when I have no one else to talk too or I do not want to talk to anyone else I can always talk to Baha ullah. Prayer, Prayer and more prayer as a black man I believe in the significance and the power of prayer.

Kevin Andrews, Headmaster of a School

I love being a Baha'i!

Growing up as a christian child, I always had a burning question that no one could answer to my satisfaction. The question was - if Jesus was so crucial to the salvation of the world, why did he come only approximately 2000 yrs ago? since he is the ultimate sacrifice and all sins (past, present and future) were forgiven by his crucifixion, I thought he should have come right after the apple incident in the garden of Eden. (smile, remember that I was about 6yrs old now)
why did he come to Israel and not to a place in Asia, Africa, the Americas or Australia? and since most of those places were not mentioned in the Bible, what spiritual guidance was available to the generations of people who lived there?

I was told by one Pastor, that all the people who didn’t know about Jesus and had already died, went to Hell and waited there until Jesus came to Hell and saved them.

As a child, this didn't make any sense. I couldn’t imagine generations of Africans, Latin Americans, Asians, Eskimos, etc. living good lives and dying only to go to Hell and wait for an eternity until Jesus was crucified. The best answer I found was in the Baha'i Writings. The Baha'i Holy Writings explain that all people have always had spiritual leaders and guidance from the one true God. That these spiritual leaders (the most recent being Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, The Bab, Baha'u'llah) come at different times to different peoples to help them advance in their spiritual and earthly lives. The Baha'i Writings also asserted that many many spiritual leaders have come since the beginning of time to every people. I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to know that generations of my Ancestors had access to guidance from the same God we worship today. So I think the one thing I love most about the Baha'i Faith is: it honors the Worth of all peoples of this Earth as a fundamental principle!

Amma, MD/PhD student at Harvard Medical School

If you want to hear the testimony of some black Baha'is from the early 20th century, you can check it out here.

Will the Real African American Please Stand Up?

A few "African Americans" in Israel at the Baha'i World Center

My father-in law sent me this piece in the New York Times about Presidential candidate Barak Obama and how the "black vote" is still up for grabs. Apparently Obama does not have a "get into the White House Free" card with those who question whether he is a "real" African American:

The black author and essayist Debra J. Dickerson recently declared that “Obama isn’t black” in an American racial context. Some polls suggest that Mr. Obama trails one of his rivals for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the battle for African-American support.

And at the Shepherd Park Barber Shop here, where the hair clippers hummed and the television blared, Calvin Lanier summed up the simmering ambivalence. Mr. Lanier pointed to Mr. Obama’s heritage — he is the American-born son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas — and the fact that he did not embody the experiences of most African-Americans whose ancestors endured slavery, segregation and the bitter struggle for civil rights.

“When you think of a president, you think of an American,” said Mr. Lanier, a 58-year-old barber who is still considering whether to support Mr. Obama. “We’ve been taught that a president should come from right here, born, raised, bred, fed in America. To go outside and bring somebody in from another nationality, now that doesn’t feel right to some people.”(Read the whole article Here)

I've addressed how and why I define myself as an "African American" in the past and this article offers another chance to do some Baha'i thinking about this issue. First of all, the "multicultural" aspects of Senator Obama's ancestry would go virtually unnoticed in the Baha'i community, which is a global faith community in which marriage between people of different ethnic backgrounds is encouraged and quite common. Many of the children of these marriages are then raised in cultural and national contexts far removed from the ones their parents were raised in. Secondly, powerful spiritual and social forces are at work in the world that are moving humanity towards its destiny as the inhabitants of a single global civilization and African Americans are being impacted by this process just like every other ethnic group on the planet. As the number of African, Caribbean and Afro-Latino immigrants, "bi-racial" children, and "inter-racial" adoptions increase over the coming decades, those of us descended from the enslaved Africans who were brought to North America will have to undergo a transformation of consciousness that frees us from fixed conceptions of self inherited from the past. Our mental circle will need to break its bonds and widen to embrace broader experiences of the African Diaspora than ever before. This will include people who may not fit the "classical" definition of what an African American is, but who may very well embody its contemporary and future definition. The good news is that African Americans are a people who are well prepared to meet the challenges of the changing racial landscape in America. Over and over since we were first brought in chains to the "New World" we have had to change our conception of ourselves and how we express it in our public and private lives. Out of a diverse group of captives from many different tribes and nations, we became something that had never existed before: African Americans. To adapt, to evolve, to innovate is the essence of African American experience and has been the key to our survival as strangers in a strange land. In the 21st century we can and will continue this great tradition. It would be the truly "African American" thing to do.

When I'm 64

Me in Akka, Israel near the prison where Baha'u'llah was held by the Ottomans, December 2006

O SON OF BOUNTY!
Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue from thy mother's womb, I destined for thee two founts of gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to love thee. Out of My loving-kindness, 'neath the shade of My mercy I nurtured thee, and guarded thee by the essence of My grace and favor. And My purpose in all this was that thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become worthy of My invisible bestowals.
(Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words)

Today I am 32 years olds. I achieved this milestone with little effort on my part, my biology did most of it. Since I've become a Baha'i, birthdays have become a time of spiritual reflection (in addition to a nice excuse to have people give me cool things), which is why I included my favorite "birthday" Hidden Word from the Writings of Baha'u'llah in this post. To think that I was created in love and given Creation as a classroom for the progress of my soul and guided all my life (though until I became a Baha'i I was not aware of this) by the One Who made me, gives me the warm-fuzzies. So here are a few of my Baha'i thoughts on this 32nd year since I landed on Earth:

I'm getting sentimental in my old age. This past summer I spontaneously played a game of Wiffle Ball with some of the black boys who live in the neighborhood around our Baha'i Center. I had this moment where I felt like I was in the movie "Back To the Future" and all of a sudden it was 1984 and I was tossing a baseball with my dad in Halls, Tennessee. For no apparent reason I got emotional about this Wiffle Ball game. I had this sensation of seeing myself in these boys and this weird kind of paternal love filled me from head to toe and I had to remind myself that these were not my sons and that I had better behave myself and resist the urge to give them all a big hug and kiss (it might have caused some confusion, especially these days). This going back in time sensation has been growing stronger and stronger this year and can come out of nowhere. I can't even type right now without getting teary-eyed. Any older people out there who can tell me what the "BLEEP" is happening to me, please do so because I have no idea. I figured this wouldn't happen until I was well into my sixth decade.

Another equally strange experience is that I seem to be turning into my dad. Perhaps some latent James Copeland genes have been activated since I got married, or maybe I was exposed to radiation and didn't know it (I've heard some weird theories about eating micro-waved food). I find myself talking like my dad and event acting like him sometimes. It's an odd sensation. Of course now that I'm not a teenager any more, I can recognize that most of these emerging qualities are some of his best and it kind of nice to be more like him, especially now as my appreciation for his experiences as an African American male (a really BIG African American male) living in America have deepened. I'll think of something he did or said when I was a kid that made no sense then, but makes sense now (whether it was right or wrong is no longer the point). This reminds me of something from the Writings of Baha'u'llah that He said about fathers and sons:
..."thou art first in relation to thy son, last in relation to thy father. In thine outward appearance, thou tellest of the appearance of power in the realms of divine creation; in thine inward being thou revealest the hidden mysteries which are the divine trust deposited within thee."
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 26)

It also reminds me of the way that 'Abdu'l-Baha described one of my spiritual ancestors from the early days of the Baha'i Faith in the Middle East:
He had inherited the nature of his father, and he exemplified the saying that the child is the secret essence of its sire.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful, p. 139)

When I'm not being transported mentally back to being an 8 year old, I find myself fascinated by men who are in their 60's and 70's, particularly African American men. I imagined all the amazing things they have lived through and I wonder (if I reach such a ripe old age) what things I will witness. This past year was already filled with historical significance for our people (first African American governor of Massachusetts and I lived to see it!). I think about that Beatles song, "will you still need me/will you still feed me/when I'm 64". What will I be like when I'm 64 (exactly double my age today)? Where will I live (maybe a new condo on Mars)? Will my country be at war or at peace? Will I still be working or retired? Among the people I know today, who will be alive, who will be dead? Will they have discovered a cure for diabetes (my wife has diabetes so that would be great)? What will I be doing to serve my Faith? Will my kids being really cool or total jerks? Will anybody I know now be on our National Spiritual Assembly or (gulp) a member of the Universal House of Justice?! Will there be a great big Baha'i Temple in every town in America? Will I still have teeth and hair?

Anyway, those are my Baha'i thoughts on this, my B-Day. We'll see what I'm thinking about this time next year.