From: towfiq@nighthawk.clearpoint.com (Mark Towfiq)
Subject:  Text of 8/12/92 Wall Street Jounral Article
Organization: Sun Microsystems of Canada, Inc.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 15:07:54 GMT

  [Although the article isn't entirely accurate (it refers to the Baha'i
Faith as a sect), it is certainly a step forward in coverage of the Baha'i
community and our activities.--mmt]

     [From "The Wall Street Journal", August 12, 1992, p. 1, col. 4.]

	In Doom and Death Baha'i Faithful See Promise of Peace
				* * *
	     Sect Founder Prophesied an Era Of Serenity,
		 but Loads Of Misery Must Come First

			  By JUDITH VALENTE
	      Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

WILMETTE, Ill.- At first glance, members of the Baha'i faith might seem an
odd lot.  When they see the bloody fighting in Bosnia, they shed a tear for
the dead and injured, but they also might smile a little.  They can find
solace in last spring's violent clashes in Los Angeles.  The gloomy economy
doesn't worry them.  To them, a stock market tumble right now could even be
a plus.  To the world's five million Baha'is, almost any bad news these
days is a good thing.  It all has to do with a belief central to their
faith.  The founder of their religion, Baha'u'llah, prophesied a "flowering
of humanity," an era of peace, unity and enlightenment.  But before this
new age can come, Baha'u'llah warned, things have to get so bad mankind
can't help but change its ways.

Pivotal Year 

Baha'is expect the whole process to start accelerating this year, which
marks the 100th anniversary of Baha'u'llah's death.  Many profess to see
evidence that the first part of the process is under way.  Today's messy
world is like "a baby going through the birth canal," says Clayton Taylor,
a history teacher from Glencoe, Ill., and one of 110,000 American Baha'is.
Ever since their religion took root 150 years ago in Moslem Tehran, Baha'is
have waged a quixotic struggle to reform the world.  They espouse racial
unity, sexual equality, global disarmament and creation of a world
community.  The first Baha'i converts in the U.S. lived in Chicago, and
built their National House of Worship in this moneyed suburb,

[ picture of The Baha'i National House of Worship ]

and it has since become an area landmark.  Its colossal white dome, wrapped
in a glistening, lacelike covering, rises, otherworldly, from the middle of
a sedate residential block.  For a religion that promotes race unity, the
temple's location is somewhat paradoxical.  This town of 27,000 has only 84
blacks.  Baha'is believe in a Supreme Being.  They accept Christ, Buddha
and Mohammed as divine messengers.  But they consider Baha'u'llah the most
recent of God's messengers.  The faith is spreading fast, with 1.5 million
converts world-wide in just the last six years.  The religion eschews
clergy of any sort.  At a service in the House of Worship here, members
take turns reading from Baha'i scripture, the Bible, the Koran and the
Bhagavad-Gita.  A 19-member a capella choir sings songs that sound like
traditional Protestant hymns.  The scent of flowers freshly cut from the
temple's nine gardens fills the vast rotunda.  "The winds of despair are
blowing, alas," a woman reads to about 50 people seated in velour-covered
chairs.  An etching above the temple entrance says: "Consort With the
Followers of All Religions in Friendliness."  The faith's founder was born
Mirza Husayn-Ali, the son of Persian nobility, in 1817.  Moslem leaders
imprisoned, then exiled him for his spiritual beliefs.  At the age of 46,
convinced he was the bearer of divine revelation, he renamed himself
Baha'u'llah, which means "Glory of God."  His teachings fill 100 volumes.
He died in 1892 in Palestine of natural causes.  In Iran, Baha'is continue
to suffer persecution; most Moslem countries restrict their activities.
Interest in Baha'i surged in the U.S. in the mid-1970s, with the popularity
of the musical duo Seals & Crofts, who are Baha'i believers.  Their hit
"Hummingbird" was about Baha'u'llah.

Ejecting Ethnic-Joke Tellers 

And in recent months, the religion has gained attention because of its
focus on race relations.  In the wake of the Los Angeles riots, Baha'is are
helping city officials organize seminars to promote greater harmony.  At
the urging of former President Jimmy Carter, Baha'i leaders in Atlanta are
working on a study of people and programs that foster racial understanding.
Mr. Carter had seen a similar survey Baha'is did in the Chicago area.  The
"Models of Unity" study identified a Chicago bar owner who ejected patrons
for making ethnic jokes and a Catholic parish that sought to discourage
white flight.  Though Baha'is live throughout the U.S., the largest
communities are in California and South Carolina, where the faith has a
major educational center.  Members come to the faith from myriad paths.
Jeffrey Mondschein, managing director of foreign exchange for Chicago's
Continental Bank, was reared in a Jewish-Baha'i household.  As a young man,
he became a Baha'i, like his mother.  He say she liked the faith's notion
of "civilization as an evolutionary process."  As a child, Ruth Leilani
Smith read the Bible every day.  In college, she heard of the Baha'i faith
from a friend studying world religions.  "I would love to hear her read the
prayers," Ms. Smith recalls.  In one, Baha'u'llah promised "founts of
gleaming milk, hearts of love" to his followers.  Ms.  Smith, who was
raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, liked the way Baha'u'llah
"glorified Christ" and even upheld the Virgin Birth.  She found Gospel
passages in which Christ seemed to hint at a future messenger.  In 1969,
she asked a local Baha'i governing body to accept her as a convert.

Common Beliefs 

Ms. Smith found reason for hope in last year's Gulf War.  "People were
starting to question things," says the American Express travel agent.
"What is really happening is that the old order is falling so that it can
be replaced with something better."  A belief in periods of darkness and
light is common to most of the world's religions.  Buddhists believe the
last Golden Age was in the sixth century B.C.  when Buddha walked the
earth.  The world has been in a "Degenerate Age" since then, Buddhists say.
Hindus say we are in a Kali Yuga (Dark Age) that will end only with the
total collapse of the world as we know it.  Christians await the Second
Coming of Christ.  The Baha'i view differs in that it doesn't hold that the
world will end.  Just the opposite: It holds that things will get better.
To celebrate the dawning of that hoped for new era, tens of thousands of
believers from around the world will arrive at the Jacob Javits Center in
New York this November for four days of prayer services and other events,
including a concert by the jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie, who is a Baha'i.
One problem is that Baha'is don't know exactly when this new age of
enlightenment will come to full fruition.  Baha'u'llah said only that it
would culminate within 1,000 years.  How soon it comes depends on how
quickly the world hits rock bottom."  We see the immediate future as still
rather dark," says Ronald Precht, spokesman for American Baha'is.  "But the
distant future will be quite glorious."
--
Mark Towfiq, towfiq@Clearpoint.COM			      H:+1 617 488 2818

O SON OF DUST!  Verily I say unto thee: Of all men the most negligent is he
that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother.  Say, O
brethren!  Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.
		-- Baha'u'llah, Persian Hidden Words, #5