From: towfiq@nighthawk.clearpoint.com (Mark Towfiq)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai
Subject: Text of 8/12/92 Wall Street Jounral Article
Date: 13 Aug 92 14:19:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Aug17.224030.17328
Organization: Explosive Space Modulators - R - Us

[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
Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai