[Talk presented 4 April 2006 at a panel presentation on North Alabama faiths to a class on History of World Religions at Calhoun College in Huntsville, Alabama]

I grew up with very little exposure, and no attachment, to religion. When I entered college I began to be introduced to the religious beliefs of others and, in particular, evangelical Christianity. A realization of my ignorance led me to read and study the Bible. Graduate school provided me a broader exposure to the world’s religions and the further realization of my ignorance about the truths they espoused, leading me eventually to study some of them, as well.

Ultimately, I was confronted with the question of why I could not commit to what I had studied. I realized that I was troubled by the fact that while each religion claimed to teach absolute truth, religion seemed more an accident of birth than of choice. By and large, each person adopts the religion predominant in the area where they live. Hence, for most, their religion is an accident of birth. Yet each one comes to believe that only his or her beliefs are true and all others are either misled or false. I could not fail to notice that such a view of exclusivity and superiority has led to some of the worst examples of cruelty and barbarity of man against his brother so obviously in contradiction of the very teachings underlying those beliefs. Yet, to the impartial observer who is not biased toward one or another, neither is so clearly the true way that I could choose it and believe the others wrong. Until I could resolve this conundrum for myself, I realized I could never commit to one faith over others. It is apparent to me that the struggle between religions is coming to be recognized as one of the dominant threats to the peace and security of the world.

The challenge confronting the world today, therefore, is one of unity. And I think you will agree that unity depends upon the ability to understand one another, which, in turn, depends upon our ability to communicate with one another. So I wish to draw your attention to a critical historical event that took place 162 years ago, and its connection with a new revelation from God.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the fastest means of communication was 15 miles per hour—a man on horseback. For all of human history, that remained essentially unchanged. Then, on one historic day, May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of his new telegraph machine, sending a message between Baltimore and Washington D.C. The message he had selected to symbolize this historic event was the 23rd verse of the 23rd chapter of the Book of Numbers from the Bible. That verse reads "What hath God wrought?" On that day, we began the era of speed-of-light communication, and the world shrank.

The curious connection here, is that on the very day preceding that historic event, a quiet event took place on the other side of the world, in the land of Persia. On that day, a young man announced to his first disciple that He was sent by God to herald the imminent appearance of the Promised One awaited by all religions, whose teachings would unite the world and reconcile and harmonize the truths espoused by all of the world’s great religions. That Promised One, known to history as Bahá’u’lláh, revealed God’s Will for humanity today, laying the foundation for unifying religion and the peoples of the world. Thus, the physical and spiritual means for accomplishing that unity appeared in the world simultaneously.

Unity is the pivot round which revolve all of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. These teachings focus on the three themes of the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of mankind. Bahá’u’lláh taught that each of the world’s major religions are part of a progressive unfoldment of God’s Will for humanity, each building upon the truths revealed by those gone before it. That the teachings of these religions appear to differ and diverge is solely due to the the fact that the truths enshrined in those religions were revealed in a manner that was adapted to the conditions and limitations of those receiving that revelation. This Bahá’í principle, that religious truth is relative—that is, that religious truth is expressed in a manner that takes into account the needs and conditions of those receiving it—is already known to those familiar with the Buddha’s beautiful parable of the blind men and the elephant, which I will recount if asked. The Bahá’í Faith is made up from adherents from every religion, all of whom have come to accept that their faith is fulfilled in the Bahá’í revelation and in harmony with other religions. This is in marked contrast to the practice of conversion to former religions, which is accompanied by rejection of one’s former beliefs.

Bahá’u’lláh taught that men and women are like two wings of a bird; if both of those wings are not equally developed, the bird cannot fly. Curiously, this teaching was also synchronized with another significant historical event, which I can recount, if asked. Bahá’u’lláh also taught that humanity is like a garden, whose greatest beauty is found in a diversity of color, textures and fragrances, not uniformity. Bahá’u’lláh has brought a set of teachings that allows diverse peoples, with no shared experiences, backgrounds or traditions, to organize themselves into a community that releases and channels human potential for the betterment of themselves and society at large. Bahá’u’lláh tells us “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” And so powerful are these teachings to bring unity, that I can confidently assert that you have never heard of a situation where any group of Bahá’ís were engaged in any type of conflict, agitation or harm to others, despite the fact that Bahá’ís continue to be severely persecuted under several Muslim governments. My own wife was imprisoned and tortured in attempts to make her recant her faith by a Muslim government which claims to institute the core Islamic values. This only serves to demonstrate the crying need for a renewal of religious truth in this day, from which the established religions have so grievously strayed.

In 1982, the World Christian Encyclopedia, according to its own findings, determined that the Bahá’í Faith had become the second-most geographically widespread religion in the world, following very closely behind Christianity, in terms of the number of countries in which it was considered to have a significant following. While still small numerically, Bahá’ís are found everywhere. The Bahá’í Faith, which has neither clergy, nor suffered from schism, easily constitutes the most diverse and widespread organized body of people on the planet.

When examining religion, one is faced with three choices; (a) believing that a single religion is true, to the exclusion of others, (b) believing that all are invented by man, or (c) believing that they are part of a unified whole. Without the Bahá’í teachings, however, this latter choice has been problematic because of a lack of theological framework to understand how they fit together. What the Bahá’í Faith teaches is a unified theory of religion.

I invite you to investigate the vast and all-embracing teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. The Bahá’í Faith states as its clear and unambiguous goal the unification of the peoples of the world into one organic body, harmoniously blending the diverse elements within it and providing them with a unified focus and vision centered upon the oneness of humanity and the oneness of religion.