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“O my Lord! Thou knowest that the people are encircled with pain and calamities and are environed with hardships and trouble. Every trial doth attack man and every dire adversity doth assail him like unto the assault of a serpent. There is no shelter and asylum for him except under the wing of Thy protection, preservation, guard and custody.”
A half dozen Independence-based Baha’i faith followers gathered in a home Saturday night, quietly reciting prayers like this one as seven followers halfway across the world in Iran faced Day 1 of their trial on Sunday. They stand accused of espionage, propaganda and “spreading corruption on earth,” a crime that carries the threat of death in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“We’re praying for strength and courage and justice,” Independence Baha’i follower Melissa Higgins said. “They’re (the seven accused) just people like us – they have jobs and families and children. We’re all brothers and sisters. We should be aware of that – open our hearts and open our doors.”
Another local follower, Jim Stutzer, said the biggest issue that faces the practicing Baha’i today is others’ misinformation on what the faith truly means. Higgins and Stutzer, who both entered the faith in their early 20s, said they personally haven’t faced public insult or persecution because of their beliefs.
Stutzer, raised Southern Baptist, visited his cousin, a ballerina in California, “a favorite relative,” at age 19.
“At that point, though, I wasn’t very religious,” Stutzer said. “Religion had sort of, personally, not fulfilled my needs.”
His cousin spoke to him philosophically – without specific mentioning of a religious denomination – about spiritual needs during several days of hour-long conversations. Stutzer, he said, was impressed with his cousin’s statements and how she was “point for point answering every spiritual question I’d ever had in my life.”
She finally told Stutzer she was Baha’i. His immediate response wasn’t a favorable one, he said, and he had never even heard of the religion.
“Suddenly, she was something foreign and different,” Stutzer said. “I rejected it out of hand.”
He moved from his hometown Independence to Hollywood and attended a fireside, an informal gathering for those who want to learn more about the Baha’i faith. He experienced different ages and ethnic backgrounds of followers, “all happy and visiting to get along with each other – and they were all talking about God,” Stutzer said.
Because he found the answers to questions he had sought about faith, Stutzer, 62, joined Baha’i.
“There is no standard Baha’i,” Stutzer said, laughing. “It’s a very diversified community. Baha’u’llah teaches the idea of the oneness of mankind, so it’s actually a principle of the Baha’i faith that every human being living on the planet are all human.”
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Higgins, 40, grew up Methodist while her father also practiced a sect of Hinduism. Like Stutzer, the Baha’i faith was once an unknown to Higgins.
One night while attending Wichita (Kan.) State University, a group of students including Higgins spoke with a professor on gender equality and racism eradication. The professor spoke on the tenants of Baha’i, including the latest messenger, Baha’u’llah, who lived from 1817 to 1892.
The faith, Higgins said, represented hope for the future.
All humans, according to Baha’u’llah, share one soul in many bodies. Baha’i promises previous religious manifestations through “oneness of humanity and oneness of religion,” Higgins said, through progressive revelation. Instead of thinking of the Bible and the Quran as two separate holy books, Stutzer said, the Baha’i view them as two different chapters “in the same holy book of God.”
His parents were afraid, at first, when learning that Stutzer had converted to Baha’i, he said. But, after meeting several fellow Baha’i followers, the feelings of fright diminished, Stutzer said. Then, there were co-workers who prayed outside his door “because I was one of the lost,” he said.
About 25 Independence Baha’i followers gather and pray in each others’ homes, and the Kansas City area totals about Baha’i 300 followers.
Today, as it was more than 20 years ago when she joined the Baha’i, Higgins is holding out for hope – hope that the accused in Iran will be acquitted surrounding the international scrutiny facing the Iranian government.
“That’s the age I was and the way the world was at the time,” Higgins said of the hope that her faith provides her. “The Cold War was still going on while I was a teenager, so it seemed like the threat of nuclear holocaust was still fairly great, at least in my mind. Baha’u’llah promises peace to the world – that’s what he has come for – to give us the tools to bring about a peaceful world.”
Higgins closed the prayer gathering Saturday with the soft strumming of three Baha’i songs on her guitar.
“And as you have faith so shall your powers be; and know that till the end I’m always with you.”
“O my Lord! Thou knowest that the people are encircled with pain and calamities and are environed with hardships and trouble. Every trial doth attack man and every dire adversity doth assail him like unto the assault of a serpent. There is no shelter and asylum for him except under the wing of Thy protection, preservation, guard and custody.”
A half dozen Independence-based Baha’i faith followers gathered in a home Saturday night, quietly reciting prayers like this one as seven followers halfway across the world in Iran faced Day 1 of their trial on Sunday. They stand accused of espionage, propaganda and “spreading corruption on earth,” a crime that carries the threat of death in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“We’re praying for strength and courage and justice,” Independence Baha’i follower Melissa Higgins said. “They’re (the seven accused) just people like us – they have jobs and families and children. We’re all brothers and sisters. We should be aware of that – open our hearts and open our doors.”
Another local follower, Jim Stutzer, said the biggest issue that faces the practicing Baha’i today is others’ misinformation on what the faith truly means. Higgins and Stutzer, who both entered the faith in their early 20s, said they personally haven’t faced public insult or persecution because of their beliefs.
Stutzer, raised Southern Baptist, visited his cousin, a ballerina in California, “a favorite relative,” at age 19.
“At that point, though, I wasn’t very religious,” Stutzer said. “Religion had sort of, personally, not fulfilled my needs.”
His cousin spoke to him philosophically – without specific mentioning of a religious denomination – about spiritual needs during several days of hour-long conversations. Stutzer, he said, was impressed with his cousin’s statements and how she was “point for point answering every spiritual question I’d ever had in my life.”
She finally told Stutzer she was Baha’i. His immediate response wasn’t a favorable one, he said, and he had never even heard of the religion.
“Suddenly, she was something foreign and different,” Stutzer said. “I rejected it out of hand.”
He moved from his hometown Independence to Hollywood and attended a fireside, an informal gathering for those who want to learn more about the Baha’i faith. He experienced different ages and ethnic backgrounds of followers, “all happy and visiting to get along with each other – and they were all talking about God,” Stutzer said.
Because he found the answers to questions he had sought about faith, Stutzer, 62, joined Baha’i.
“There is no standard Baha’i,” Stutzer said, laughing. “It’s a very diversified community. Baha’u’llah teaches the idea of the oneness of mankind, so it’s actually a principle of the Baha’i faith that every human being living on the planet are all human.”
–––
Higgins, 40, grew up Methodist while her father also practiced a sect of Hinduism. Like Stutzer, the Baha’i faith was once an unknown to Higgins.
One night while attending Wichita (Kan.) State University, a group of students including Higgins spoke with a professor on gender equality and racism eradication. The professor spoke on the tenants of Baha’i, including the latest messenger, Baha’u’llah, who lived from 1817 to 1892.
The faith, Higgins said, represented hope for the future.
All humans, according to Baha’u’llah, share one soul in many bodies. Baha’i promises previous religious manifestations through “oneness of humanity and oneness of religion,” Higgins said, through progressive revelation. Instead of thinking of the Bible and the Quran as two separate holy books, Stutzer said, the Baha’i view them as two different chapters “in the same holy book of God.”
His parents were afraid, at first, when learning that Stutzer had converted to Baha’i, he said. But, after meeting several fellow Baha’i followers, the feelings of fright diminished, Stutzer said. Then, there were co-workers who prayed outside his door “because I was one of the lost,” he said.
About 25 Independence Baha’i followers gather and pray in each others’ homes, and the Kansas City area totals about Baha’i 300 followers.
Today, as it was more than 20 years ago when she joined the Baha’i, Higgins is holding out for hope – hope that the accused in Iran will be acquitted surrounding the international scrutiny facing the Iranian government.
“That’s the age I was and the way the world was at the time,” Higgins said of the hope that her faith provides her. “The Cold War was still going on while I was a teenager, so it seemed like the threat of nuclear holocaust was still fairly great, at least in my mind. Baha’u’llah promises peace to the world – that’s what he has come for – to give us the tools to bring about a peaceful world.”
Higgins closed the prayer gathering Saturday with the soft strumming of three Baha’i songs on her guitar.
“And as you have faith so shall your powers be; and know that till the end I’m always with you.”
